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Sunday, May 22, 2011

AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Performance Review


Ever since the AMD Phenom II six core processors hit the market, I have been wanting to get my hands on one for my own system, I just had no real justification to buy one since my overclocked and unlocked X2 550 Black Edition was still kicking ass running at overclocks from 3.6 to 4.0GHz on all four cores. Since I am a gamer, that was more than enough power to rip apart any games out there, and it still is.

However, with recent updates to my system, I decided to go ahead and hop on the six core bandwagon to go along with my new AMD XFX Radeon HD 6950 2GB upgrade. I wanted to play around with the AMD six core and see what I could get it to do with what I had.

So anyone that knows me, or has read this blog, knows I am an AMD user. I have been for a very long time. I stopped buying into all the hype hardware manufacturers put out there, all the misinformation from armchair experts and reviewers, and started to just trust my own judgment, testing it all out for myself whenever possible. This case was no different. I knew from all I had read since the X6 hit the market, that I would love it, I have yet to own an AMD processor I did not like. However I still wanted to see what I could get one to do and how it effected my games, my software, my system. Now that I have had mine installed for a few weeks and have had time to play with it. I figured it was time I could safely share my opinions on the processor.

So I ordered the 1090T Black Edition, with a stock clock of 3.2 and a Turbo Core of 3.6, to fit in my ASUS Crosshair Formula IV motherboard, and to compliment my new XFX Radeon HD 6950 2GB video card. To start off, let me just say that this is a match made in heaven.

Gaming

First, all of these results are at stock speeds on the CPU, and let me say that if you are already running a nice fast quad core processor, don't expect a massive improvement in framerates by jumping to a six core and overclocking it to the same speeds. Yes, you will see an improvement, but it's not exactly Earth shattering.

Before installing my new XFX 6950, I left my old HIS 4870 Turbo 1GB in my system so I could better assume the performance increases I would see would be on the CPU alone, and not the superior new video card.

In the games I was playing prior to my update and after, I seen more of a performance increase in the games that were able to actually use all six cores, and no real improvement in those that could not, obviously. Bad Company 2 for example did show an overall increase and does use all six cores. Other titles that did not use all the cores saw little to no real improvement. Of course, that was a different story after I popped in the XFX 6950, but that's not what this review is about.

The Crysis 2 Multiplayer Demo hit PC after I had already installed the XFX 6950, so I have no real basis for a before and after comparison. What I can say is that the game does use all six cores, it does not max any of them out, and it runs stable at over 125FPS on a single 1920x1080 display on "Hardcore" settings. The maximum available in the demo.

Now I play a lot more games that just Bad Company 2 and Crysis 2, however those two games are representative of the main reason I upgraded from a high-end quad core to the 1090T. Future-proofing. I know that's not a realistic term when we are talking about PC's, especially for high-end gaming, so I don't like to use that term very often. In this case however, my idea of future-proofing is knowing that I will have the hardware to take advantage of next generation games that can actually benefit from having six cores. Knowing I can run them all at nice high stable framerates, on maximum settings, at 1080p, on my single display. That I will not have to sacrifice settings in order to make a game playable. At least not for a little while anyway.

As the gaming world sits at this moment, while I am doing this review, the high-end hardware that is out there on both sides of the fence, no matter if your an Intel, AMD, or Nvidia user, it's ahead of the software. The games that can actually take advantage of it are just now really hitting the market. So I wanted to take advantage of that, especially since the 1090T processors are only about $200. That's an amazing price for the performance you get!

Windows 7 Ultimate 64

Now onto Windows. Have I seen any real improvement in performance? From a pure operating system standpoint, not really. The system responds just as fast as it did with the quad core. What you would expect. The WEI on my system went up to 7.7 at stock speeds from 7.5 on the quad core. Not that anyone really puts any stock in those numbers.

However, if you are on a fast dual core, or an older and slower quad core, you will notice a much larger increase in performance, obviously.

Software & Applications

This really depends on the software, in my case, the most noticeable increase in performance came from video editing and rendering. I record most all my game footage with Fraps, then edit and render the final video using Ulead VideoStudio. I have noticed it takes less time to render a final video. Though I don't have exact numbers since I did not benchmark it prior to the upgrade. Trans-coding video to DVD is also faster, as you would expect.

Other "day-to-day" applications show no real noticeable difference.

Overclocking

Well, I like the Black Edition processors for a reason, I like to overclock. Though right now I am only running the processor at 3.6 on all six cores all the time, it's not because it's as far as I can push it. I was able to push it to 4.1GHz before I backed it down since the Arctic Freezer Pro 64 cooler I am using just can't cool the processor properly. I do not want to damage it.

However, while I was sitting at 3.8Ghz in my quest to 4+, I decided to compare Bad Company 2 and Crysis 2 from stock speeds and 3.8Ghz. You only see a small unnoticeable increase in framerates.

So that really told me that there is no need to push the processor to it's limit for gaming performance. Since the performance increase is not noticeable in six-core capable games when we are already hitting high stable framerates at stock speeds. The fewer cores a game uses, the more of a performance increase you see, for the most part. Of course, results will vary depending on the game in question as well as your other hardware and overall system configuration.

I am no enthusiast, I am a realist, I don't see the need to push my hardware to the max and shorten it's operation life for unnoticeable increases in gameplay performance you would not even know about without benchmark software running. This includes the few modern six-core capable games as well as the far more abundant 1-4 core capable games. 3.2 to 3.6Ghz is enough to run any games on the market at high stable framerates when coupled with other good hardware.

So what I will be doing is going with a "mild" overclock after I see how far the processor will go and remain stable. That being 3.6GHz and a 3.9GHz Turbo Core. More than enough to handle anything I will throw at it anytime soon. Knowing that I can push it past 4.0GHz easily when and if the time ever comes that it needs to be done.

All of this after I get my new cooler. A Noctua NH-U12P SE2 120mm SSO CPU Cooler. I was going to go with the NH-D14, however since I am not pushing the 1090T to it's limit, I decided the U12P will do just fine for the overclock the processor will be under and a lot better than the outdated Arctic Cooling Freezer Pro 64 that is on there now.

Final Thoughts

For a price tag of about $200, the AMD Phenom II X6 1090T processor is a beast of a deal. This thing is powerful enough for any and all high-end gaming at stock settings, and has a lot of room to overclock should the need arise or you feel the desire to do so. If you couple this bad boy with other good hardware, just like a new 6900 series AMD GPU, 8GB of good quality DDR3 "gaming" RAM at 1600MHz or higher, a good quality motherboard to plug it all into, and a nice strong power supply to feed it, this processor will not disappoint.

I am very glad I made the jump to six cores. Knowing I am set for all the next generation games coming out this year that I am looking forward too is a great feeling. Right now is the perfect time to upgrade.

This processor is, in my opinion, by far the best "bang for your buck" option on the market for gamers and non alike. Once again I have to take my hat off to AMD for a fantastic product at a fantastic price. For proving that you don't have to overpay for performance. This is one customer AMD has had since the mid 90's, and one that is still happy to be living on this side of the fence. Sorry Intel.

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Posted by andy at 9:20 PM
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