Core Voltage: only 1.10 V
The fact that the Phenom X4 9100e is a low-power CPU is evident from the core voltage: at full throttle, the quad core CPU gets by with 1.100 V.
The tool Core Temp reads out the VID of the 9100e CPU correctly. Evidently, the board manufacturers did not expect that AMD would introduce a Phenom CPU with such a low supply voltage to the market; on our MSI K9A2 Platinum board, the voltage cannot be adjusted manually. The VID is only set to 1.100 V if the board is set to auto. The board supplies the CPU with 1.096 V; at this supply voltage, CPU operation is absolutely stable.
The manual setting of the MSI board for the core voltage begins at 1.128 V.
| Model | Stepping | Tension |
|---|---|---|
| Phenom X4 | B3 | 1.30 volts |
| Phenom X4 | B2 | 1.25 volts |
| Phenom X3 | B3 | 1.20 volts |
| Phenom 9100e | B2 | 1.10 volts |
The table shows the voltages used by our models.
If the Phenom 9100e enters the Cool’n’Quiet power-saving mode when idle, its core voltage drops from 1.10 V to 1.00 V.
In Cool’n’Quiet mode, the Phenom 9100e lowers its voltage to 1.00 V; the Phenom X3 reduces its supply voltage to 1.050 V.
By comparison, the Phenom X3, whose power loss is also much lower than that of the classic Phenom X4, reduces its voltage to 1.05 V.