Platform, architecture and Features

Together with their new Phenom II X6 CPUs AMD launches its new 890 and 870 Chipset series where you'll find an FX and GX series. The GX will feature integrated graphics whereas the 890 is more the enthusisasts platform. There is for example a IOMMU (I/O Memory Mapping Unit) which help with addressing memory in virtualised environments. Very good is also that you might find up to six 6 Gbps SATA ports depending on the board. Furthermore the FX version has the ability to connect two PCIe X16 or four PCIe x8 slots. Also the new chipsets support Hyper Transport in Version 3.0.

On the Die-plot above you see very well each of the six cores with their level 1 and level 2 Chaches. On the left side of the picture you see the Level 3 cache which is six MBytes in size. At the time we wrote this article we unfortunately didn't know how many transistors can be found on the new AMD Phenom II X6 CPU.

We already know it from Intel and now also AMD presents its version of a Turbo mode. CPUs which feature AMD Turbo Core technology - as AMD calls it - have a "T" at the end of their names. The idea behind is the same as with Intel CPUs. When you have a single threaded application running the CPU clock rate is going to be increased. To stay within the TDP (Thermal Design Power) all the other five cores can be switched off. If you afterwards have another application that can make use of more three threads the CPU clocks down again but switches on the other cores.

Overclockers very much like AMDs OverDrive overclocking utility. Using it you can control almost everything regarding overclocking conveniently from Windows. AMD did a good job with OverDrive and it is even easy to use. If you look at it for the first time it might leave quite a messy impression but as soon as you start taking a closer look you will see that its very easy to use.

Page 1 - Introduction	Page 9 - Super Pi / Wprime
Page 2 - Specifications	Page 10 - Compression
Page 3 - Platform, Achitectures and Features	Page 11 - Crysis
Page 4 - Test Setup	Page 12 - PT Boats Knights of Seas
Page 5 - Futuremark	Page 13 - Resident Evil 5
Page 6 - Cinebench	Page 14 - Street Fighter 4
Page 7 - SiSoft Sandra 1	Page 15 - Power consumption and Overclocking
Page 8 - SiSoft Sandra 2	Page 16 - Conclusion

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