Corsair Blog

Corsair is always testing the latest and greatest in computer hardware to ensure compatibility and performance.  While testing AMD’s recently launched Phenom™ II X6 processors, we noticed we were able to reach higher frequencies than previously possible on an AMD platform.  The previous Phenom II X4 processors (codenamed Deneb) would reach memory frequencies just above 1600MHz with DDR3.  Several overclockers were able to heavily tweak their systems and memory to reach speeds just shy of 2000MHz.

Given the improvements to the memory overclocking on the Thuban processors, naturally we wanted to see how far they could be pushed.  Pairing the Corsair Dominator GTX memory with the new AMD Phenom II X6 1090T processor on the ASUS Crosshair IV Formula motherboard allowed for 2000MHz without any major tweaking.  Let’s take a look at all the components used.

• AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition CPU
• ASUS Crosshair IV Formula motherboard
• 4GB Corsair Dominator GTX4 (2 DIMMs)
• Corsair Hydro Series H50 CPU Cooler
• Corsair Nova Series V64 SSD
• NVIDIA® GeForce® 6600 GT GPU
• Corsair Professional Series 850HX PSU

After spending several hours of testing timings, sub timings, voltages, multiple processors and various frequencies, a new World Record for AMD Memory frequency was achieved!  The maximum speed achieved was 2287.6 MHz at Cas 9.  The two other processors were able to produce similar memory clocks at 2271.6 MHz.  These results, across several processors, would suggest that it is running into a limitation of the memory controller on the new AMD Phenom II X6 processors.

CPUz Validation

At the frequency of 2287.6 MHz SuperPi 1M ran into errors in the last iteration.  Dropping the memory frequency to 2271.6MHz allowed SuperPi 1M to be run at a time of 18.486 seconds.

Overall, the new AMD Phenom II X6 processors are a leap forward in the memory overclocking department.