Introduction
The war between Intel and AMD has been heating up, but just not in the way that we traditionally think. For many the war is all about the GHz (or the speed) of the CPUs. For the most part this is true, but it is also about bang for the buck. This is a message that AMD is more than comfortable sending to the market. In fact, it is one they have been giving ever since the days of the K6-2 CPUs.
Now we see a return to this position as AMD pushes the envelope of low cost CPUs. Both the Athlon II and Phenom II CPU lines are very cost effective and can provide solid multi core performance at a good price. Today we take a look at what will be their flagship CPU for this line; the Phenom II X6 1100T. We are taking a look at this from the stand point of a consumer to workstation approach.
We will see if this new sexa core piece of silicon is up to scratch when it comes to both multi and single core workloads. Unfortunately we will not be able to tell you how well it overclocks just yet (our test board died during the testing), but by the end of this article we will tell you how well it runs at its stock speed of 3.33GHz.
What's New
Well, there really is not much new here. There is a slight bump up in base clock from 3.2GHz to 3.3GHz. The TurboCore speed has also jumped up a bit to 3.7GHz (again, Vs 3.6GHz). The price is also something new, as the new Phenom II X6 1100T will hit the streets at $265.99.
The rest is pretty much the same as the 1090T. You can use the AM3 socket (with a BIOS update) as long as it is able to handle the same TDP as the 1090T (125Watts)
The specs come out as follows :-
Model Number & Core Frequency:
X6 1100T / 3.7GHz (Turbo) / 3.3GHz (Base)
OPN:
HDE00ZFBK6DGR
L1 Cache Sizes:
64K of L1 instruction and 64K of L1 data cache per core (768KB total L1 per processor)
L2 Cache Sizes:
512KB of L2 data cache per core (3MB total L2 per processor)
L3 Cache Size:
6MB (shared)
Total Cache (L2+L3):
9MB
Memory Controller Type:
Integrated 128-bit wide memory controller *
Memory Controller Speed:
Up to 2.0GHz with Dual Dynamic Power Management
Types of Memory Supported:
Unregistered DIMMs up to PC2-8500 (DDR2-1066MHz) -AND- PC3-10600 (DDR3-1333MHz)
HyperTransport 3.0 Specification:
One 16-bit/16-bit link @ up to 4.0GHz full duplex (2.0GHz x2)
Total Processor-to-System Bandwidth:
Up to 37.3GB/s total bandwidth [Up to 21.3 GB/s memory bandwidth (DDR3-1333) + 16.0GB/s (HT3)]
Up to 33.1GB/s total bandwidth [Up to 17.1 GB/s memory bandwidth (DDR2-1066) + 16.0GB/s (HT3)]
Packaging:
Socket AM3 938-pin organic micro pin grid array (micro-PGA)
Process Technology:
45-nanometer DSL SOI (silicon-on-insulator) technology
Approximate Die Size:
346mm2
Approximate Transistor count:
Similar to Istanbul's ~904 million
Max TDP:
125 Watts
Test System Setup
We would like to thank the following companies for supplying and supporting us with our test system hardware and equipment: ASUS, GIGABYTE, AMD, Kingston and Cooler Master and Sceptre.
During our first run of testing we started to have some issues. These were minor items that we thought were related to the CPU, but later turned out to be a larger issue with the motherboard we used for testing.
We found that our primary test platform was going bad, and ended up dying on us right in the middle of the first test runs for overclocking. As this happened we had to scramble to get a new board in place to run all of our tests again.
Unfortunately we were not able to revisit overclocking on the new platform and will have to revisit it in another article. Thankfully our new test bed seems to be able to handle the load very well.
Synthetic Tests - Part I
With any system you will want to see a combination of synthetic testing and real-world. Synthetics give you a static, easily repeatable testing method that can be compared across multiple platforms. For our synthetic tests we use Everest Ultimate, Sisoft Sandra, FutureMark's 3DMark Vantage and PCMark Vantage, Cinebench as well as HyperPi. Each of these covers a different aspect of performance or a different angle of a certain type of performance.
Memory Bandwidth
Memory is a big part of current system performance. In most systems slow or flakey memory performance will impact almost every type of application you run. To test memory we use a combination of Sisoft Sandra and HyperPi 0.99.
Sisoft Sandra
Version and / or Patch Used: 2011
Developer Homepage: http://www.sisoftware.net
Product Homepage: http://www.sisoftware.net
Buy It Here
AMD CPUs usually have some issues with memory performance. We can see that here in the graph. This "issue" can cause problems with highly threaded applications that are also memory inefficient or that need large amounts of memory to execute their code (like After Effects).
For general CPU performance the PII X6 1100T does fairly well, until we get to the Crypto testing; here it does bog down a little compared to Intel's new CPUs with the encryption instructions embedded in the CPU.
HyperPi 0.99
Version and / or Patch Used: 0.99
Developer Homepage: www.virgilioborges.com.br
Product Homepage: www.virgilioborges.com.br
Download It Here
HyperPi is a front end for SuperPi that allows for multiple concurrent instances of SuperPi to be run on each core recognized by the system. It is very dependent on CPU to memory to HDD speed. The faster these components, the faster it is able to figure out the number Pi to the selected length.
For our testing we use the 32M run. This means that each of the four physical and four logical cores for the i7 and the four physical cores of the i5 is trying to calculate the number Pi out to 32 million decimal places. Each "run" is a comparative to ensure accuracy and any stability or performance issues in the loop mentioned above will cause errors in calculation.
As with most AMD CPUs, the PII X6 1100T does not do well with HyperPi. We have a feeling that it has to do with the way the caching and memory controller work together, but we have not been able to prove the conclusively yet.
Synthetic Tests - Part II
Here is where we dig out the FutureMark tests.
PCMark Vantage
Version and / or Patch Used: 1.0.0.0
Developer Homepage: http://www.futuremark.com/
Product Homepage: www.futuremark.com
Buy It Here
For overall system performance we use PCMark Vantage. This is run in both x86 and x64 mode to give the best indication of performance.
Wow! Look at this here; the $270 Phenom II X6 1100T is right on the heels of the more expensive Core i7 875K. That is an impressive item in my book.
3DMark Vantage
Version and / or Patch Used: 1.0.1
Developer Homepage: http://www.futuremark.com/
Product Homepage: www.futuremark.com
Buy It Here
For synthetic gaming tests we used the industry standard and overlockers bragging tool 3DMark Vantage. This is a test that strives to mimic the impact modern games have on a system. Futuremark went a long way to change from the early days of graphics driven tests to a broader approach including physics, AI and more advanced graphics simulations.
3DMark Vantage uses the DX10 API in addition to having support for PhysX. As we are no longer using an NVIDIA GPU for testing (at least until we can get a GTX 4xx card) you will only see the CPU based PhysX results in the scores. For testing we use the Performance test run.
Unfortunately the PII X6 100T was not as close in 3DMark Vantage as it was in PCMark. Still, it is not so far behind that we would count it out as a potential gaming CPU.
Cinebench R11.5 X64
Version and / or Patch Used: R11.5 X64
Developer Homepage: http://www.maxon.net/
Product Homepage: www.maxon.net
Download It Here
Cinebench is a synthetic rendering tool developed by Maxon. Maxon is the same company that developed Cinema4D, another industry leading 3D Animation application. Cinebench R11.5 tests your systems ability to render across a single and multiple CPU cores. It also tests your systems ability to process OpenGL information.
Again we find an impressive showing by the PII X6 1100T. It is leading the pack of stock CPUs and even seriously outperforms some of the overclocked ones.
Real-World Tests - Part I
Real-world testing allows us to see how well a product will perform when used in the same manner as it would be in your house or office. It is an important side to performance testing as it can uncover hidden glitches in the way a product performs.
It is especially true when testing a mainboard; there are so many components of a board that have to interact that any problems between parts can cause a failure of the whole.
For real-world testing we use some common applications and functions. We test with LightWave 3D for rendering performance, AutoGK for transcoding from DVD to AVI and two games for gaming testing.
Rendering
Rendering of 3D Animation is a system intensive endeavor. You need a good CPU, memory and HDD speed to get good rendering times. For our testing we use LightWave 3D. This software from Newtek is an industry standard and has several pre-loaded scenes for us to use.
LightWave 3D
Version and / or Patch Used: 9.6
Developer Homepage: http://www.newtek.com
Product Homepage: http://www.newtek.com/lightwave/
Buy It Here
Although I do wish that the PII X6 1100T would have done better here, it still is not bad at all when you consider the price you can get it for.
AutoGK
Version and / or Patch Used: 2.55
Developer Homepage: http://www.autogk.me.uk/
Product Homepage: http://www.autogk.me.uk/
Download It Here
AutoGK stands for Auto Gordian Knot; it is a suite of transcoding tools that are compiled into an easy to install and use utility. It allows you to transcode non-protected DVDs and other media to Xvid or Divx format. For our testing purposes we use a non-DRM restricted movie that is roughly 2 hours in length. This is transcoded to a single Xvid AVI at 100% quality.
Here the PII X6 1100T does a little better than its older brother, which still puts it in the lead of most of the stock CPUs.
Real-World Tests Part II
Here we have our real gaming tests. Each of the games we chose use multiple cores and GPUs. They are able to stress the system through use of good AI. Both have decent positional audio that adds impact to the sound subsystem of the board. We ran each game through the level or parts listed and recorded frames per second using FRAPS. This brings the whole game into play.
*** A word on gaming as a CPU test ***
Despite the fact that most games are very GPU limited, we are still noticing HDD and even audio creating issues in gaming performance. Because of this you may see differences in the number of frames rendered per second between different boards. Usually the difference is very small, but occasionally because of bad tracing, poor memory or HDD performance, this difference is significant. The issues are often more prevalent in older versions of DirectX, but can still pop up in DX10 and 11.
Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 (DX9)
Version and / or Patch Used: 1.0
Timedemo or Level Used: First combat until the school is cleared
Developer Homepage: http://www.infinityward.com
Product Homepage: http://modernwarfare2.infinityward.com
Most of you know about the game Modern Warfare 2; it caused quite a bit of controversy in the latter half of 2009. The game is a first person shooter with a heavy combat emphasis. It follows the events in the first Modern Warfare very closely and brings back several characters from the original.
As with most games in the Call of Duty franchise, it features a heavy AI load. This is not because of a complex AI routine, but more due to the sheer number of enemies in any given combat situation. It is also our single DX9 based game in our testing suite. Settings are shown below.
As always, gaming is a hit or miss thing. The performance is just not tied to the CPU anymore. True, you can see little differences here and there, but as you can see above, they are mostly minor.
Far Cry 2 (DX10)
Version and / or Patch Used: V1.00
Timedemo or Level Used: Clearing the Safe house through to the Rescue
Developer Homepage: http://www.ubi.com
Product Homepage: http://farcry.us.ubi.com
Far Cry 2 is a large sandbox style game. There are no levels here so as you move about the island you are on you do not have to wait for the "loading" sign to go away. It is mission driven so each mission is what you would normally think of as the next "level".
In the game you take the role of a mercenary who has been sent to kill the Jackal. Unfortunately your malaria kicks in and you end up being found by him. Long story short, you become the errand boy for a local militia leader and run all over the island doing his bidding. Settings we used for testing are shown below.
Here we find things are a little different. Of course, Far Cry2 is an Intel sponsored game so we can imagine the reasons for this.
Battlefield Bad Company 2 (DX11)
Version and / or Patch Used: V1.00
Timedemo or Level Used: From washing up on the beach to the mine fields.
Developer Homepage: http://www.ea.com/
Product Homepage: http://badcompany2.ea.com/
Battlefield Bad Company is another sequel and also another game "franchise". Bad Company 2 is also our DX11 Shooter game. The game follows a fictitious B company team on a mission to recover a Japanese defector. This puts you back in World War II (at least for the beginning of the game) while the multi-player game is centered on much more modern combat. For our testing we used the single player mode. Settings are shown below.
Ok, Bad Company 2 put the 1100T in the middle of the pack. This is nothing to be ashamed of, though, as the gap from top to bottom is only about 11FPS.
Gaming Conclusion
As we have said time and time again, gaming is no longer bound by the CPU at higher resolutions. Where you see an impact is if the AI routines are not well done and/or you have bad positional audio. Or in very rare circumstances the CPU is just not well designed. Fortunately, the Phenom II X6 1100T is not one of those CPUs. You can game quite well on it.
Final Thoughts
The AMD Phenom II 1100T is a great addition to AMD's lineup. It is solid enough to compare favorably to some of Intel's 1156 CPUs that cost upwards of $60 more (like the i7 875K). Like all Phenoms, it does lack good memory performance and can become quickly bogged down by large instructions. We see this in the HyperPi testing that we ran.
Fortunately the 1100T still does very well in production work and can also hold its own when it comes to rendering and also transcoding. In fact, in our Cinebench R11.5 testing the 1100T was second only to the Core i7 980X (comparing only stock speeds).
We do want to revisit this CPU and see if it overclocks better than its older brother, the Phenom II X6 1090T, but for now we can say that if you are looking for a good multi-core CPU that won't break the bank, the Six Core AMD Phenom II X6 1100T is probably what you are looking for.