AMD Phenom II X6 1090T And 890FX Platform Review: Hello, Leo

Features
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Test Setup And Benchmarks

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Test Hardware
ProcessorsAMD Phenom II X6 1090T (Thuban) 3.2 GHz, Socket AM3, 4 GT/s HyperTransport, 6 MB L3, Power-savings enabled
Row 1 - Cell 0 Intel Core i7-980X (Gulftown) 3.33 GHz, LGA 1366, 12 MB L3, Hyper-Threading enabled, Power-savings enabled
Row 2 - Cell 0 Intel Core i7-975 Extreme (Bloomfield) 3.33 GHz, LGA 1366, 8 MB L3, Hyper-Threading enabled, Power-savings enabled
Row 3 - Cell 0 Intel Core i7-930 (Bloomfield) 2.8 GHz, LGA 1366, 8 MB L3, Hyper-Threading enabled, Power-savings enabled
Row 4 - Cell 0 Intel Core i7-920 (Bloomfield) 2.66 GHz, LGA 1366, 8 MB L3, Hyper-Threading enabled, Power-savings enabled
Row 5 - Cell 0 Intel Core i5-750 (Lynnfield) 2.66 GHz, LGA 1156, 8 MB L3, Power-savings enabled
Row 6 - Cell 0 AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE (Deneb) 3.4 GHz, Socket AM3, 4 GT/s HyperTransport, 6 MB L3, Power-savings enabled
MotherboardsMSI 890FXA-GD70 (Socket AM3) 890FX/SB850, BIOS A7640AMS
Row 8 - Cell 0 Gigabyte X58A-UD5 (LGA 1366) X58 Express, BIOS F4
Row 9 - Cell 0 Gigabyte P55A-UD7 (LGA 1156) P55 Express, BIOS F4
Row 10 - Cell 0 Asus M4A79T Deluxe (Socket AM3) 790FX/SB750, BIOS 2304
MemoryCorsair 6 GB (3 x 2 GB) DDR3-1600 7-7-7-20 @ DDR3-1333
Row 12 - Cell 0 Corsair 4 GB (2 x 2 GB) DDR3-1600 7-7-7-20 @ DDR3-1333
Hard DriveIntel SSDSA2M160G2GC 160 GB SATA 3 Gb/s
Row 14 - Cell 0 Intel SSDSA2MH080G1GN 80 GB SATA 3 Gb/s
GraphicsSapphire Radeon HD 5850 1 GB
Power SupplyCooler Master UCP 1100 W
HeatsinkIntel DBX-B Thermal Solution
System Software And Drivers
Operating SystemWindows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
DirectXDirectX 11
Platform DriverIntel INF Chipset Update Utility 9.1.1.1015
Graphics DriverCatalyst 10.2
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Benchmarks and Settings
Audio Encoding
iTunesVersion: 9.0.2.25 (64-bit), Audio CD ("Terminator II" SE), 53 min., Default format AAC
Video Encoding
TMPGEnc 4.7Version: 4.7.3.292, Import File: "Terminator II" SE DVD (5 Minutes), Resolution: 720x576 (PAL) 16:9
DivX 6.8.5Encoding mode: Insane Quality, Enhanced Multi-Threading, Enabled using SSE4, Quarter-pixel search
Xvid 1.2.2Display encoding status=off
MainConcept Reference 1.6.1MPEG2 to MPEG2 (H.264), MainConcept H.264/AVC Codec, 28 sec HDTV 1920x1080 (MPEG2), Audio: MPEG2 (44.1 KHz, 2 Channel, 16-Bit, 224 Kb/s), Mode: PAL (25 FPS), Profile: Tom’s Hardware Settings for Qct-Core
HandBrake 0.9.4Version 0.9.4, convert first .vob file from The Last Samurai to .mp4, High Profile
Applications
Autodesk 3ds Max 2010 (64-bit)Version: 2009 Service Pack 1, Rendering Dragon Image at 1920x1080 (HDTV)
WinRAR 3.90Version 3.90 (64-bit), Benchmark: THG-Workload (334 MB)
7-ZipVersion 4.65, Built-in Benchmark
Adobe Photoshop CS4Radial Blur, Shape Blur, Median, Polar Coordinates filters
AVG Anti-Virus 9Virus scan of 334MB of compressed files
Synthetic Benchmarks and Settings
3DMark VantageVersion: 1.02, GPU and CPU scores
PCMark VantageVersion: 1.00, System, Memories, TV and Movies, and Productivity benchmarks, Windows Media Player 10.00.00.3646
SiSoftware Sandra 2010CPU Test=CPU Arithmetic/Multimedia, Memory Test=Bandwidth Benchmark, Cryptography
Games
CrysisHigh Quality Settings, No AA / No AF, 4xAA / No AF, vsync off, 1280x1024 / 1680x1050 / 1900x1200, DirectX 10, Patch 1.2.1, 64-bit executable
Left 4 Dead 2High Quality Settings, No AA / No AF, 8xAA / 16xAF, vsync off, 1680x1050 / 1920x1200 / 2560x1600, Tomshardware Demo, Steam Version
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2Ultra High Settings, No AA / No AF, 4xAA / No AF, 1680x1050 / 1920x1200 / 2560x1600, The Gulag, 60 second sequence, Fraps
DiRT 2Ultra High Settings, No AA / No AF, 4xAA / No AF, 1680x1050 / 1920x1200 / 2560x1600, In-Game Benchmark, Steam Version
Chris Angelini
Chris Angelini
Chris Angelini is an Editor Emeritus at Tom's Hardware US. He edits hardware reviews and covers high-profile CPU and GPU launches.
231 Comments Comment from the forums
  • theDARKW0LF
    Awesome, good thing I waited for this release, hello six cores (first post)!
    Reply
  • dwave
    My 4 core Core2Quad @ 2.83 is still working everything great, so I won't be upgrading. Nice to see the price for 6 cores is very reasonable though!
    Reply
  • This maaayy just be my "conspiracy theory" but please also test nvidia cards with the processors. Not flacking AMD or anything but there could possibly be optimizations and "reverse optimizations" for the processors.

    I just cant remember tom's last review that had an nvidia card with an AMD processor.
    Reply
  • theDARKW0LF
    Lol I was just into the hype at that last post, I didn't even start to read the review, now I think I'll just go back to the Phenom II X4, ah well lol
    Reply
  • Finally this article comes out. I've been waiting since the morning for this. Lol but anyway, good read.
    Reply
  • cangelini
    Got some GTX 480 numbers in there as well txt, and the results weren't much prettier.
    Reply
  • englandr753
    Being that I have seemed to changed my use of my pc more toward video editing than gaming I am definitely selling off my Q9550 and going with the AMD X6. I still game some but don't care to have the cutting edge video card atm so this is perfect for me. I'm buying from AMD for my next cpu! Way to go AMD! I still have another Q9550 system so don't think I'm an AMD fan boy but I do love it when AMD gives such a great value for such a great product. Everyone should...
    Reply
  • You know, AMD can make a 48core CPU, but if it performs worse than Intel's 4 core, than it does not matter that it costs only as much as Intel's 4 core.

    In this case, it does not perform better than i7-920, even though the 920 is a 4 core cpu (and no, no one really runs it at 2.66, everyone pushes it at least to 3, since it takes nothing to get it to that speed, and it right away outperforms AMD's 6 core, and has a much better memory throughput).
    Reply
  • englandr753
    Is the X6 1090T not oc'able at all? It would seem there should be some headroom for overclock to some degree. Starting out at 3.2g makes me think you should be able to get fairly close to 4.0.
    Reply
  • cangelini
    englandr753Is the X6 1090T not oc'able at all? It would seem there should be some headroom for overclock to some degree. Starting out at 3.2g makes me think you should be able to get fairly close to 4.0.
    I was able to hit 3.7 with Turbo CORE enabled fairly easily. It might go higher, but I'd argue this probably isn't as much of an overclocking chip as a 965 might be.
    Reply