AMD Phenom II X6 1100T Review: The New Six-Core Flagship

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Test Systems And Benchmarks

We’re concentrating on the new Phenom II X6 1100T flagship in our benchmarks. While the Athlon II X3 455 and Phenom II X2 565 are interesting processors, the 100 MHz speed bump probably won’t show much of an improvement over previous tests that we’ve performed. We are interested in seeing if the new top-of-the-line model can be overclocked higher than the 1090T, though. To this end, we've equipped our test bed with a Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus CPU cooler.

We’re including the Phenom II X6 1090T and 1075T for comparison purposes. The Phenom II X4 970 and Core i5-750 are also present to represent similarly-priced quad-core performance. Finally, the Core i7-920 shows what the starting point of Intel’s more expensive high-end offerings can accomplish.

Take note that the Core i7-920 sample we have on hand is an engineering sample with a lower memory multiplier than the retail version. This will hurt the Core i7-920 in some memory-dependent tests, but for the most part performance should remain comparable to the commercially-available processor.

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Test Systems Header Cell - Column 1
Row 0 - Cell 0 AMD System A AMD System B Intel LGA 1156 System Intel LGA 1366 System
Motherboard Gigabyte MA790XT-UD4P Socket AM3, AMD 790X, BIOS F8G Asus M4A785TD-V EVO Socket AM3, AMD 785G, BIOS 0410 Asus P7P55D-E LX LGA 1156, Intel P55, BIOS 1003 Gigabyte X58A-UD3R LGA 1366, Intel X58, BIOS version FA
Processor Phenom II X6 1100T  3.3 GHz (3.7 GHz Max Turbo)Hexa-Core, 6 MB L3 CachePhenom II X6 1090T  3.2 GHz (3.6 GHz Max Turbo)Hexa-Core, 6 MB L3 Cache Phenom II X6 1075T  3.0 GHz (3.5 GHz Max Turbo)Hexa-Core, 6 MB L3 CachePhenom II X4 970 3.5 GHz, Quad-Core6 MB L3 Cache Intel Core i5-750  2.66 GHz (3.2 GHz Max Turbo)Quad-Core, 8 MB L3 CacheIntel Pentium G6950 2.66 GHz, Quad-Core3 MB L3 Cache Intel Core i7-920 2.67 GHz (2.93 GHz Max Turbo)Quad-Core (8 Threads with Hyper-Threading)8 MB L3 Cache
CPU Cooler Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus Cooler Master Hyper TX3 ZEROtherm Nirvana NV120
Memory Crucial DDR3-1333 Dual-Channel 2 x 2048 MB, 669 MHz, CAS 9-9-9-24-1T Mushkin PC3-10700H  Triple-Channel 3 x 2048 MB, 540 MHz, CL 8-8-8-20-1T
Graphics MSI GeForce GTX 470 1280 MB GDDR5-3348, 607/1215 MHz GPU/Shaders, 837 MHz Mem.
Hard Drive Western Digital Caviar Black 640 GB 7200 RPM, 32 MB Cache SATA 3Gb/s
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Benchmark Configuration
3D Games
Crysis Patch 1.2.1, DirectX 10, 64-bit executable, benchmark tool Ultra-High Quality, No AA, 1280x1024
DiRT 2 In-game benchmarkUltra Quality Preset, 8x AA, 1280x1024
StarCraft 2 Custom Tom's Hardware BenchmarkMedium Quality Preset, No AA, 1280x1024
Audio/Video Encoding
iTunes Version: 9.0.2.25 x64Audio CD ("Terminator II" SE), 53 minDefault format AAC
HandBrake 0.9.4 Version 0.9.4, convert first .vob filefrom "The Last Samurai" (1 GB) to .mp4 High Profile
TMPGEnc 4.0 Express Version: 4.7.3.292Import File: "Terminator 2" SE DVD (5 Minutes)Resolution: 720x576 (PAL) 16:9
DivX 6.9.1 Encoding mode: Insane QualityEnhanced multithreading enabled using SSE4Quarter-pixel search
XviD 1.2.2 Display encoding status = off
MainConcept Reference 1.6.1 MPEG2 to MPEG2 (H.264), MainConcept H.264/AVC Codec28 sec HDTV 1920x1080 (MPEG2) Audio: MPEG2 (44.1 KHz, 2 Channel, 16-Bit, 224 Kb/s) Mode: PAL (25 FPS)
Productivity
Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64-bit) Version: 11.0 x64, Filter 15.7 MB TIF ImageRadial Blur, Shape Blur, Median, Polar Coordinates
Autodesk 3ds Max 2010 Version: 11.0 x64, Rendering Dragon Image at 1920x1080 (HDTV)
Grisoft AVG Anti-Virus 9.0 Version: 9.0.663, Virus base: 270.14.1/2407Benchmark: Scan 334 MB Folder of ZIP/RAR compressed files
WinRAR 3.90 Version x64 3.90, Dictionary = 4096 KB, Benchmark: THG-Workload (334 MB)
7-Zip Version 4.65: Format=Zip, Compression=Ultra, Method=Deflate, Dictionary Size=32 KB, Word Size=128, Threads=8Benchmark: THG-Workload (334 MB)
Synthetic Benchmarks
3DMark Vantage Version: 1.01, GPU and CPU scores
PCMark Vantage Version: 1.0.1.0 x64, System, Memories, Productivity, Hard Disk Drive benchmarks
SiSoftware Sandra 2010 Version 2010.1.16.11, CPU Test = CPU Arithmetic / MultiMedia, Memory Test = Bandwidth Benchmark
Don Woligroski
Contributor

Don Woligroski was a former senior hardware editor for Tom's Hardware. He has covered a wide range of PC hardware topics, including CPUs, GPUs, system building, and emerging technologies.

99 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Mark Heath
    I wish Intel would do something like this for all (or at least most) of their processors.(the speed bumps with same price model)
    Reply
  • fstrthnu
    A pretty good effort from AMD, but Sandy Bridge is only 2 or 3 months away by now. Of course, this is just a stopgap measure till Bulldozer comes; still, when AMD is only just catching up to Intel in terms of stock performance NOW (even though it has slightly better value)...
    Reply
  • sideshowbob32
    Great article I just ordered a 1090T for m old am2+ set up, I look forward to it and this article makes me want it more!! Glad to see amd is doing great.
    Reply
  • tacoslave
    im gonna wait for bulldozer
    Reply
  • stingstang
    AMD is most certainly not doing great if they have to rerelease all their chips. Here's what happens: They make a batch of chips and sell them all as 4 core processors at X speed. The ones they don't sell or are returned go into stress testing. Those batches are divided in to x2 or x3 piles depending on how stable they are with which cores enabled. The winners of the tests get promoted and branded as new, faster chips with x+100 MHz. The process then repeats.
    Now if you'll look, their third iteration of this process still doesn't match intel's entry-level i7 processors. It's just embarrassing is what that is.
    Reply
  • Could this be any more unremarkable or unnecessary a product? Might as well grab an i5, or one of the existing X6s, or wait for SB, or Bulldozer... this is just pointless.
    Reply
  • buzznut
    I'm waiting as well I think. I'd have to upgrade my mobo to run a X6 anyway since Biostar chose not to support it with my current board. I think the 1090T is a great value at $230 though. Pretty sweet.
    Reply
  • sudeshc
    thats more like it, increase those stock speeds and the we will have more chance to to get even more performance by overclocking :D
    Reply
  • FunSurfer
    It would be nice to see in the gaming benchmark games that have intensive use of all the CPU's cores like GTA4, BFBC2, RFG (@ large building destruction).
    Reply
  • dEAne
    With this data Sandy Bridge will not put pressure on AMD it will kill it. I think the only thing left for AMD is to lower the price much further.
    Reply