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.

Benchmark Results: Productivity

3ds Max is threaded, so jumping from four to six cores yields a fairly significant speed-up in rendering performance. The performance gain isn’t as pronounced here as it was in the transcoding tests, but it’s still enough to put the six-core Phenom II X4 960T in front of Intel’s Core i5-750.

We’ve made a concerted effort to transistion much of our 2010 test suite to threaded software, recognizing that single-core CPUs and single-task workloads are a thing of the past. These threaded Photoshop filters prove the value of a six-core CPU. And even though the Zosma design doesn’t jump to the top of our chart, just the difference between the stock four-core configuration and our unlocked processor should be enough to convince content creators to either consider outright buying a six-core chip or to consider core unlocking.

Although AMD’s processors bring up the back of the pack in WinRAR, the addition of two cores is enough to move our Phenom II X4 960T from last place to in front of the Deneb-based X4 965 Black Edition.

Our last productivity-oriented test shows our six-core sample again jumping up in front of AMD’s Phenom II X4 965, tying the Core i7-920 and 930 processors in our 7-Zip compression routine.

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