Meet Zosma: AMD's Quad-Core Phenom II X4 960T Gets Unlocked

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In our recent Phenom II X6 1090T review, we speculated about the possibility of a quad-core CPU family based on AMD's Thuban design. Meet Zosma. We got our hands on a Phenom II X4 960T at 3 GHz, and unlocked it using ASRock's 890FX Deluxe3 motherboard.

Hardware Setup And Benchmarks

In the interest of including plenty of comparison data, we ran the Phenom II X4 960T in a handful of tests from our benchmark suite and plugged the results into charts from our Phenom II X6 1090T review. Thus, the charts you see on the following pages will likely look familiar, with the addition of numbers for the stock Phenom II X4 960T and the unlocked X4 960T.

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Test Hardware
ProcessorsAMD Phenom II X4 960T (Zosma) 3.0 GHz, Socket AM3, 4 GT/s HyperTransport, 6MB L3, Power-savings enabled
Row 1 - Cell 0 AMD Phenom II X6 1090T (Thuban) 3.2 GHz, Socket AM3, 4 GT/s HyperTransport, 6MB L3, Power-savings enabled
Row 2 - Cell 0 Intel Core i7-980X (Gulftown) 3.33 GHz, LGA 1366, 12MB L3, Hyper-Threading enabled, Power-savings enabled
Row 3 - Cell 0 Intel Core i7-975 Extreme (Bloomfield) 3.33 GHz, LGA 1366, 8MB L3, Hyper-Threading enabled, Power-savings enabled
Row 4 - Cell 0 Intel Core i7-930 (Bloomfield) 2.8 GHz, LGA 1366, 8MB L3, Hyper-Threading enabled, Power-savings enabled
Row 5 - Cell 0 Intel Core i7-920 (Bloomfield) 2.66 GHz, LGA 1366, 8MB L3, Hyper-Threading enabled, Power-savings enabled
Row 6 - Cell 0 Intel Core i5-750 (Lynnfield) 2.66 GHz, LGA 1156, 8MB L3, Power-savings enabled
Row 7 - Cell 0 AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE (Deneb) 3.4 GHz, Socket AM3, 4 GT/s HyperTransport, 6MB L3, Power-savings enabled
MotherboardsASRock 890FX Deluxe3 (Socket AM3) 890FX/SB850
Row 9 - Cell 0 MSI 890FXA-GD70 (Socket AM3) 890FX/SB850, BIOS A7640AMS
Row 10 - Cell 0 Gigabyte X58A-UD5 (LGA 1366) X58 Express, BIOS F4
Row 11 - Cell 0 Gigabyte P55A-UD7 (LGA 1156) P55 Express, BIOS F4
Row 12 - Cell 0 Asus M4A79T Deluxe (Socket AM3) 790FX/SB750, BIOS 2304
MemoryCorsair 6GB (3 x 2GB) DDR3-1600 7-7-7-20 @ DDR3-1333
Row 14 - Cell 0 Corsair 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3-1600 7-7-7-20 @ DDR3-1333
Hard DriveIntel SSDSA2M160G2GC 160GB SATA 3 Gb/s
Row 16 - Cell 0 Intel SSDSA2MH080G1GN 80GB SATA 3 Gb/s
GraphicsSapphire Radeon HD 5850 1GB
Power SupplyCooler Master UCP 1100W
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
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
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.
59 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Personally, I think it would be interesting to see some benchmarks for Adobe's Premiere Pro CS5 and After Effects CS5. Given that there are more 6 core CPU offerings on the market now. Anyways, thanks for the article.
    Reply
  • requiemsallure
    the hex core thuban had some problems with gaming for one reason or another, i wonder if in its quad core form the zosma will have the same problems, and if not i wonder if you unlock it, will it receive the same problems?

    this is all speculation since the zosma is based off of the thuban, its making me very excited for some benchmarks and a review.
    Reply
  • HalfHuman
    power consumption?
    Reply
  • Poisoner
    Wow, AMD kicked a dead horse and put some life into K10.
    Reply
  • IronRyan21
    requiemsallurethe hex core thuban had some problems with gaming for one reason or another, i wonder if in its quad core form the zosma will have the same problems, and if not i wonder if you unlock it, will it receive the same problems? this is all speculation since the zosma is based off of the thuban, its making me very excited for some benchmarks and a review.
    Um Thuban didn't have any problems with gaming? It was only a lil behind deneb cause deneb was clocked higher (965BE). Theres just no reason for thuban to do better since, more cores != better gaming performance.
    Reply
  • drowned
    I know I'm going to get thumbed down a million times for this but I gotta get it out. Why are we cheering for AMD when they require 2 extra cores and 400 mhz more clock speed just to beat Intel while Intel also maintains 2x the overclocking headroom as AMD? Yes I know AMD's prices are great, but tons of applications still only support 1 core where these clock to clock comparisons and overclock-ability are critical.

    No I'm not saying Intel is the greatest company in the world blah blah because I remember when AMD was handing their ass to them pre-Core2, but I'm struggling to root for AMD when they're handed the mid and high range to Intel and barely have a pulse in the low range against the last-gen core2's and i3's.
    Reply
  • ta152h
    The strangest thing is the performance of the i7 920 vis-a-vis the i7 930. The i7 975 seems to benefit from clock speed, as do AMD processors, but in most applications there is no difference between the 920 and 930, and in some cases the 920 is slightly faster (probably falling into the range of statistical scatter, though).

    Still, it's odd the performance is essentially the same. You'd expect to see something, especially since 200 MHz for AMD processors shows up pretty clearly.
    Reply
  • liquidsnake718
    I wish this was the case with unlocking intel processors!
    Reply
  • killerclick
    drownedWhy are we cheering for AMD when they require 2 extra cores and 400 mhz more clock speed just to beat Intel while Intel also maintains 2x the overclocking headroom as AMD?
    Because AMD is the underdog and only jerks don't cheer for the underdog. Also, performance per dollar is on AMD's side right up to the $200 price point. Also, AMD wasn't the company that was fined for bribing and blackmailing retailers to market only their own processors. Also, Intel's 6 core CPU costs $999 and they can go to hell.
    Reply
  • falchard
    This review tells me 1 thing. AMD can probably get away with selling the 1060T for $500.
    Reply