Pentium 3556U vs A8-5600K

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Aggregate performance score

A8-5600K
2012
4 cores / 4 threads, 100 Watt
1.80
+169%
Pentium 3556U
2013
2 cores / 2 threads, 15 Watt
0.67

A8-5600K outperforms Pentium 3556U by a whopping 169% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

Primary details

Comparing A8-5600K and Pentium 3556U processor market type (desktop or notebook), architecture, sales start time and price.

Place in the ranking20242751
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Market segmentDesktop processorLaptop
SeriesAMD A-Series (Desktop)Intel Pentium
Power efficiency1.704.23
Architecture codenameTrinity (2012−2013)Haswell (2013−2015)
Release date2 October 2012 (12 years ago)1 September 2013 (11 years ago)

Detailed specifications

A8-5600K and Pentium 3556U basic parameters such as number of cores, number of threads, base frequency and turbo boost clock, lithography, cache size and multiplier lock state. These parameters indirectly say of CPU speed, though for more precise assessment you have to consider their test results.

Physical cores4 (Quad-Core)2 (Dual-core)
Threads42
Base clock speed3.6 GHz1.7 GHz
Boost clock speed3.9 GHz1.7 GHz
Bus rateno data5 GT/s
L1 cache128K (per core)64K (per core)
L2 cache1 MB (per core)256K (per core)
L3 cache0 KB2 MB (shared)
Chip lithography32 nm22 nm
Die size246 mm2118 mm2
Maximum core temperatureno data100 °C
Maximum case temperature (TCase)74 °C105 °C
Number of transistors1,178 million1,400 million
64 bit support++
Windows 11 compatibility--
Unlocked multiplier+-

Compatibility

Information on A8-5600K and Pentium 3556U compatibility with other computer components: motherboard (look for socket type), power supply unit (look for power consumption) etc. Useful when planning a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. Note that power consumption of some processors can well exceed their nominal TDP, even without overclocking. Some can even double their declared thermals given that the motherboard allows to tune the CPU power parameters.

Number of CPUs in a configuration11
SocketFM2FCBGA1168
Power consumption (TDP)100 Watt15 Watt

Technologies and extensions

Technological solutions and additional instructions supported by A8-5600K and Pentium 3556U. You'll probably need this information if you require some particular technology.

Instruction set extensionsno dataIntel® SSE4.1, Intel® SSE4.2
Enhanced SpeedStep (EIST)no data+
Turbo Boost Technologyno data-
Hyper-Threading Technologyno data-
Idle Statesno data+
Thermal Monitoring-+
Smart Responseno data-
GPIOno data+
Smart Connectno data+
FDIno data-
AMTno data9.5
Matrix Storageno data-
HD Audiono data+
RSTno data+

Security technologies

A8-5600K and Pentium 3556U technologies aimed at improving security, for example, by protecting against hacks.

TXTno data-
EDBno data+
Secure Keyno data+
OS Guardno data-
Anti-Theftno data-

Virtualization technologies

Virtual machine speed-up technologies supported by A8-5600K and Pentium 3556U are enumerated here.

AMD-V++
VT-dno data-
VT-xno data+
EPTno data+

Memory specs

Types, maximum amount and channel quantity of RAM supported by A8-5600K and Pentium 3556U. Depending on the motherboard, higher memory frequencies may be supported.

Supported memory typesDDR3DDR3
Maximum memory sizeno data16 GB
Max memory channelsno data2
Maximum memory bandwidthno data25.6 GB/s

Graphics specifications

General parameters of integrated GPUs, if any.

Integrated graphics card
Compare
AMD Radeon HD 7560D (760 MHz)Intel HD Graphics for 4th Generation Intel Processors
Clear Videono data+
Graphics max frequencyno data1 GHz

Graphics interfaces

Available interfaces and connections of A8-5600K and Pentium 3556U integrated GPUs.

Number of displays supportedno data3
eDPno data+
DisplayPort-+
HDMI-+

Peripherals

Specifications and connection of peripherals supported by A8-5600K and Pentium 3556U.

PCIe versionno data2.0
PCI Express lanesno data10
PCI supportno data-
USB revisionno data3.0
Total number of SATA portsno data2
Max number of SATA 6 Gb/s Portsno data2
Integrated IDEno data-
Number of USB portsno data4
Integrated LANno data-
UARTno data+

Synthetic benchmark performance

Various benchmark results of the processors in comparison. Overall score is measured in points in 0-100 range, higher is better.


Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark performance rating. We are regularly improving our combining algorithms, but if you find some perceived inconsistencies, feel free to speak up in comments section, we usually fix problems quickly.

A8-5600K 1.80
+169%
Pentium 3556U 0.67

Passmark

Passmark CPU Mark is a widespread benchmark, consisting of 8 different types of workload, including integer and floating point math, extended instructions, compression, encryption and physics calculation. There is also one separate single-threaded scenario measuring single-core performance.

A8-5600K 2854
+169%
Pentium 3556U 1061

GeekBench 5 Single-Core

GeekBench 5 Single-Core is a cross-platform application developed in the form of CPU tests that independently recreate certain real-world tasks with which to accurately measure performance. This version uses only a single CPU core.

A8-5600K 424
+40.4%
Pentium 3556U 302

GeekBench 5 Multi-Core

GeekBench 5 Multi-Core is a cross-platform application developed in the form of CPU tests that independently recreate certain real-world tasks with which to accurately measure performance. This version uses all available CPU cores.

A8-5600K 1016
+106%
Pentium 3556U 493

Cinebench 10 32-bit single-core

Cinebench R10 is an ancient ray tracing benchmark for processors by Maxon, authors of Cinema 4D. Its single core version uses just one CPU thread to render a futuristic looking motorcycle.

A8-5600K 2941
+16.9%
Pentium 3556U 2515

Cinebench 10 32-bit multi-core

Cinebench Release 10 Multi Core is a variant of Cinebench R10 using all the processor threads. Possible number of threads is limited by 16 in this version.

A8-5600K 8838
+82.1%
Pentium 3556U 4854

3DMark06 CPU

3DMark06 is a discontinued DirectX 9 benchmark suite from Futuremark. Its CPU part contains two scenarios, one dedicated to artificial intelligence pathfinding, another to game physics using PhysX package.

A8-5600K 4295
+122%
Pentium 3556U 1939

wPrime 32

wPrime 32M is a math multi-thread processor test, which calculates square roots of first 32 million integer numbers. Its result is measured in seconds, so that the less is benchmark result, the faster the processor.

A8-5600K 16.7
+177%
Pentium 3556U 46.23

Cinebench 11.5 64-bit multi-core

Cinebench Release 11.5 Multi Core is a variant of Cinebench R11.5 which uses all the processor threads. A maximum of 64 threads is supported in this version.

A8-5600K 3
+124%
Pentium 3556U 1

Cinebench 15 64-bit multi-core

Cinebench Release 15 Multi Core is a variant of Cinebench R15 which uses all the processor threads.

A8-5600K 292
+133%
Pentium 3556U 126

Cinebench 15 64-bit single-core

Cinebench R15 (standing for Release 15) is a benchmark made by Maxon, authors of Cinema 4D. It was superseded by later versions of Cinebench, which use more modern variants of Cinema 4D engine. The Single Core version (sometimes called Single-Thread) only uses a single processor thread to render a room full of reflective spheres and light sources.

A8-5600K 87
+32.8%
Pentium 3556U 66

Cinebench 11.5 64-bit single-core

Cinebench R11.5 is an old benchmark by Maxon, authors of Cinema 4D. It was superseded by later versions of Cinebench, which use more modern variants of Cinema 4D engine. The Single Core version loads a single thread with ray tracing to render a glossy room full of crystal spheres and light sources.

A8-5600K 0.98
+30.7%
Pentium 3556U 0.75

TrueCrypt AES

TrueCrypt is a discontinued piece of software that was widely used for on-the-fly-encryption of disk partitions, now superseded by VeraCrypt. It contains several embedded performance tests, one of them being TrueCrypt AES, which measures data encryption speed using AES algorithm. Result is encryption speed in gigabytes per second.

A8-5600K 1.8
+1100%
Pentium 3556U 0.2

WinRAR 4.0

WinRAR 4.0 is an outdated version of a popular file archiver. It contains an internal speed test, using 'Best' setting of RAR compression on large chunks of randomly generated data. Its results are measured in kilobytes per second.

A8-5600K 2449
+106%
Pentium 3556U 1190

x264 encoding pass 2

x264 Pass 2 is a slower variant of x264 video compression that produces a variable bit rate output file, which results in better quality since the higher bit rate is used when it is needed more. Benchmark result is still measured in frames per second.  

A8-5600K 21
+130%
Pentium 3556U 9

x264 encoding pass 1

x264 version 4.0 is a video encoding benchmark uses MPEG 4 x264 compression method to compress a sample HD (720p) video. Pass 1 is a faster variant that produces a constant bit rate output file. Its result is measured in frames per second, which means how many frames of the source video file were encoded per second.  

A8-5600K 102
+108%
Pentium 3556U 49

Geekbench 2

A8-5600K 6520
+108%
Pentium 3556U 3129

Gaming performance

Pros & cons summary


Performance score 1.80 0.67
Integrated graphics card 1.19 0.77
Recency 2 October 2012 1 September 2013
Physical cores 4 2
Threads 4 2
Chip lithography 32 nm 22 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 100 Watt 15 Watt

A8-5600K has a 168.7% higher aggregate performance score, 54.5% faster integrated GPU, and 100% more physical cores and 100% more threads.

Pentium 3556U, on the other hand, has an age advantage of 10 months, a 45.5% more advanced lithography process, and 566.7% lower power consumption.

The A8-5600K is our recommended choice as it beats the Pentium 3556U in performance tests.

Note that A8-5600K is a desktop processor while Pentium 3556U is a notebook one.


Should you still have questions on choice between A8-5600K and Pentium 3556U, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.

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AMD A8-5600K
A8-5600K
Intel Pentium 3556U
Pentium 3556U

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