AMD Six-Core Phenom II X6 1090T & 1055T Processors

Product Summary & Final Conclusions:

AMD has always priced their processors aggressively against Intel. With these new six-core chips, AMD has managed to significantly increase performance and wedge themselves into an area that was once solely dominated by Intel's Core i5 / Core i7 quad core processors. Roughly speaking (and I'm making a big generalization here), clock for clock, AMD does in six-cores what Intel does in four-cores. In all honestly, it doesn't matter how many cores, or how much cache, or how many memory channels a CPU has... people only care about two things, "How does it perform, and how much does it cost?" AMD priced their 3.2 GHz Phenom II X6 1090T processor at the same point as Intel's 2.8 GHz Core i7 930, and they compete exceptionally well. AMD really jumps ahead in the heavily multithreaded scenarios because of the additional two cores, which is something to think about.

Add to the fact that these new six-core AMD processors will work in existing socket AM3 & AM2+ motherboards, making for an extremely affordable upgrade. Everyone knows how often Intel likes to change sockets, which means a new motherboard, usually new RAM, and even a new CPU heatsink. That's extra costs that one has to consider when deciding to upgrade.

In heavily multi-threaded applications, the two extra cores in the AMD processors really make the difference. In lightly-threaded applications the winner jumps back and forth. However, for the enthusiast / tweaker, just knowing that you can adjust Turbo CORE settings to your liking I think gives AMD the slight edge. Games today really have become so video card dependent, whatever CPU power is required often plateaus around 3 cores or so.

Unfortunately due to time constraints (and being sick this past week), I wasn't able to test more processors for this review. I also figured it was time for a refresh in applications, drivers, and hardware, so please don't try to compare numbers from our previous reviews. However, I think the results we have pretty well demonstrate how AMD has stepped up to the plate and given Intel something to worry about in $200-$300 price range.