Advanced Micro Devices has introduced a six-core desktop processor about six weeks after Intel launched a more powerful competitor, but at a much higher price.
The AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition, released Tuesday, is a 45-nanometer processor that works with existing AM3 and AM2+ socket motherboards running older AMD products. Swapping chips requires only a bios upgrade, AMD said.
The trend among chip vendors is to release new processors with more cores, faster clock speeds, and larger internal caches to boost performance over previous generations. However, most software makers haven’t kept up with the trend, with the exception of some game makers and vendors such as Adobe, which makes professional graphics tools and video-editing products.
The Phenom II X6 includes AMD OverDrive technology which enables computer enthusiasts to tune system performance, customize settings, and tune memory. AMD says its 890FX chipset is the “premier complement” to the Phenom II X6, featuring the company’s ATI CrossFireX graphics technology. The chipset also can support up to four ATI Radeon HD graphics cards.
Key architectural features of the Phenom II X6 include 6 MB of shared L3 cache and 512KB L2 cache per core. The processor includes AMD’s HyperTransport technology that delivers up to 8 GB per second of input/output bandwidth.
Other features include an integrated memory controller that delivers up to 21 GB per second of memory bandwidth when working with the DDR3 system memory. Finally, AMD’s CoolCore technology reduces energy consumption by turning off unused parts of the processor.
I know I can always count on John C. Dvorak’s blog to be full of old geezers — “Who needs it? Ah back in my day we only had one core and we liked it that way! Why the average person doesn’t have any need for more that 56k of RAM and 8-bit audio processing!”
Just what everyone really needs. Six (slow?) cores, when one or two 3GHz cores would be more than sufficient. As for bottlenecks. Drives and buss aside, I’m thinking the ISPs’ damn Caps and packet manipulations, are likely to be the most bothersome factor.
These multi-core CPUs are sounding like just a big brag. As the chip speed race (single core), use to be. The PCs get faster. But then the humongous AV protection slows it right down again. Along with all the other software, everyone needs to keep juggling all at once.
Well with all these n-core processors, whole drive encryption should be a snap. But I’ll bet that won’t become a standard feature on any Windows PC for quite a while. Not until M$ figures out how to compromise it, so the Feds can still pry.
Very Very Nice! I’m just salivating at the mouth!
The X6 is very overclockable, that is one of the highlights. Getting the CPU to 4GHz is a good thing. As far as I know 4 is till higher than 3.
It’s truly amazing how many stupid idiots post on this site and insist on embarrassing themselves by posting on topics they know nothing about. Clueless morons.
Try doing some work with REAL software, where REAL work gets done, then you will see the difference extra cores make. If you are a jerk-off who spends his time reading email and posting on blogs, ya you probably don’t need 6 cores. If on the other hand you are someone who uses real tools to do a real man’s work, you might find it helps.
I went from a dual AMD @2.8Ghz to a quad @2.2Ghz, hoping that my virtual PC’s that I run would run better, with 2 cpu’s instead of one.
Overall system was more laggy.
Changed to the latest AMD Quads @3.4Ghz, much better.
What’s cool is not having to change MB’s every Frak’in year. The Quad @3.4Ghz for less than 200$ was totally worth it.
So was the SSD drive, a 64G model (56G usable), I simply use the old HD for backup and storage, boot on the SSD.
Instead of 16G of ram, stayed with 4G and put money into the SSD.
I have a hard time loving Intel for desktops – I totally love the i5’s and i7’s for laptops.
MegahertzCores