Efficiency: Optimizing The Clock Rate Of AMD's Phenom II X6

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AMD’s six-core CPU is affordable (at least, compared to Intel's Core i7-980X). We're overclocking the Thuban design to see if its efficiency improves from faster clock rates. Comparisons to other quad- and hexa-core processors provide some perspective.

Test Setup And Overclocking Table

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System Hardware
Hardware Details
Performance Benchmarks
Motherboard (Socket AM3) Asus Crosshair IV Formula (Rev. 1.0) Chipset: AMD 890FX, BIOS: 0505 (04/02/2010)
Motherboard (LGA 1366) Intel DX58SO (Rev. 1.0) Chipset: Intel X58, BIOS: 5000 (02/16/2010)
Motherboard (LGA 1156) Gigabyte P55A-UD7 (Rev. 1.0) Chipset: P55, BIOS: F4
CPU AMD I AMD Phenom II X6 1090T (45 nm, 3.2 GHz, 6 x 512KB L2 and 6MB L3 Cache, TDP 125W, Rev. C3)
CPU AMD II AMD Phenom II X4 965 (45 nm, 3.4 GHz, 4 x 512KB L2 and 6MB L3 Cache, TDP 125W, Rev. C3)
CPU Intel I Intel Core i7-975 Extreme (45 nm, 3.33 GHz, 4 x 256KB L2 and 8MB L3 Cache, TDP 130W, Rev. D0)
CPU Intel II Intel Core i7-980X Extreme (32 nm, 3.33 GHz, 6 x 256KB L2 and 12MB L3 Cache, TDP 130W)
CPU Intel III Intel Core i5-750 (45 nm, 2.66 GHz, 4 x 256KB L2 and 8MB L3 Cache, TDP 95W, Rev. B1)
DDR3 Memory 3 x 2GB DDR3-1600 (Corsair TR3X6G-1600C8D 8-8-8-24)
Graphics Sapphire Radeon HD 5850 GPU: Cypress (725 MHz), Graphics RAM: 1,024MB GDDR5 (2,000 MT/s), Stream Processors: 1,440
Hard Drive Western Digital VelociRaptor, 300GB (WD3000HLFS) 10,000 RPM, SATA 3Gb/s, 16MB Cache
Power Supply PC Power & Cooling, Silencer 750EPS12V 750W
System Software & Drivers
Operating System Windows Ultimate x64 Updated on 2010-03-03
Drivers and Settings
Intel Chipset Drivers Chipset Installation Utility Ver. 9.1.1.1025
Intel Storage Drivers Matrix Storage Drivers Ver. 8.​9.​0.​1023

 

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Audio Benchmarks and Settings
Benchmark Details
iTunes Version: 9.0.3.15 Audio CD ("Terminator II" SE), 53 min. Convert to AAC audio format
Lame MP3 Version 3.98.3 Audio CD "Terminator II SE", 53 min. convert WAV to MP3 audio format Command: -b 160 --nores (160 Kbps)
Video Benchmarks and Settings
Benchmark Details
Handbrake CLI Version: 0.94 Video: Big Buck Bunny (720x480, 23.972 frames) 5 Minutes Audio: Dolby Digital, 48000 Hz, 6-channel, English to Video: AVC1 Audio1: AC3 Audio2: AAC (High Profile)
Mainconcept Reference v2 Version: 2.0.0.1555 MPEG-2 to H.264 MainConcept H.264/AVC Codec 28 sec. HDTV 1920x1080 (MPEG-2) Audio: MPEG-2 (44.1 kHz, 2-channel, 16-bit, 224 Kbps) Codec: H.264 Pro Mode: PAL 50i (25 FPS) Profile: H.264 BD HDMV
Application Benchmarks and Settings
Benchmark Details
7-Zip Version 9.1 beta LZMA2 Syntax "a -t7z -r -m0=LZMA2 -mx=5" Benchmark: 2010-THG-Workload
WinRAR Version 3.92 RAR Syntax "winrar a -r -m3" Benchmark: 2010-THG-Workload
Winzip 14 Version 14.0 Pro (8652) WinZip Commandline Version 3 ZIPX Syntax "-a -ez -p -r" Benchmark: 2010-THG-Workload
Autodesk 3ds Max 2010 Version: 10 x64 Rendering Space Flyby Mentalray (SPECapc_3dsmax9) Frame: 248 Resolution: 1440 x 1080
Cinebench 11.5 Version 11.5 Build CB25720DEMO CPU Test single and multi threaded
Adobe Photoshop CS 4 (64-Bit) Version: 11 Filtering a 16MB TIF (15000x7266) Filters: Radial Blur (Amount: 10; Method: zoom; Quality: good) Shape Blur (Radius: 46 px; custom shape: Trademark sysmbol) Median (Radius: 1px) Polar Coordinates (Rectangular to Polar)
Adobe Acrobat 9 Professional Version: 9.0.0 (Extended) == Printing Preferenced Menu == Default Settings: Standard == Adobe PDF Security - Edit Menu == Encrypt all documents (128-bit RC4) Open Password: 123 Permissions Password: 321
Microsoft Powerpoint 2007 Version: 2007 SP2 PPT to PDF Powerpoint Document (115 Pages) Adobe PDF-Printer
Fritz Fritz Chess Benchmark Version 4.3.2
Synthetic Benchmarks and Settings
Benchmark Details
3DMark Vantage Version: 1.02 Patch 1901 Options: Performance Graphics Test 1 Graphics Test 2 CPU Test 1 CPU Test 2
PCMark Vantage Version: 1.0.2.0 Patch 1901 PCMark Benchmark Memories Benchmark
SiSoftware Sandra 2010 Version: 2010.1.16.10 Processor Arithmetic, Cryptography, Memory Bandwith

Overclocking Table

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AMD Phenom II X6 1090T 3,200 MHz 3,400 MHz 3,600 MHz 3,800 MHz 4,000 MHz
Multiplier 16x 17x 18x 19x 20x
Turbo (three cores) 18x 19x 20x 20x -
Base Frequency 200 MHz 200 MHz 200 MHz 200 MHz 200 MHz
Turbo CORE Yes Yes Yes Yes No
System Idle Power 83W 83W 85W 85W 125W
System Peak Power 201W 207W 232W 271W 445W
Vcore 1.325V 1.325V 1.4125V 1.4875V 1.55V
CPU-Z VT idle 1.212V 1.212V 1.212V 1.212V 1.56V
CPU-Z VT load 1.248V 1.248V 1.272V 1.404V 1.596V
Stable Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Overclocking Technique AMD OverDrive BIOS