AMD Phenom II X6 1090T 'Black Ops' Overclocking

By Marcus Yam
published

Overclockers to push the new Phenom II X6 as far as it can go this Friday.

AMD today launched its hexacore solution for enthusiasts. While getting a six-core chip from Intel will set you back $1,000, the AMD solution can be had for just $200 (or $285 for the top-end one).

"With AMD Phenom II X6 processors, discerning customers can build an incredible, immersive entertainment system and content creation powerhouse,” said Bob Grim, director of Client Platform Marketing at AMD. “AMD is answering the call for elite desktop PC performance and features at an affordable price.”

AMD Phenom II X6 processors feature new Turbo CORE technology that transfers performance to three dedicated cores operating at higher frequency. AMD Phenom II X6 processors can shift to Turbo mode for demanding games and productivity software which may employ two or three cores, or shift back to six real cores for the demands of core-hungry content creation and immersive 3D applications.

Check out our full review here.

To celebrate the launch of its latest CPU product, AMD is holding a special overclocking event completely live and set up for streaming over the internet. On April 30th, starting at 12 noon Central Time, eight overclocking teams from around the world are going to find out just how fast they can push the new CPUs. Check out the BlackOps site for more.

Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
47 Comments Comment from the forums
  • nforce4max
    I spy cpu upgrade some day. I want a 65w E edition when they come out.
    Reply
  • in0va3
    In the same vein, the gaming benchmarks are a reminder that the latest and greatest graphics cards really do need a capable processor behind them if you want to unleash their potential. An overclockable CPU like the Core i7-920 or -930 can really open up a Radeon HD 5870 or GeForce GTX 480 when you get it up to the 4 GHz range. Dipping down to 3.2 GHz doesn’t really help the 1090T win any battles in the games (Call of Duty excepted, where Turbo CORE seems to improve performance over the X4 965). If you’re a gamer, save the money you’d spend on a six-core CPU, buy your favorite overclockable processor, and spend the difference on graphics or an SSD to cut level load times. AMD’s hexa-core Phenom II X6 1090T is decidedly a productivity-oriented part designed to improve the performance of threaded apps. It extends the usefulness of Socket AM3 until Bulldozer emerges in 2011. As a result, your 790FX-based motherboard will do the job just fine—it’s probably not worth upgrading to 890FX at this point. Turbo CORE is conceptually a good answer to Turbo Boost, but I had a hard time proving its effectiveness in the real-world. Best-case, it helped the 3.2 GHz 1090T keep pace with the 3.4 GHz 965 in single-threaded titles.
    Reply
  • alextheblue
    Way to quote the conclusion of the full article, Inova, without giving any indication of whose words those are, or where you got them from.
    Reply
  • mavanhel
    You should still cite Tom's when you use long quotes like that in0va3, even when you're on their site.
    Reply
  • builderbobftw
    Nuf said:
    Reply
  • bk420
    wow it can run crysis....Har har har.

    I can't wait to get my hands on one.
    Reply
  • Gian124
    you can save $6 and get a Core i7-920 that out performs the new X6 1090T even at stock settings... has been around forever, and shows extreme headroom.

    Sad day for AMD on this round. I hope they have something in the pipeline more exciting.
    Reply
  • shadow187
    Congrats builder, you proved it has issues with Crysis.
    Reply
  • 1st duke of marlborough
    Just buy the cheaper one then overclock it, it's not that much more difficult without the black edition!
    Reply
  • Gian124
    "you can save $6 and get a Core i7-920 that out performs the new X6 1090T even at stock settings... has been around forever, and shows extreme headroom"

    i believe this event is to try and establish how much headroom the x6 has (AMD must be pretty confident of the headroom to be throwing such an event), as for the 920 out performing the x6 i believe that was on most games only, the x6 left the 920 in the dust on threaded applications, and if this thing got headroom to spare that advantage might not be so compelling, but your right thuban is just a stop gap, bulldozer is the real game changer.....
    Reply