AMD's Phenom II X6 offers six-core processing for $199

by Stevie Smith - Apr 27 2010, 06:25

If you fancy ramping up your computer rig to carry six-core processing oomph – but are perhaps wary of the associated price hike – then why not allow the good folk at Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) to tease your pocketbook with their distinctly affordable Phenom II X6.

Available this week in two configurations, the new people-friendly Phenom II X6 might not be the most muscular six-core platform on the market but, then again, its top-end (recommended) retail tag of $295 USD is a far cry from, say, Intel’s line-leading Core i7 980X Extreme’s and its accompanying $1,100 USD price.

Plus, with a starting price of just $199 USD, the Phenom II X6 not only poses something of a pennywise threat towards Intel’s Core i7, it may also divert consumer attention away from Intel’s similarly priced range of quad-core processors.

So what do you get for your money with AMD’s latest?

Paying out $199 USD secures the 2.8GHz Phenom II X6 1055T, which comes with 3MBs of L2 cache, 6MBs of L3 cache, 4000MHz HyperTransport bus, and socket AM3/AM2+ motherboard support.

The slightly more capable and slightly more expensive Phenom II X6 1090T has the same specs as its 1055T stablemate but pushes 3.2GHz and comes with support for overclocking. 

Beyond that, both CPUs come with AMD’s new Turbo Core technology, which provides adjusted clock speeds and power-saving possibilities through the selection of different core configurations that best suit specific processing demands.

For example, Turbo Core usage can take the Phenom II X6 1090T from six to three cores, altering output from 3.2GHz to 3.6GHz in the process. Similarly, the Phenom II X6 1055T can shift from six to three cores for a boost of 2.8GHz to 3.3GHz.

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