Pentium 957 vs Athlon X2 L310
Aggregate performance score
Pentium 957 outperforms Athlon X2 L310 by an impressive 86% based on our aggregate benchmark results.
Primary details
Comparing Athlon X2 L310 and Pentium 957 processor market type (desktop or notebook), architecture, sales start time and price.
| Place in the ranking | 3216 | 3019 |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | not in top-100 |
| Market segment | Laptop | Laptop |
| Series | 2x AMD Athlon | Intel Pentium |
| Power efficiency | 1.53 | 2.17 |
| Architecture codename | Conesus (2009) | Sandy Bridge (2011−2013) |
| Release date | 10 September 2009 (15 years ago) | 19 June 2011 (13 years ago) |
| Launch price (MSRP) | no data | $134 |
Detailed specifications
Athlon X2 L310 and Pentium 957 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 cores | 2 (Dual-core) | 2 (Dual-core) |
| Threads | 2 | 2 |
| Base clock speed | no data | 1.2 GHz |
| Boost clock speed | 1.2 GHz | 1.2 GHz |
| Bus type | no data | DMI 2.0 |
| Bus rate | 800 MHz | 4 × 5 GT/s |
| Multiplier | no data | 12 |
| L1 cache | 256 KB | 64K (per core) |
| L2 cache | 1 MB | 256K (per core) |
| L3 cache | no data | 2 MB (shared) |
| Chip lithography | 65 nm | 32 nm |
| Die size | no data | 131 mm2 |
| Maximum core temperature | 95 °C | 100 °C |
| Number of transistors | no data | 504 million |
| 64 bit support | + | + |
| Windows 11 compatibility | - | - |
Compatibility
Information on Athlon X2 L310 and Pentium 957 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 configuration | no data | 1 (Uniprocessor) |
| Socket | BGA / 638 lidless micro-PGA | FCBGA1023 |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 13 Watt | 17 Watt |
Technologies and extensions
Technological solutions and additional instructions supported by Athlon X2 L310 and Pentium 957. You'll probably need this information if you require some particular technology.
| Instruction set extensions | MMX, 3DNow, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, AMD64, Virtualization, Enhanced Virus Protection | Intel® SSE4.1, Intel® SSE4.2 |
| FMA | - | + |
| VirusProtect | + | - |
| Enhanced SpeedStep (EIST) | no data | + |
| My WiFi | no data | - |
| Turbo Boost Technology | no data | - |
| Hyper-Threading Technology | no data | - |
| Idle States | no data | + |
| Thermal Monitoring | - | + |
| Flex Memory Access | no data | + |
| Demand Based Switching | no data | - |
| FDI | no data | + |
| Fast Memory Access | no data | + |
Security technologies
Athlon X2 L310 and Pentium 957 technologies aimed at improving security, for example, by protecting against hacks.
| TXT | no data | - |
| EDB | no data | + |
| Anti-Theft | no data | - |
Virtualization technologies
Virtual machine speed-up technologies supported by Athlon X2 L310 and Pentium 957 are enumerated here.
| AMD-V | + | - |
| VT-d | no data | - |
| VT-x | no data | - |
Memory specs
Types, maximum amount and channel quantity of RAM supported by Athlon X2 L310 and Pentium 957. Depending on the motherboard, higher memory frequencies may be supported.
| Supported memory types | no data | DDR3 |
| Maximum memory size | no data | 8.01 GB |
| Max memory channels | no data | 2 |
| Maximum memory bandwidth | no data | 21.335 GB/s |
Graphics specifications
General parameters of integrated GPUs, if any.
| Integrated graphics card | no data | Intel HD Graphics (Sandy Bridge) (350 - 800 MHz) |
| Graphics max frequency | no data | 800 MHz |
Graphics interfaces
Available interfaces and connections of Athlon X2 L310 and Pentium 957 integrated GPUs.
| Number of displays supported | no data | 2 |
| eDP | no data | + |
| DisplayPort | - | + |
| HDMI | - | + |
| SDVO | no data | + |
| CRT | no data | + |
Peripherals
Specifications and connection of peripherals supported by Athlon X2 L310 and Pentium 957.
| PCIe version | no data | 2.0 |
| PCI Express lanes | no data | 16 |
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.
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.
Pros & cons summary
| Performance score | 0.21 | 0.39 |
| Recency | 10 September 2009 | 19 June 2011 |
| Chip lithography | 65 nm | 32 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 13 Watt | 17 Watt |
Athlon X2 L310 has 30.8% lower power consumption.
Pentium 957, on the other hand, has a 85.7% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 1 year, and a 103.1% more advanced lithography process.
The Pentium 957 is our recommended choice as it beats the Athlon X2 L310 in performance tests.
Should you still have questions on choice between Athlon X2 L310 and Pentium 957, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.
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