Manufacturer:AMD UK Price (as reviewed):£240 (inc. VAT) (estimated) US Price (as reviewed): TBC
AMD may have already raced ahead of Intel when it comes to integrating more cores into its CPUs with the launch of its 12-core Magny-Cours workstation/servers CPUs, but it’s taken considerably longer to release a desktop processor with more than four cores.
However, while Intel’s first six-core desktop CPU, the Core i7-980X Extreme Edition is brutally fast, it’s also extortionately expensive, retailing at £840, more than three and a half times the price of the quad-core Core i7-930.
In contrast, AMD has taken a completely different approach with its first six-core desktop CPU, the Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition - pricing it far more reasonably.
Thus, at £240 the Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition is only £95 more expensive than the quad-core Phenom II X4 965 BE and only £10 more than the quad-core Core i7-930.
Click to enlarge.
The X6 1090T BE is physically indistinguishable from the X4 965 BE as it’s also a Socket AM3 processor. This means it should work in any Socket AM3 or Socket AM2+ motherboard that can handle a 125W TDP CPU with a suitable BIOS update.
AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition
Frequency: 3.2GHz
Number of cores: 6 x physical
Core: Thuban
Packaging: Socket AM2+/AM3
L1 cache: 64KB L1 data, 64KB L1 instruction per core