AMD Phenom II X6 1090T 6-Core Processor Review

We'd like to cover a few final data points before bringing this article to a close. Throughout all of our benchmarking and testing, we monitored how much power our test systems consumed using a power meter. Our goal was to give you all an idea as to how much power each configuration used while idling and while under a heavy workload. Please keep in mind that we were testing total system power consumption at the outlet here, not just the power being drawn by the processors alone.

AMD claimed the six-core Phenom II X6 would fall within the same 125W TDP as the previous generation quad-core Phenom II, and they wern't kidding. In our total system power consumption tests, the new Phenom II X6 1090T consumed less power than the Phenom II X4 965 while idling, and only about 12 - 18 more watts under load, despite offering much better overall performance. Intel's Bloomfield-based Core i7 processors / platforms consumed more power than the Phenom II X6 under both idle and load conditions, but the Lynnfield-based Core i5 and i7 processors / platform was the most power friendly overall.