Competition is the engine of progress. If it weren't for competition, we wouldn't be witnessing such rapid improvement. computer technology. In one of the works of American authors P. Horowitz and W. Hill, “The Art of Circuitry,” it was said: “If the Boeing 747 progressed at the same speed as solid-state electronics progress, then it would fit in a matchbox and fly around without refueling the earth ball 40 times!” Well, there is not so much sense from such a small Boeing for the layman, but the increase in productivity computers is coming users only benefit! Due to the constant struggle for the buyer's wallet, both processor giants are forced to constantly work on improving their products. This means that every new processor faster, cooler and often cheaper than its predecessor.
How do manufacturers increase the performance of central processors? The answer is simple: it is necessary that the processor performs as many calculations as possible per unit of time. To do this, you need to increase the processor clock speed or increase the number of instructions executed per clock. And, if the growth of clock frequencies is limited by the physical properties of semiconductors, then the parallel execution of the code can significantly speed up the work of the central processor. In server solutions and professional workstations, multiprocessor configurations have been used since the end of the last century. But in the spring of 2005, AMD and Intel almost simultaneously introduced their first dual-core products: Athlon 64 X2 and Pentium D. A further development of these events was the release of quad-core CPUs. More recently, both processor giants introduced six-core desktop processors. And if Intel is positioning its Core i7 980X as a solution for very wealthy enthusiasts, then AMD has aimed its six-core processors at the mass market! Today we will take a closer look latest AMD Phenom II X6 and compare its performance with the competing Intel solution.
Phenom II X6: core design, specifications and proprietary technologies
The Phenom II X6 processors were released to the public on April 27, 2010 along with the latest AMD 890FX chipset. AMD's systematic approach to product announcements commands respect. The fact is that no matter how powerful the processor is, to unlock its potential, you need an appropriate hardware platform and software support. AMD is fine with both. The Socket AM3 platform offers a wide range of expandability and functionality, while proprietary AMD Overdrive software allows for fine-grained configuration and monitoring hardware directly from the MS Windows operating system environment. And if you add to all this the excellent DX11-compatible graphics adapters of the "Evergreen" family, then we get a complete set of components to build a powerful gaming computer. This is what a high-end personal computer looks like in 2010. according to AMD:
So, we have a very, very serious configuration that can handle any task, be it a modern game, or video encoding for a home archive. FROM latest chipset AMD 890FX and the motherboard based on it, we introduced you in one of the previous articles. A review of the architecture and testing of the ATI Radeon HD5870 was also covered in a separate article. Now it's time to introduce you to the "heart" of the new platform - AMD Phenom II X6.
To date, only two models are officially present in the AMD Phenom II X6 product line: 1055T and 1090T. Model 1055T has a low power version. The characteristics of the Phenom II X6 family processors are presented in the table:
| Name | AMD Phenom II X6 | AMD Phenom II X6 | AMD Phenom II X6 |
| Model | 1090T BE | 1055T | 1055T |
| order number | HDT90ZFBGRBOX | HDT55TFBGRBOX | HDT55TWFGRBOX |
| Nucleus | Thuban | Thuban | Thuban |
| stepping | E0 | E0 | E0 |
| Process technology, nm | 45nm SOI | 45nm SOI | 45nm SOI |
| connector | AM3 | AM3 | AM3 |
| Frequency, MHz | 3200-3600 | 2800-3300 | 2800-3300 |
| Factor | 16-18 | 14-16,5 | 14-16,5 |
| HyperTransport, MHz | 4000 | 4000 | 4000 |
| L1 cache, KB | 6x128 | 6x128 | 6x128 |
| L2 cache, KB | 6x512 | 6x512 | 6x512 |
| L3 cache, KB | 6144 | 6144 | 6144 |
| Supply voltage, V | 1,125-1,40 | 1,125-1,40 | 1,075-1,375 |
| TDP. Tue | 125 | 125 | 95 |
| Limit temperature, °C | 62 | 62 | 71 |
| Instruction set | ISC, IA32, x86-64, NXbit, MMX, 3DNow!, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSE4a | ISC, IA32, x86-64, NXbit, MMX, 3DNow!, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSE4a |
The new AMD processors are based on the well-known K10.5 architecture, with all its advantages and disadvantages. The updated Thuban core is structurally the good old Deneb with the number of cores increased to six:
The increase in the latter led to a natural increase in the number of transistors from 758 million (Deneb) to 904 million (Thuban), and the core area increased from 285 sq. mm up to 346 sq. mm respectively. It should be noted that the size of the shared L3 cache has remained unchanged and is still 6 MB. The processor is manufactured using an improved 45nm lithographic process technology, which allowed AMD to limit the heat dissipation of the Phenom II X6 to 125W. Of course, the production cost of Thuban is slightly higher than that of Deneb, and the percentage of yield of good plates is lower, which is associated with a greater complexity of the core. So lottery lovers can count on the imminent appearance of AMD processors, which are based on the latest core with disabled functional blocks. Who knows, maybe we will see five-core processors again?! Phenom II X6 received official support for DDR3 1600 MHz RAM, while all previous Socket AM3 processors support DDR3 with a maximum frequency of 1333 MHz. At the same time, the memory controller has retained backward compatibility with DDR2 RAM, so that owners of Socket AM2 + motherboards can easily install the latest six-core processor by updating the BIOS first.
With the launch of the Phenom II X6, AMD introduced the general public Turbo technology core. The essence of its work lies in the dynamic control of the frequency of computing cores. With intensive loading of one or three cores, their frequencies increase by 400-500 MHz. In this case, the frequency of inactive cores is reduced to 800 MHz. When the Turbo Core is triggered, the voltage on the processor rises to 1.475 V, but the heat dissipation still remains within the TDP of 125. With four to six computational threads, all cores operate at a frequency of 2800 MHz. Core frequency and voltage control is entirely the responsibility of the BIOS of compatible motherboards. Here's how Turbo Core technology works on the AMD Phenom II X6 1055T processor:
Thus, Turbo Core allows you to get some gain when performing tasks that do not have pronounced multi-threaded optimization. These tasks include games and most sound or image processing programs. We'll look at the impact of this technology on performance a bit later, but for now let's take a closer look at our Phenom II X6 1055T.
The 1055T, which are intended for retail sale, comes with a good AV-Z7UH40Q001 heat pipe cooler. Other models of AMD processors with a thermal package of 125 W are equipped with the same cooling system. The cooler is equipped with a 70 mm fan, which accelerates to 5000 rpm at times of high load, making an unpleasant noise.
Like all modern processors AMD Phenom II X6 1055T is covered with a heat-distributing cover. Outwardly, with the exception of markings, the CPU is indistinguishable from its counterparts with fewer cores.
The processor was released in the eighth week of 2010. The CPU-Z 1.54 diagnostic utility is already trained to recognize the Phenom II X6 and provides the following information:
Our sample had a rather high VID of 1.425 V, but during idle times, the Cool&Quite technology works, which lowers the core frequency to 800 MHz and the voltage to 1.225 V. As we said earlier, processors based on the Thuban core received official support for DDR3 1600 MHz:
The overclocking potential of the first Phenom II based on the C2 stepping Deneb core was around 3700 MHz, and complex and expensive cooling systems were not required to conquer such frequencies. The transfer of the Deneb core to the new revision C3 raised the bar for overclocking to 4000 MHz using a high-quality air cooler. The overclocking potential of the Phenom II X6 processors is still poorly understood, but there is information on the Internet about the successful overclocking of the Phenom II X6 1055T to 4000 MHz and higher. However, there is also information about the increased requirement of the new AMD processors for the power of VRM motherboards. For overclocking experiments, we chose the MSI 890FXA-GD70 board based on the AMD 890FX chipset, with a detailed review of which we will acquaint you with in the near future. This motherboard has advanced overclocking capabilities and is equipped with a powerful 4 + 1 CPU power subsystem, where four phases power the computing cores, and one phase is responsible for generating voltage for the RAM controller and L3 cache.
Our processor refused to work when increasing the base frequency above 270 MHz. Even at 272 MHz, the system refused to start, despite disabling CnQ and Turbo Core, lowering the HT multiplier, NB frequencies and memory. Such strange behavior given processor was noticed during testing of the Gigabyte GA-890FXA-UD7 motherboard. The initial overclock was 3780 MHz (14x270 MHz) at Vcore 1.48 V and Vnb 1.225 V. The system worked absolutely stable in LinX and Prime95, but strangely crashed out of the 3DMark Vantage CPU test! I had to lower the base frequency by 5 MHz. As a result, overclocking was 3710 MHz, and the HyperTransport and NB bus frequencies were 2385 MHz. Lowering the clock frequency made it possible to reduce the voltage on the processor core to 1.46 V.
CPU-Z displays CPU voltage incorrectly when overclocking Phenom II X6 11055T on system board MSI 890FXA-GD70. Instead of the current voltage value, the CPU VID value is displayed. CPUID Hardware Monitor 1.16 reads and outputs Vcore quite correctly. We would like to draw your attention to the unusually low temperatures registered by the sub-socket sensor and the thermal diode built into the CPU. During acceleration, the temperature under load did not exceed 51 ° C.
Alas, we did not manage to get the "cherished 4 GHz", but on the other hand, the frequency stable operation of all six cores was increased by 900 MHz, moreover, completely free! Do not forget that overclocking is a lottery and the frequency potential of processors varies greatly from instance to instance. Most likely, we were just unlucky with a particular processor ...
Configuration test bench and software
As opponents for the Phenom II X6 1055T in today's test, we chose the Intel Core i5 750 and Phenom II X4 925. The choice of the former is obvious, since the processor has a very close retail price and is one of the best (if not the best) options for building a home high performance PC. The Intel Core i5-750 has excellent overclocking potential and often breaks the 4000 MHz mark when using inexpensive air coolers. The Phenom II X4 925 is included in testing to determine performance scalability from four to six cores, as well as to evaluate the gain from using Turbo Core in applications that cannot boast of multi-threaded optimization. It is worth noting that Intel Core i7 processors with Hyper-Treading support are significantly more expensive than Phenom II X6 1055T, and therefore cannot be considered as direct competitors. The main characteristics of test participants are given in the table:
| Name | AMD Phenom II X6 | AMD Phenom II X4 | Core i5 |
| Model | 1055T | 925 | 750 |
| Nucleus | Thuban | Deneb | Lynnfield |
| stepping | E0 | C3 | B1 |
| Process technology, nm | 45nm SOI | 45nm SOI | 45 high-k |
| connector | AM3 | AM3 | LGA1156 |
| Rated frequency, MHz | 2800 | 2800 | 2666 |
| Maximum frequency, MHz | 3300* | 2800 | 3200** |
| Factor | 14-16,5* | 14 | 20-24** |
| HyperTransport/QPI, GT/s | 4000 | 4000 | 4800 |
| L1 cache, KB | 6x128 | 4x128 | 4x(32+32) |
| L2 cache, KB | 6x512 | 4x512 | 4x256 |
| L3 cache, KB | 6144 | 6144 | 8192 |
| Supply voltage, V | 1,125-1,40 | 0,90-1,40 | 0,65-1,40 |
| TDP. Tue | 125 | 95 | 95 |
| Limit temperature, °C | 62 | 71 | 72,5 |
| Instruction set | ISC, IA32, x86-64, NXbit, MMX, 3DNow!, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSE4a | ISC, IA32, x86-64, NXbit, MMX, 3DNow!, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSE4a | RISC, IA32, XD bit, MMX, EM64T, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSE4.2 |
* - with Turbo Core enabled
** — with technology enabled turbo boost
To test AMD processors, a test bench was assembled:
- processor: AMD Phenom II X4 925 (2800 MHz, 4 cores), AMD Phenom II X6 1055T (2800 MHz, 6 cores);
- motherboard: MSI 890FXA-GD70 (AMD890FX+SB850, BIOS 1.60 from 05/18/2010);
- video card: PowerColor Radeon HD5850 1GB (850/4500 MHz);
- sound: Creative Audigy 4;
- power supply: FSP600-80GLN;
- body: Cheiftec CH01-B-SL.
- processor: Intel Core i5-750 (2666 MHz, 4 cores);
- cooling system: Xigmatek-HDT1284S;
- motherboard Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3R (Intel P55, BIOS F4 from 11/20/2009)
- memory: Take-MS, 2x2GB PC-10660;
- video card: PowerColor Radeon HD5850 1Gb (850/4500 MHz);
- sound: Creative Audigy 4;
- drive: WD1001FALS (1000 GB, 7200 rpm);
- power supply: FSP600-80GLN;
- body: Cheiftec CH01-B-SL.
AMD Phenom II X6 1055T and Intel Core i5-750 processors were tested in nominal mode and overclocked. During overclocking, Turbo Core and Turbo Boost technologies were disabled. Due to abnormally hot weather, overclocking of the Intel processor had to be limited to 3800 MHz. AMD Phenom II X4 925 was only tested at the stock frequency. For ease of perception, all the main system settings are summarized in the table:
| CPU | Processor frequency, MHz | Memory frequency, MHz | Basic Delays (CL-tRCD- tRP- tRAS-CR) | Uncore frequency for Intel, NB for AMD, MHz | QPI frequency for Intel, NT for AMD, MHz | Vcore, V |
| Phenom II X6 1055T | 2800 | 1600 | 9-9-9-28-1T | 2000 | 2000 | 1,425 |
| 3710 | 1412 | 8-8-8-24-1T | 2385 | 2385 | 1,46 | |
| Phenom II X4 925 | 2800 | 1333 | 8-8-8-24-1T | 2000 | 2000 | 1,425 |
| Intel Core i5-750 | 2666 | 1333 | 8-8-8-24-1T | 2130 | 2400 | 1,125 |
| 3800 | 1520 | 8-8-8-24-2T | 3040 | 3040 | 1,325 |
Test results
Today's testing opens the memory subsystem performance test, which is part of the information and diagnostic utility Lavalys Everest 5.50. This application allows you to measure the memory bandwidth with high accuracy, as well as determine the latency of access to the RAM.
Alas, the miracle did not happen, and AMD Phenom II still lags behind the Intel Core i5 750 in terms of memory performance. Even the long-awaited support for DDR3-1600 does not save the AMD processor from defeat. But you should not be upset, because in real applications the alignment of forces can be very different from synthetics.
The Super Pi discipline is traditionally dominated by Intel processors, and this time the winner is the Core i5-750. It should be noted that Super Pi is a single-threaded application, and there is no gain from using additional computing cores. This test is clock-sensitive and the Phenom II X6 1055T is 15% faster than the "equal frequency" X4 925 thanks to the Turbo Core.
But the Wprime application has native support for multi-core processors. In this test, the X6 1055T is significantly ahead of its predecessor X4 925 and is easily dealt with by its competitor from Intel, and the latter is not saved by overclocking to 3800 MHz!
Testing in the Fritz Chess Benchmark application will be especially interesting for chess lovers. The rest can simply compare the relative performance of the participants in today's test when calculating chess combinations.
Chess calculations scale well with an increase in the number of computational threads. In the nominal mode, the beginner easily outperforms the competitors, and in overclocking, the results of the X6 1055T become completely unattainable. Complete victory for X6 1055T!
The PC Mark Vantage test package offers universal tools for evaluating the performance of all major subsystems of a personal computer. In our review today, we will compare the results of Memory, TV and movie, Music and Communication scenarios.
The memories script includes tests for simultaneously working with images and transcoding DV video into a format for portable devices. In this scenario, the X6 1055T and the i5-750 show similar performance levels at stock frequency, while the X4 925 loses to both of them. Overclocking the Intel processor brings it to the absolute leader. The TV and Movie scenario emulates intensive work with video content, such as simultaneous transcoding and playback of high-definition video. At the nominal frequency, the six-core processor has a slight advantage. Intel is a little behind, and the X4 925 is deservedly in last place. But the performance of the X6 1055T doesn't scale well with clocks, but the i5-750 gets good dividends from overclocking and takes the lead. The Music script includes audio encoding tasks and emulates Windows media player. The X6 1055T processor famously bypasses the X4 925, which is quite natural. But the reason for such low results from Intel at the standard frequency remains a mystery to us. There is no error here, since the tests were repeated three times. Overclocking the Intel processor puts everything in its place and again provides the advantage of the Core i5-750. But the Communication test scenario, which emulates working with WEB applications, prefers the new product from AMD, and overclocking the 1055T only strengthens its positions. Looking at the results, we can note a close level of performance of the Core i5-750 and Phenom II X6 1055T at the nominal frequency, but the Phenom II X4 925 looks like an outsider.
From synthetic applications, we move on to applied tasks and start with one of the most common - data archiving. Today's test involves the WinRAR archiver, as one of the most common representatives of this class of software, and 7-Zip - very powerful and completely free archiver. The measurements were carried out using built-in performance testing tools.
In nominal mode, the WinRAR archiver runs the fastest on the Core i5-750. And, if the X4 925 cannot oppose the Intel processor, then two additional computing cores already allow the X6 1055T to fight on an equal footing with the competitor. However, with an increase in frequency, the performance of the i5-750 increases so much that it does not leave a single chance for rivals from the AMD camp.
A somewhat different picture is observed in 7-Zip. This archiver feels great on multi-core processors and scales well in frequency. In terms of value, the X6 1055T is significantly ahead of other participants, while the X4 925 and Core i5-750 processors demonstrate comparable results. In overclocking, X6 1055T continues to hold the lead, providing an unconditional victory for AMD's six-core architecture!
Another typical task that users often face is video encoding. We tested HD MPEG-4 processing performance with the x264 HD Benchmark.
Very interesting results are obtained with two-pass compression of a video file using the H.264 codec. In the first pass of encoding, the Core i5-750 processor is faster, and both AMD processors are slightly behind. But when performing the second, final pass, the X6 1055T demonstrates all the advantages of six-core processors and confidently outperforms its rivals. And with the increase in frequency, the new Phenom has become completely inaccessible to the competitor.
The following test reflects the performance of processors when rendering images in 3D editors. It's no secret that home PCs are often used to perform freelance tasks, and for such users, time is money. Cinebench 11.5R was used to evaluate the speed of work in such tasks.
Rendering 3D images is exactly one of those tasks that scales well with an increase in the number of computational threads. In multi-threaded mode, the X6 1055T can easily deal with rivals, and even overclocking the Core i5-750 can only catch up with AMD's junior six-core processor. It is noteworthy that the single-threaded mode shows a significant increase from the use of Turbo Core. It is thanks to the Turbo Core X6 1055T that it bypasses its younger brother X4 925, which lacks this useful feature.
From synthetic applications and applied tasks, we are smoothly moving on to the study of Phenom II X6 1055T performance in games. But first, let me introduce you to the results in 3DMark Vantage.
The Intel Core i5-750 took the overall lead, but look how close the Phenom II X6 1055T gets to it. And in the CPU test, where physics and artificial intelligence are calculated, the new AMD processor leaves no chance for the opponent at all, both in overclocking and at standard frequencies. Phenom II X4 925 has the hardest time, because not the most progressive architecture and low clock frequency do not allow it to demonstrate high results.
Our today's study of performance is completed by testing in modern games: FarCry 2, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Pripat, Tom Clancy`s HAWX and World in Conflict: Soviet assault. Testing was carried out at a resolution of 1680x1050 at high image quality settings. For S.T.A.L.K.E.R. CoP, the official benchmark was used, in all other cases, the performance measurement tools built into the game were used.
Judging by the test results, the Intel Core i5-750 wins this discipline with a minimal advantage. Phenom II X4 925 shows the lowest result, and X6 1055T takes the second step of the podium. The second place went to the six-core processor very hard, and for this we should rather not thank the two additional cores, but the Turbo Core technology. But this does not mean at all that Phenom II X4 925 or Phenom II X6 1055T cannot provide a comfortable level of fps in games. On the contrary, the performance of any of the considered processors is quite enough for a comfortable game, and with an increase in resolution and detail, the difference will generally come to naught. The fact is that modern games (with rare exceptions) cannot use more than two computing cores, so programmers have something to work on in terms of multi-threaded optimization...
conclusions
It's safe to say that with the release of the Phenom II X6 1055T, AMD has strengthened its position in the middle-end segment. The new processor offers an excellent level of performance in applications optimized for multi-threaded execution. Thanks to the introduction of Turbo Core technology, the beginner does an excellent job of performing tasks that do not have multi-threaded optimization. Moreover, in most optimized programs, the increase from two additional computing cores turned out to be close to 50%. In most applications in general, the Phenom II X6 1055T outperforms the Core i5-750, but lags behind it a little in modern games. Therefore, if you frequently deal with 3D modeling, process large amounts of video content, or make extensive use of applications optimized for multi-threaded computing, then the Phenom II X6 1055T is your choice. It will also provide an acceptable level of performance in any task.
If performance in modern games is a priority for you, then the Intel Core i5-750 will provide the best performance. As for AMD Phenom II X4 925, this processor demonstrated the lowest performance level. But do not forget that the price of X4 925 is approximately 25% lower than that of other test participants, and the overclocking potential allows you to boost frequencies up to 3600-3800 MHz. Therefore, many will opt for this option with a good price/performance ratio. In the meantime, we can say with confidence that AMD is moving in the right direction by releasing its six-core processors for the mass market.
The MSI 890FXA-GD70 motherboard for testing was provided by the company
At the end of April, AMD officially unveiled its vision for a six-core processor. This is how the AMD Phenom II X6 family with the Thuban core was born, which should provide high performance with ever-increasing multitasking and at the same time become affordable to the masses.
But there is nothing radically new and revolutionary in Thuban. This is, in fact, a refinement and extension of the Deneb core, which is used everywhere for AMD Phenom II X4 processors and getting less fast modifications. Only now the new chip has two more cores, which theoretically increases the speed of such a processor by 50% at a constant clock frequency.
Deneb core for AMD Phenom II X4
Thuban core for AMD Phenom II X6
However, to ensure more efficient use of new processors and in the case of poorly optimized code for multi-core processors, AMD introduced a new Turbo Core technology, which was, in fact, the answer to Intel Turbo Boost.
But, as already noted in the material on the presentation of AMD Phenom II X6 processors, AMD Turbo Core technology is noticeably different from Intel's Turbo Boost competitor technology. So, firstly, in theory, AMD Turbo Core does not change the frequency in several steps depending on the number of cores involved, but only once increasing it by 500 MHz above the nominal one. Secondly, AMD Turbo Core technology boosts the frequency of three cores at once, provided that at least three other cores are idle. In this case, the frequency of idle cores is reduced to 800 MHz. The latter is necessary so that in the acceleration mode the processor does not go beyond its thermal package, since the voltage on the processor is forcibly increased.
Processor AMD Phenom II X6 1055T
Despite the fact that the AMD Phenom II X6 processors, and in particular the AMD Phenom II X6 1055T processors, were introduced at the end of April and even appeared in retail almost immediately, a full-fledged boxed version of some then the models. But recently, the “desired sample” was found as part of the basic Technic-PRO system of the Tekhnika for Business company, which allows us to conduct a separate study of the capabilities of the novelty. But since it was not a boxed processor that got to the test, we cannot fully tell you about the packaging and delivery set of the processor, but we will try to help you recognize the product on the shelf using information from the Web.
Well, inside such a box should be the following: the processor itself, guarantee obligation, sticker on the body and cooler.
The top-end boxed model AV-Z7UH40Q001 is used as a cooling system, familiar to fans of AMD processors as the most effective standard cooling solution for processors with a thermal package of 125 W or more (from AMD Phenom II X4 945 to AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition). Considering that the thermal package for AMD Phenom II X6 1055T is about 125 W, it can already be assumed that the "boxed" cooler will be enough to cool it and even overclock it, but under load and high temperature inside system block it becomes the main source of noise. For comfortable use of a system with a six-core AMD processor, and even more so for overclocking for constant use, most likely, you will have to replace the cooler.
AMD Phenom II X6 1055T Specification:
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Marking |
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Processor socket |
Socket AM3, AM2+ |
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Clock frequency, MHz |
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Factor |
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HT bus frequency, MHz |
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L1 cache size, KB |
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L2 cache size, KB |
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L3 cache size, KB |
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Number of Cores |
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Instruction Support |
MMX, 3DNow!, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSE4A, x86-64 |
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Supply voltage, V |
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Thermal package, W |
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Clock frequency in AMD Turbo Core mode, MHz |
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Critical temperature, °C |
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Process technology, nm |
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Technology support |
Cool'n'Quiet 3.0 CoolCore Technology Dual Dynamic Power Management Enhanced Virus Protection Virtualization Technology Core C1 and C1E states Package S0, S1, S3, S4 and S5 states |
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Built-in memory controller |
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Memory types |
DDR2-800/1066 |
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Number of memory channels |
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Maximum memory, GB |
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Maximum throughput, GB/s |
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ECC Support |
In addition to the already announced differences between AMD Phenom II X6 on the Theban core and AMD Phenom II X4 on the Deneb core, such as the appearance of two more computing cores and the implementation of Turbo Core technology, the new product's built-in memory controller officially has support for DDR3-1600. The use of faster RAM should slightly reduce the possible delays due to the increase in the number of execution units without expanding the L3 cache.
And here is the processor itself. Its heat-distributing cover is marked HDT55TFBK6DGR, which can be deciphered something like this: HD - AMD K10.5 architecture processor for workstations; T - processor with a fixed multiplier; 55T - model number that identifies the processor itself and indicates support for Turbo Core technology; FB - processor thermal package up to 125 W at supply voltage up to 1.4 V; K - the processor is packaged in a 938 pin OµPGA package (Socket AM3); 6 - the total number of active cores and, accordingly, the amount of L2 cache memory 6x512 KB; DGR is the core of Thuban stepping E0. Here I would also like to note that AMD's product range also includes an energy-efficient version of the AMD Phenom II X6 1055T processor marked HDT55TWFK6DGR, which is a little more expensive but has a thermal package of up to 95 watts. At the same time, such a processor has a high critical temperature, already 71 ° C, with a lower operating voltage level, which lies in the range of 1.075-1.375 V. we cannot verify this yet.
Almost all the characteristics declared in the specification and confirmed by the decoding of the marking are visualized by the CPU-Z utility.
The cache allocation of the AMD Phenom II X6 processor remains exactly the same as for the rest of the dual-, tri- and quad-core models with full L3 cache. So, AMD Phenom II X6 1055T has at its disposal 128 KB of L1 cache with two-line associativity separately for data and instructions for each core, 512 KB of L2 cache with sixteen-line associativity also for each core and a total of 6 MB of cache third-level memory with 48 associativity lines. With such a cache organization, it will at best provide the same efficiency as for previous AMD Phenom II models, but when performing well-parallelized tasks, L3 cache may not be enough, which will not allow you to get the expected theoretical + 50% acceleration.
The processor still has a 938-pin package for Socket AM3, although it is backward compatible with Socket AM2+, and the processor's onboard memory controller can handle both DDR2 and DDR3 memory types.
DDR3-2000 1024 MB memory modules used in the testlab Kingston HyperX KHX16000D3T1K3 were automatically recognized only as DDR3-1333, because advanced modes are written in XMP format, which is not supported by the AMD motherboard you are using. If you want to use such overclocking memory in a system with an AMD processor, then in order to use it in more fast mode than DDR3-1333, most likely you will have to do all the settings manually through the BIOS, including setting the correct timings. When testing, the Bench for testing Processors No. 1 was used
Select what you want to compare AMD Phenom II X6 1055T to
The performance of the AMD Phenom II X6 1055T processor, and, therefore, its efficiency and future depends even more strongly on the tasks performed, as well as their combination. That is why in applications that are poorly optimized for multitasking, as well as those packages that cannot support more than 4 cores, the efficiency of the AMD Phenom II X6 1055T is not much higher than that of the AMD Phenom II X4 920, which was also tested with DDR2 memory -800. But when using more modern and optimized algorithms for good parallelization, the AMD Phenom II X6 1055T processor, due to the acquisition of two more computing cores, shows an almost 50% performance increase. However, when compared with the new generation Intel processors the insufficient performance of the built-in memory controller and / or the lack of third-level cache memory is clearly visible. But, if you look not only at clock speeds and performance, but also at the cost of processors, then the closest opponent for AMD Phenom II X6 1055T will be just a little more expensive Intel Core i5-750, which in many tests is still inferior to the six-core solution from AMD . How AMD Turbo Core technology works A feature of the new AMD Phenom II X6 processors and their derivatives of the quad-core AMD Phenom II X4 processors with a “T” index at the end of the number is support for new technology AMD Turbo Core, which allows you to get better performance in tasks that are not optimized for multi-core processors. In theory, AMD Turbo Core technology works according to the following algorithm: If half or more of the processor cores are idle, then the frequency of idle processor cores is reduced to 800 MHz; The voltage on all processor cores is increased so that the processor's power consumption does not exceed the declared thermal package; The frequency of three or two cores for AMD Phenom II X6 10XXT and AMD Phenom II X6 9XXT processors is respectively increased by 500 MHz above the nominal. However, in practice, we could not fix just such an algorithm for the operation of AMD Turbo Core, neither on the motherboard used in the test bench GIGABYTE board GA-MA790XT-UD4P, neither on the GIGABYTE GA-890FXA-UD5 board used in the Technic-PRO system, nor with a standard cooler, nor after installing a more efficient one, nor at Microsoft Windows Vista, nor in Windows 7.
In both systems, the BIOS option with the identical name "Core Performance Boost" was responsible for activating AMD Turbo Core.
Moreover, in an additional sub-item, it was possible to choose the maximum multiplier when the technology was triggered. Interestingly, in addition to increasing the multiplier and, accordingly, the frequency of "boosting" processor cores, for some reason it was possible to choose a decrease. However, after saving the changes in the BIOS settings and booting the system, we were still unable to fix at least some changes in the processor frequency using the CPU-Z utility, although performance changes were noted in the very first test packages. I had to arm myself with the proprietary AMD OverDrive utility, which quite unexpectedly showed dynamic load distribution in 1-3 threads, which was called various applications, between all cores. At the same time, the frequency of the cores changed dynamically and only upwards, and when some core reached a frequency of 3.3 GHz, the supply voltage increased to 1.4 V. The load in one thread was sequentially distributed to several short-term accelerating cores. In the same way, the workload in two and three threads was distributed to all cores, and the cores currently executing the task were accelerated. With a load of 4 or more threads, the processor operated at the nominal supply voltage and frequency for all cores. Since not all packages in our test suite are well optimized for multi-core processors, we wondered how system performance would change when AMD Turbo Core technology was enabled.
As you can see, in a number of tasks, AMD Turbo Core technology provides acceleration in the region of 10%, which is a good result, given that such a performance increase is free. However, in other tasks, the change in performance is more related to the error of the change, therefore, on average, our test system accelerated by only more than 2 percent, which will be observed by the majority of users as a result of ever better optimization of new software and excellent support for multitasking by new operating systems. But in general, we would recommend leaving AMD Turbo Core technology enabled. Benefit from DDR3-1600 support Another feature of the new AMD processors is the full support for RAM with an effective frequency of up to 1600 MHz, although this is not emphasized. Naturally, we became interested in what the installation of DDR3-1600 modules into the system will give the user.
I would like to note right away that a simple change in the divider for RAM in the BIOS did not lead to good result- the motherboard does not support SPD extensions in the Intel XMP format and has chosen the optimal delays for the memory modules in its opinion. The increase in frequency with increasing delays led to the fact that in a number of tests, instead of speeding up, we got a drop in performance.
In order to try to fix the situation, I had to set smaller delays for the RAM manually, but in this case, the system could not be made to work with Command Rate 1T, which did not allow for a much greater performance boost:
And although we were not able to get a performance boost in all tests, but in some cases and, which is especially nice, in games, the use of DDR3-1600 modules will provide a good performance boost. Therefore, the provision of faster RAM support for the controller of processors based on the Thuban core can be considered an important positive feature, and owners of such processors are advised not to save on memory modules, especially since DDR3-1600 is on sale at a price close to DDR3-1333. Overclocking Since the AMD Phenom II X6 1055T processor architecturally almost does not differ from the well-known and overclocked AMD Phenom II X4 processor, the overclocking method has not changed.
Having entered the BIOS, after disabling Turbo Core technology, we slowed down the RAM, the HyperTransport bus and the northbridge built into the processor so that during overclocking an increase in the frequency of these components would not lead to failure, and also increased the voltage of the processor itself, the chipset and memory modules, after which the reference frequency was increased to 295 MHz. Of course, the above settings were not chosen on the first try, but in the end, the AMD Phenom II X6 1055T processor worked stably at a frequency of 4130 MHz.
We were able to overclock the AMD Phenom II X6 1055T processor we tested by 47.5%, which is simply a remarkable result for a six-core chip. Moreover, increasing the core supply voltage above 1.45 V turned out to be not only dangerous, but also pointless - the bench cooler could no longer cope with the increasing heat release. Let's see how such overclocking affects performance.
Overclocking the AMD Phenom II X6 1055T processor had a rather favorable effect on its performance, although the increase in performance is rarely close to theoretical, but if the owner of such a processor receives such an acceleration, then he will obviously be happy about it. Although, as always, I want to remind you that overclocking is a lottery at your own peril and risk, and the latter decreases with experience. Therefore, experiment, do not be afraid, but take precautions.
But, nevertheless, I would like to note that even with the help of overclocking to 4.13 GHz, the Thuban core of the AMD Phenom II X6 1055T six-core processor in most tasks is not able to provide performance superiority over the Intel Core i7-980X, and in a number of tasks even over more affordable and slower quad-core models. conclusions Although the processors AMD Phenom II X6 1055T, in fact, there is nothing revolutionary, because. AMD's new six-core processor series is just a refinement of the already excellent 45nm Deneb core used in AMD's quad-core Phenom II X4 and more affordable derivatives. But adding along with two more cores and AMD Turbo Core technology, which provides a noticeable increase in performance in applications that are not optimized for multitasking, as well as the implementation full support faster DDR3-1600 RAM, which will also provide some system boost, coupled with the quite affordable price of these processors, makes them a very good choice. Of course, such a processor will not always provide noticeable acceleration in a particular application, but it will allow you to run more processes in the background without a noticeable impact on performance. And if you use new operating systems and computing or multimedia software, you will surely notice an increase in performance up to a theoretical + 50% compared to quad-core models. But, nevertheless, if you need uncompromising performance, then we would recommend looking at older processors Intel line Core i7 - although a system based on them will not look as optimal in terms of performance / price ratio, even the high overclocking potential of AMD Phenom II X6 will not allow them to compete. However, if you prefer to spend your money wisely and have no bias towards the AMD brand, then a processor like the AMD Phenom II X6 1055T may be your best and future choice. Article read 70544 times
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How to manually download and update:
This AMD Phenom II X6 1055T built-in driver should be included in operating system Windows® or be available for download through the Center windows updates® (Windows® Update). The built-in driver supports the basic functions of your AMD Phenom II X6 1055T hardware.How to perform automatic download and update:
Recommendation: If you are a PC novice and inexperienced with updating drivers, we recommend using DriverDoc as a tool to update your AMD Processor driver. This driver update utility ensures that the correct drivers are downloaded for your Phenom II X6 1055T and operating system version, preventing you from installing the wrong drivers.
In addition, DriverDoc ensures more than just regular Processor driver updates. With access to a database of over 2,150,000 drivers (database updated daily), this utility also ensures that all other drivers on your PC are updated.
Install optional products - DriverDoc (Solvusoft) | | | |
AMD Update Frequently Asked Questions
What do AMD Processor Device Drivers do?
Drivers are small programs, which ensure proper communication of the operating system with the Phenom II X6 1055T Processor, acting as a means for "interoperability".
What Operating Systems are Compatible with Phenom II X6 1055T Drivers?
The latest Phenom II X6 1055T drivers are supported by Windows.
How to Update Phenom II X6 1055T Drivers?
Phenom II X6 1055T hardware drivers can be updated manually from Device Manager (Device Manager) or automatically using driver update software.
What are the Benefits and Risks of Updating Phenom II X6 1055T Drivers?
The main benefits of updating Phenom II X6 1055T drivers are improved functionality, speed, and overall system performance. Installing the incorrect drivers puts your system at risk of instability, random crashes, and reduced Windows performance and Processor.
About the author: Jay Geater is President and CEO of Solvusoft Corporation, a global software company focused on innovative utility programs. He has been passionate about computers all his life and loves everything related to computers, software and new technologies.
Top 5 AMD Phenom II X6 Drivers (7 Models)
Install optional products - DriverDoc (Solvusoft) | |
Introduction Looking at state of the art processor market, we can confidently say that the clock frequency has ceased to be the main measure of the attractiveness of modern products. For example, manufacturers have long moved from labeling processor models by frequency to rating numbers, which are assigned according to completely different principles. As a result of the changes that have taken place, the rules of competition between AMD and Intel have also changed. More recently, these companies competed to conquer the next frequency frontiers, but today the “race for cores” has become much more important for both companies - now manufacturers are striving to be the first to release CPUs with the largest number of computing cores.
Today, AMD is the leader in this unspoken competition. She is now ready to offer consumers server processors Opteron 6100, also known under the code name Magny-Cours, with twelve cores. At Intel, the maximum number of cores in the processor has so far reached only eight: this is the number of cores in the Xeon server models of the 7500 and 6500 series, also called Beckton or Nehalem-EX. However, it should be understood that the relationship between the number of cores and the level of performance is not so obvious. A proportional increase in performance when moving to a CPU with a large number of cores is observed only in specially optimized tasks, which are more typical for the server market, and therefore neither AMD nor Intel seek to unleash such a multi-core race among desktop processors.
But some echoes of the “race for the cores” still reach ordinary consumers. So, we are currently experiencing a moment of coming into desktop computers processors with six processing cores. The first step in this direction has already been taken by Intel, which recently released its six-core processor in the Core i7 family. But at the same time, this step of the microprocessor giant is clearly tentative. Firstly, only one model with six cores is offered - Core i7-980X, and, secondly, it belongs to a rather expensive series Extreme Edition, focused on a very narrow circle of wealthy enthusiasts. Plus, when releasing its six-core processor, Intel also used a new technological process with 32-nm standards: using this processor as an example, it is easy to test the process technology - it clearly does not face problems with either underdeliveries or excessively high costs. In other words, Intel, of course, was the first to bring a six-core processor to the market for home users, but it did it purely formally, rather to simply "mark" itself as a pioneer and morally prepare users for the fact that the future is for multi-core processors.
Intel's traditional antagonist, AMD, has decided to pursue a different ideology. In response to the introduction of the six-core processor Core i7-980X in the premium price segment, this manufacturer wants to start introducing six-core processors into mainstream mid-range computers. And, I must say, AMD has all the necessary resources for this. AMD's six-core uses a core that has long been "run-in" in the server segment, and quite mature 45-nm technology is used for its production. So the new six-core processor Phenom II X6, which we are going to get acquainted with in this material, is not a direct competitor for the Core i7-980X. AMD just offers us new version for conventional computers, which until now used only dual-core and quad-core CPUs. But whether it makes sense to widely use six-core processors in desktop systems today, or AMD is running ahead of the locomotive - this is the question we will try to answer in our study.
Thuban: Istanbul for Socket AM3
AMD's six-core processor is far from new. Only earlier six-cores, known under the code name Istanbul, this company supplied exclusively to the market of servers and workstations, which, however, did not prevent them from being used in desktops, if desired, to which we devoted separate article. Now, processors similar to Istanbul have officially come to desktop computers. They have been given the code name Thuban and will be sold under the brand name Phenom II X6.The answer to the question why AMD decided to release a six-core desktop only now is quite obvious. No, it's not about introducing a new process technology. It's just that the technological process with 45-nm design standards used by this company for the production of modern processors has reached the stage of maturity when the cost of sufficiently large six-core semiconductor crystals makes it possible to set prices for processors based on them that are acceptable to individual buyers. Moreover, given the fact that AMD's current Stars (K10.5) microarchitecture processors cannot compete with Intel's high-end offerings in terms of speed, the manufacturer is going to sell the Phenom II X6 at very attractive prices - from $200 to $300.
And yet, the Phenom II X6 processors are based on a completely full-fledged six-core monolithic semiconductor chip with an area of 346 square meters. mm., that is, exactly the same as used in server processors of the Opteron 2400 and 8400 family.
Of course, the number of HyperTransport buses in the desktop six-core Thuban crystal has been reduced to one, and the memory controller has been reoriented to support non-registered modules, but these are minor and insignificant changes. Along with this, we can say that Thuban is also a direct descendant of the quad-core Deneb processors, in which two additional cores were simply added. Yet common blocks such as the memory controller or the HyperTransport bus in Thuban are exactly the same as in the quad-core Phenom II X4 processors. Even the size of the L3 shared cache remained the same at 6 MB.
Unsurprisingly, the new six-core Phenom II X6 processors are fully compatible with existing Socket AM3 and Socket AM2+ motherboards. AMD continues to observe the principles of platform succession established by itself. The only thing that may be required to ensure the full functionality of new processors in older motherboards is a firmware update.
At the same time, AMD has prepared a very unexpected surprise for its adherents. Clock speeds of the Phenom II X6 processors will reach 3.2 GHz, which is significantly higher than the frequency of older server processors with six cores. For this, we must thank AMD's manufacturing partner, Globalfoundries, which has mastered the use of a new material with a low dielectric constant between the layers of conductors. As a result, we got six-core processors with a relatively high clock speed, but with an estimated heat dissipation that does not go beyond the usual 125-watt limit.
In addition, AMD has come up with another improvement that makes the Phenom II X6 more attractive in mainstream applications - Turbo CORE technology. More about her.
AMD Turbo Core Technology
One of the key improvements in the new Thuban processors is the introduction of Turbo CORE technology, AMD's answer to Intel's Turbo Boost.Recall that the essence of Turbo Boost technology, implemented in Intel Core i5 and Core i7 processors, is to increase their clock frequency in those moments when not all computing cores are loaded with work. Thanks to this trick, modern Intel multi-core processors, which are usually clocked lower than dual-core processors, perform well not only in multi-threaded applications, but also in lightly parallelized workloads. So far, AMD has been unable to oppose Turbo Boost, but in the new six-core processors, a symmetrical answer has finally been found.
At the same time, AMD did not follow the difficult path beaten by Intel engineers. The Phenom II X6 processors do not have any special frequency control nodes that interactively monitor the temperature of the processor and the current they draw. In terms of microarchitecture, AMD's new six-core processors differ little from their predecessors. Therefore, AMD Turbo CORE technology is implemented in the simplest (or even condo) method - through the "extension" of Cool "n" Quiet technology. In other words, AMD Phenom II X6 processors make the decision to increase the clock frequency based on only one single factor - the number of processor cores loaded with work.
That is, in reality, AMD Turbo CORE technology works like this: as soon as three or more processor cores turn out to be in an energy-saving state with a frequency reduced to 800 MHz as part of Cool "n" Quiet technology, the processor raises the frequency of active cores by 400 or 500 MHz (in depending on the processor model). At the same time, to ensure stability of operation at an increased frequency, the processor supply voltage rises by 0.15 V. It is important that with such automatic overclocking, the power consumption and heat dissipation of the processor do not exceed the set 125-watt limit - the increase in consumption of active cores is compensated by the fact that idle cores operate at 800 - megahertz frequency. But we emphasize once again that inactive cores in AMD Phenom II X6 are not disabled. Despite the fact that their frequency decreases during idle time, when you turn on the turbo mode, they, along with overclocked cores, receive an increased supply voltage. That is, AMD Turbo CORE technology in this sense causes some damage to the efficiency of the processor in states with its partial load.
For representatives of the Thuban processor line, Turbo CORE technology looks like this.
So far, AMD has announced two processors from this list: the 125-watt Phenom II X6 1090T and 1055T, while the rest of the models will be presented a little later - over the coming months. But AMD Turbo CORE technology works in exactly the same way in current and future models. For example, we looked at her work with the Phenom II X6 1090T. In full accordance with the theory, with a load of 4 or more cores, their frequency was 3.2 GHz.
But as soon as the number of cores loaded with work decreased to three, the multiplier increased, and the active cores reached a frequency of 3.6 GHz.
It is thanks to Turbo CORE technology that the new Phenom II X6 1090T processor can rightfully be the flagship of AMD's product line. Despite the fact that the quad-core Phenom II X4 965 released in August last year has a higher nominal clock speed of 3.4 GHz, the older six-core will be faster than it in most tasks, because with loading three or fewer processor cores Phenom II X6 1090T runs at 3.6 GHz. To illustrate this fact, we compared Phenom performance II X6 1090T and Phenom II X4 965 in Fritz Chess Benchmark when used for calculations of various numbers of threads.
As expected, the Phenom II X4 965 is faster than the Phenom II X6 1090T with Turbo CORE technology enabled in the only case - when the calculation is performed by four cores. It is precisely the change in this frequency within the framework of this technology that explains the fact that the increase in speed when switching from calculations in three to four threads for a six-core processor is significantly less than the increase in speed in all other cases.
But, as mentioned above, the increase in performance when the processor is not fully loaded with work has to be paid with increased power consumption. And these are not empty words - the following graph clearly shows how voracious the Phenom II X6 1090T becomes with the Turbo CORE technology working. To take readings, we used the Linx 0.6.3 utility, in the settings of which we manually limited the number of created threads, and the processor power consumption was measured on a dedicated 12-volt power line.
In the event that the computing load falls on one, two or three of the six processor cores, Turbo CORE technology increases the overall power consumption of the processor by 20-25 watts. As a result, the Phenom II X6 1090T with Turbo Technology enabled consumes about the same amount when loaded with three threads, as it consumes when five of the six cores are loaded. Obviously, such a significant increase in power consumption is primarily due to the addition to the supply voltage that occurs when the turbo mode is turned on.
Thus, AMD Turbo CORE technology has a positive impact on performance, but it cannot be considered effective in terms of energy savings. However, it should be understood that its developers were significantly limited in funds, because Turbo CORE must be fully compatible with existing Socket AM3 platforms. And here we can no longer make any claims: this technology does not require any software to be installed, it is transparent to the operating system and works quite normally in all motherboards, and to activate it, you only need to support the Thuban family processors in the BIOS.
By the way, at the same time, I would like to note the peculiarity of Turbo CORE on the Phenom II X6 1090T processor, which belongs to the Black Edition series. Due to the fact that this CPU is aimed at an audience of overclocking enthusiasts, it allows not only simple overclocking by changing the multiplier factor, but also a more flexible configuration of the turbo mode. AT BIOS Setup Along with the CPU multiplier setting comes an option to manual change multiplier used when activating turbo mode. This feature is offered by all Turbo CORE technology-enabled systems, but exclusively for Black Edition processors.
Phenom II X6 lineup
AMD today announces only two models of the new family: Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition and Phenom II X6 1055T.
Phenom II X6 1090T
We present the formal characteristics of these processors in the following table.
But such information about the older Phenom II X6 1090T model is given by the CPU-Z diagnostic utility.
However, AMD is not going to be limited to two models, in the coming months the number of different representatives of six-core Phenom II X6 processors will increase, plus four-core processors based on the similar Thuban core with a disabled pair of cores will be added to them.
How We Tested
For comparison with AMD's new 6-core processors, we primarily selected the competitor's dual-core and quad-core processors that fall into the same price category. Out of competition, the six-core processor Core i7-980X also takes part in the tests, which is undoubtedly a much faster solution. In addition, on the diagrams we present the results of the older quad-core AMD processor, whose successors in the middle price segment should be the Phenom II X6. As a result, in the composition test systems Includes the following set of accessories:
Processors:
AMD Phenom II X6 1090T (Thuban, 6 cores/6 threads, 3.2 GHz, 6 MB L3);
AMD Phenom II X6 1055T (Thuban, 6 cores/6 threads, 2.8 GHz, 6 MB L3);
AMD Phenom II X4 965 (Deneb, 4 cores/4 threads, 3.4 GHz, 6 MB L3);
Intel Core i7-980X (Gulftown, 6 cores/12 threads, 3.33 GHz, 12 MB L3);
Intel Core i7-930 (Bloomfield, 4 cores/8 threads, 2.8 GHz, 8 MB L3);
Intel Core i7-920 (Bloomfield, 4 cores/8 threads, 2.66 GHz, 8 MB L3);
Intel Core i7-860 (Lynnfield, 4 cores/8 threads, 2.8 GHz, 8 MB L3);
Intel Core i5-750 (Lynnfield, 4 cores/4 threads, 2.66 GHz, 8 MB L3);
Intel Core i5-670 (Clarkdale, 2 cores/4 threads, 3.46 GHz, 4 MB L3).
Motherboards:
ASUS M4A89GTD PRO/USB3 (Socket AM3, AMD 890GX + SB850, DDR3 SDRAM);
ASUS P7P55D Premium (LGA1156, Intel P55 Express);
Gigabyte X58A-UD5 (LGA1366, Intel X58 Express).
Memory:
2 x 2 GB, DDR3-1600 SDRAM, 9-9-9-24 (Kingston KHX1600C8D3K2/4GX);
3 x 2 GB, DDR3-1600 SDRAM, 9-9-9-24 (Crucial BL3KIT25664TG1608).
Graphics card: ATI Radeon HD 5870.
HDD: western digital VelociRaptor WD3000HLFS.
Power supply: Tagan TG880-U33II (880 W).
Operating system: Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate x64.
Drivers:
Intel Chipset Driver 9.1.1.1025;
ATI Catalyst 10.3 Display Driver.
Performance
Overall Performance
The SYSmark 2007 test, which shows the performance of systems during normal complex work in common applications, does not rate AMD's new six-core processors too highly. The fact is that the ability to decompose the load into six equivalent threads is not possible for all applications, and this greatly affects in this case. As for the Turbo CORE technology, in this case, as the results show, it does not play the role of a panacea. Yes, the performance of the Phenom II X6 1090T is on par with the Phenom II X4 965, but nothing more. In general, AMD six-core processors are inferior to Intel processors, which can be bought for $200-300.
At the same time, the Phenom II X6 processors do a pretty good job of working on video content. Their respective result based on performance measurements in Adobe After Effects, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Sony Vegas and Windows Media Encoder turns out to be on the same level with the performance indicators of the younger Lynnfield, which, although they have four processor cores, fall into the same price category with AMD's six-core processors and are their direct competitors.
Gaming Performance
The fact that modern games cannot take advantage of six-core processors, we were convinced during the Gulftown tests. In this case, we can only confirm that conclusion - gamers do not need six-core Phenom II X6 processors so far. The Phenom II X4 965 slightly outperforms both of AMD's six-core processors in most cases, despite AMD trying to make up for their lower clock speeds with Turbo CORE technology. And in Colin McRae: DiRT2, both Phenom II X6s show suspiciously low fps, which is obviously due to the optimization features of this game. In other words, quad-core Intel processors seem to be the best choice for gamers at the moment - it is their microarchitecture that most closely matches the load created by most games.
However, in fairness, it should be noted that the power of both Phenom II X4 and Phenom II X6 is enough to provide a fairly high level of fps. And this means that in reality gaming systems The bottleneck will not be the processor, but the video card, to right choice which gamers should be treated with all responsibility.
Synthetic tests
We included the 32 million decimal places π test in our study mainly because it uses only one computational thread. This makes it an excellent benchmark for comparing processors operating in turbo mode, which is now supported by not only Intel, but also AMD CPUs. And, as you can see from the diagrams, the Turbo CORE technology implemented in the Phenom II X6 turns out to be quite effective. AMD's older six-core processor noticeably outperforms the older Phenom IIX4, approaching the Core i7-860 running at a single-threaded load at 3.46 GHz.
In the 3DMark Vantage test, the processor component of which perfectly parallelizes the load over an arbitrary number of processor cores, Phenom II X6 does not shine with its achievements. The most they can boast of is superiority over the quad-core Core i5-750. Core i7 processors, which in addition to their four cores have four virtual cores based on Hyper-Threading technology, are much faster.
Application performance
After measuring the performance of the Phenom II X6 in several common applications, we come to the disappointing conclusion that AMD's new six-core processors can only be worthy competitors to the competitor's quad-core processors that do not support Hyper-Threading technology. Processors of the Core i7 family, in which this technology is available, in most cases will show higher speed. So Phenom II X6, apparently, should be considered as an alternative to the Core i5 series, but nothing more.
However, the described picture is observed all the same not always. There is a whole range of tasks for which the new AMD processors are very well suited. These are tasks related to video processing and transcoding. In such applications, the relative performance of the Phenom II X6 looks much better than in all other cases, in which they perform even better than the Core i7-860 or i7-930. So if your area of interest is closely related to working with media content, we sincerely recommend taking a closer look at the new AMD processors.
Energy consumption
Formally, the increase in the number of cores in the new Phenom II X6 processors did not lead to a change in the calculated heat dissipation. Like other older members of the Phenom II family, they have a design heat dissipation set to 125 watts. This is the result of both certain improvements in the technological process and the introduction of a new processor stepping. In addition, one should not lose sight of the lower voltage compared to the quad-core Phenom II X4 processors, which is limited to 1.4 V in the specifications of new products.However, the fact that a one and a half times increase in the complexity of a semiconductor crystal had little effect on consumption is still hard to believe. Therefore, to get a more detailed picture, we also conducted practical testing of energy consumption. The following graphs show the total consumption of systems (without monitor) measured "after" the power supply, which is the sum of the power consumption of all components involved in the system. The efficiency of the power supply itself is not taken into account in this case. During the measurements, the load on the processors was created by the 64-bit version of the LinX 0.6.3 utility. In addition, in order to correctly assess idle power consumption, we activated all available energy-saving technologies: C1E, AMD Cool "n" Quiet and Enhanced Intel SpeedStep.
Without load, the consumption of Socket AM3 systems with Phenom II X6 processors is indeed only slightly higher than that of a similar system with Phenom II X4 965.
The same picture is observed under load. As promised, the consumption of AMD's new six-core processors is not much different from that of the older Phenom II X4. This means that platforms with Phenom II X6 can boast of higher energy efficiency not only than their predecessors, but also than systems with LGA1366 processors. However, they still lose to LGA1156 platforms in this parameter.
Overclocking
Unlike Intel, AMD did not introduce a more modern technological process for the release of its six-core processor. But, despite this, we expect some increase in the frequency potential from the new processors, because the changes in the 45-nm process technology made by AMD's manufacturing partner, Globalfoundries, still made it possible to reduce the specific heat dissipation of each core even without the introduction of thinner transistors.To test this hypothesis, we tried to overclock the Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition provided to us for testing. Recall that the peculiarity of this processor is that its multiplier is unlocked, which opens up a simple way to increase its clock frequency, which we used in the course of experiments. Stability testing during overclocking was checked by the LinX 0.6.3 utility. For CPU cooling I used a Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme air cooler. Turbo CORE technology was deactivated during overclocking experiments.
First of all, we decided to look at what maximum frequency will be able to work six-core Phenom II X6 1090T when using its standard supply voltage, because as we showed in our recent material, it is this overclocking that is the most energy efficient and does not lead to a dramatic increase in power consumption and heat release.
Practical tests have shown that the stability of work without raising the processor voltage is not lost at a maximum frequency of 3.7 GHz.
It's funny that without increasing the supply voltage, we managed to operate the processor at a frequency higher than the frequency in turbo mode, in which the voltage rises automatically. In other words, it seems that for Turbo CORE to work, the voltage increase is not at all necessary, however, it is not possible to turn it off.
We tried to overclock the processor with an increase in voltage. For the second part of the test, the CPU power was increased to 1.475 V - the voltage supplied to the processor in turbo mode. We intentionally didn't raise the voltage too much, since its excessive increase for a six-core CPU is fraught with a catastrophic increase in power consumption and heat dissipation. In this mode, we managed to pass stability tests at 4.0 GHz.
At the same time, I would like to note that the processor could load the operating system and pass some tests at a frequency of 4.2 GHz, but it still could not withstand a full-fledged stability test in this state. That is why we consider reaching the frequency of 4.0 GHz as the final result of overclocking experiments. That is, the frequency potential of Thuban is at least not inferior to the frequency potential of the quad-core processors of the Phenom II X4 family. So overclockers should certainly be pleased with AMD's new product.
Unfortunately, we can't give any details about the overclocked Phenom II X6 1090T temperatures. The internal temperature data given by the processor does not correspond to reality and the values shown in all diagnostic utilities are clearly lower than the real values. It is possible that the thermal sensor of the first batch of six-core processors was incorrectly calibrated, or this problem should be fixed in motherboard BIOS boards. The thermal and electrical parameters of an overclocked processor can be estimated based on the fact that its real power consumption at a frequency of 4.0 GHz under load is about 260 watts.
4.0 GHz seems like a good achievement for the Phenom II X6 1090T, this frequency exceeds the stock frequency by 25%. However, the performance of the overclocked six-core AMD is below the desired level. This is evidenced by the results of the express test, in which we compared the performance of the overclocked Phenom II X6 1090T with the performance of the Core i7-930 processor, also overclocked to 4.0 GHz.
Surprisingly, a quad-core processor with Intel Nehalem microarchitecture and Hyper-Threading technology overclocked to 4 GHz almost always outperforms a six-core AMD processor. At the same time, it cannot be said that the frequency potential of Thuban exceeds the potential of Core i7 processors based on Lynnfield and Bloomfield cores. So the conclusion suggests itself quite unambiguously: the microarchitecture of modern Intel processors at the same clock frequency allows them to significantly outperform AMD processors. And AMD cannot compensate for this gap even by a one and a half times increase in the number of computing cores. So we come back to the conclusion that AMD's main lever in the fight for the consumer is price policy.
However, despite this, Phenom II X6 1055T can become a very interesting object for overclocking. This CPU competes with the Core i7-750, which does not support Hyper-Threading technology, and if AMD's junior six-core model can also be overclocked to 4.0 GHz, then it may well outperform its overclocked rival in terms of performance.
conclusions
It seems that no one will deny the fact that the Stars microarchitecture (K10.5) used in modern AMD processors is pretty outdated and loses to the Nehalem microarchitecture in many respects. However, this does not mean at all that AMD is unable to release quite relevant products. In the face of Phenom II X6, we see another confirmation of this. Of course, this six-core CPU lacks stars from the sky, but the manufacturer managed to adapt such a system of props and balances to the existing microarchitecture, which made the Phenom II X6 a rather curious proposal that could find many adherents.Compared to the flagship processors of the Phenom II series of the previous generation, the six-core novelty boasts several advantages at once. Firstly, the Phenom II X6 has 1.5 times as many cores, which significantly increases its performance in multi-threaded workloads. Secondly, Phenom II X6 has a quite acceptable level of power consumption, achieved by adjusting the 45-nm process and lowering the processor core voltage. Thirdly, despite the increase in the number of cores, the overclocking potential of the new processors has not deteriorated at all - they freely reach the 4 GHz line. Fourth, in Phenom II X6, the manufacturer introduced Turbo CORE technology, which improves performance with a weakly parallelized load.
But what makes the Phenom II X6 solution really attractive is its pricing policy, which AMD has been especially good at building lately. The Phenom II X6 1090T is officially priced at $300, while the entry-level Phenom II X6 1055T is $200. This means that AMD's six-core processors fall into the mid-price category and are the only multi-core processors of their kind that are affordable. It is this factor that will most likely ensure their popularity among buyers.
Moreover, six processor cores, as tests have shown, can be very useful when working with video content, and this kind of activity is becoming more and more popular every day. However, in many other applications, the six cores of the Phenom II X6 may prove useful. Six-core processors have raised the bar for performance in Socket AM3 systems, and now they can compete in speed with platforms based on older Core i5 processors with four cores. However, unfortunately, the six-core Phenom II X6 is still slower than the four-core Core i7 processors that support Hyper-Threading technology.
But in conclusion, I would like to emphasize that six cores are far from always better than four. The share of software that is not optimized for multi-core architectures is still quite significant. And this means that there is a whole layer of tasks for which the best choice remain dual-core and quad-core CPUs. These tasks, first of all, include modern games. So if you're looking for a foundation for a gaming system, the Phenom II X6 is far from the best choice, despite all its strengths.
Check the availability and cost of 6-core processors
Other materials on this topic
Six cores for desktop: Intel Core i7-980X Extreme Edition
Power consumption of overclocked processors
A look into the future: AMD Istanbul six-core processor in the desktop