Review: AMD Phenom II X6 1055T 95W - PART I

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Introduction:

Before we begin, I would like to thank Andreas Gunkel, our Assistant Director for compiling this review, it’s our first ever review!

The AMD Phenom II X6 1055T features 6 Cores, clocked at 2,8Ghz per Core and using TurboCore will boost the frequency up to 3,3Ghz for the first 3 cores. However, unless the applications used would be locked to utilize only the first three cores, only then would the application benefit from AMDs TurboCore. Our Phenom II X6 is the 95 Watt Version, which is just an undervolted version of the first released 125W Version. According to AMD’s CPU comparison site (snapshot below), the voltages were decreased from a range of 1.125-1.40V to 1.075-1.375V. Also, the Max Temperature was increased to 71°C, giving more Headroom for Overclockers. The rest of the features remain the same. The 95W Version is available in Japan, and in the USA for public sale, in Europe the one and only etailer will not sell it because the CPU is intended for OEM only, so if you are lucky enough you will find these CPUs on eBay one day or the other, unless AMD releases the CPU to public.

The AMD Phenom II X6 1055T 95W:

Unlike the Phenom II X6 1090T top of the line flagship, and the midrange 1055T 125W, this 95W descendant makes for an even more attractive product. AMD, the industry first to take 6 physical cores mainstream have hit the sweet spot of gaming enthusiasts. With competitive pricing and a great price-performance ratio, the Phenom II X6 1055T is definitely a threat to the competition, and very likely a product to consider for your next gaming rig.

Test Setup & Specs:

CPU	AMD Phenom II X6 1055T 95W
Motherboard	AsRock A770 Crossfire BIOS: P 1.40
Memory	OCZ CL5 DDR2-800 (OCZ2N800SR4GK)
Graphics	PowerColor Radeon HD 4890
Power Supply	Bequiet Pure Power L7 530W
Boot/Storage Drive	SuperTalent 128GB SSD/Seagate 500GB HDD
CPU Cooler	Zalman CNPS 9900 LED
Operating System	Windows 7 Ultimate 64-Bit

AMD Phenom II X6 1055T 95W Specs:

CPU	AMD Phenom II X6 1055T 95W
Codename	Thuban
Number of Cores	6 (Hexa-Core)
Socket	AM2+ & AM3
Core Speed	2800 MHz
Cache	512 KB per core L2 Cache & 6MB L3 Cache
Processor Node	45nm
Price	$170 (at the time of writing)

System & Applications Used:

The gaming rig hosting the Phenom II X6 CPU is the personal computer I use daily, nothing has been tampered with for review purposes. The Windows 7 OS installed has been fully updated and all important drivers are up to date. The system has not undergone any sort of special tweaking; you could call it a vanilla custom build if you like. The maximum screen resolution is 1280x1024. We will first have a look at the gaming performance in Crysis and FarCry2. The Benchmarks included 3D Mark 2001 and 2006. 3D Mark 2001 is a single threaded benchmark which will utilize Core #3 & #4 of the CPU on stock clocks and later Overlocked till BSOD. The Synthetic Benchmarks include wPrime 32M and 1024M.

Continue reading the rest of the review here.