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

by
231 Comments

Benchmark Results: Productivity

Phenom II X6 1090T gets a big boost in our Photoshop CS4 test, but it’s only enough to pass Intel’s Core i5-750. The rest of the Bloomfield parts are still faster and Gulftown holds a more significant advantage. Nevertheless, compared to Phenom II X4 965, the six-core processor represents a massive speed-up.

I know I promised that AVG would disappear in my Core i7-980X review, but it’s making one final showing here, since my Kaspersky test isn’t ready yet. The results are unsurprising.

Threading optimizations in 3ds Max help the Phenom II X6 1090T shoot ahead of Intel’s Core i7-930, -920, and Core i5-750, while the Phenom II X4 965 trails in last place.

Five Intel processors dominate here, though threading clearly gives the X6 an advantage over AMD’s previous flagship.

Speed-ups in 7-Zip place AMD’s hexa-core CPU just behind Intel’s quad-core Core i7-975 Extreme Edition. The significance here, of course, is that the Phenom II X6 1090T beats out Intel’s Core i7-930—a slightly more expensive processor.

Previous Next
Summary
  1. AMD Can Do Six Cores, Too
  2. Phenom II X6: A Family Of Two
  3. Making Sense Of Turbo CORE
  4. 8-Series Chipsets, Revealed
  5. Test Setup And Benchmarks
  6. Benchmark Results: Synthetics
  7. Benchmark Results: Media And Transcoding Apps
  8. Benchmark Results: Productivity
  9. Benchmark Results: Crysis
  10. Benchmark Results: Left 4 Dead 2
  11. Benchmark Results: Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
  12. Benchmark Results: DiRT 2
  13. Power Consumption
  14. Conclusion
About the author
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.

Read more
Create a new thread in the US Reviews comments forum about this subject
This thread is closed for comments
231 comments
Comment from the forums
    Your comment
    Top Comments
  • 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...
  • jemlinus
    Great. Six cores for under $200, and I don't have to change my mobo and memory cards. Can't go wrong with that!
  • dstln
    Good to hear they're getting back into the performance market and still focusing on value.
    • Other Comments
  • theDARKW0LF
    Awesome, good thing I waited for this release, hello six cores (first post)!
  • 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!
  • Anonymous
    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.
  • 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
  • Anonymous
    Finally this article comes out. I've been waiting since the morning for this. Lol but anyway, good read.
  • cangelini
    Got some GTX 480 numbers in there as well txt, and the results weren't much prettier.
  • 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...
  • Anonymous
    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).
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • jemlinus
    Great. Six cores for under $200, and I don't have to change my mobo and memory cards. Can't go wrong with that!
  • bk420
    Where can I sign up to buy this thing NOW. It looks good considering the price. 6 cores is better than 4 IMHO.
  • dstln
    Good to hear they're getting back into the performance market and still focusing on value.
  • deividast
    jemlinusGreat. Six cores for under $200, and I don't have to change my mobo and memory cards. Can't go wrong with that!


    Actually it's under 300$, but still really affordable :) to bad i'd have to change my mobo and ram for it :) so i'll stick to my 4 cores for the time being :D
  • englandr753
    So, my understanding the only ocing you can do is with turbocore? 2 cores or less are working to hit the 3.7? If this is so, this is a little disappointing but as I said for video editing, 6 cores even at 3.2 sounds sweet to me. Thanks for the review and the replies! Nice job!
  • pharge
    I remember we did have few articles here talking about what happen when there are multiple programs running at the same time (which I belive is closer to the reality). Will 6-core system look better when there are 2-3 program running at the same time?
    Like playing games while having handbreak and antivirus running at the same time.
  • Doltron
    GRRR
  • Doltron
    I think you should add Bad Company 2 to the benchmarks. ;)
  • englandr753
    DoltronI think you should add Bad Company 2 to the benchmarks.


    I can see why you would but do you realize the time this would take to do everyones favorite game? Not a reasonable thing to do...
  • jemlinus
    deividastActually it's under 300$, but still really affordable to bad i'd have to change my mobo and ram for it so i'll stick to my 4 cores for the time being

    I was talking about 1055T. ;)
Display more comments
Most Popular
  1. StarCraft II Beta: Game Performance Analyzed
  2. This Internal SSD Connects Via 10-Pin USB Port
  3. Hide Your PC in the Wild with NZXT Camo Chassis
The Latest On Tom's Hardware
Edition
Subscribe to our newsletter
Company
Resources
Other Purch sites
  • © 2018 Purch All Rights Reserved.