Ryzen 5 3500U vs Athlon X4 970
Aggregate performance score
Ryzen 5 3500U outperforms Athlon X4 970 by a whopping 163% based on our aggregate benchmark results.
Primary details
Comparing Athlon X4 970 and Ryzen 5 3500U processor market type (desktop or notebook), architecture, sales start time and price.
| Place in the ranking | 2060 | 1345 |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | 36 |
| Market segment | Desktop processor | Laptop |
| Series | no data | AMD Ryzen 5 |
| Power efficiency | 2.42 | 27.57 |
| Architecture codename | Bristol Ridge (2016−2019) | Picasso-U (Zen+) (2019−2020) |
| Release date | 27 July 2017 (7 years ago) | 6 January 2019 (5 years ago) |
Detailed specifications
Athlon X4 970 and Ryzen 5 3500U 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 | 4 (Quad-Core) | 4 (Quad-Core) |
| Threads | 4 | 8 |
| Base clock speed | 3.8 GHz | 2.1 GHz |
| Boost clock speed | 4 GHz | 3.7 GHz |
| Bus type | no data | PCIe 3.0 |
| Multiplier | no data | 21 |
| L1 cache | 128 KB (per core) | 128K (per core) |
| L2 cache | 512 KB (per core) | 512K (per core) |
| L3 cache | 0 KB | 4 MB (shared) |
| Chip lithography | 28 nm | 12 nm |
| Die size | 246 mm2 | 209.78 mm2 |
| Maximum core temperature | no data | 105 °C |
| Maximum case temperature (TCase) | 74 °C | no data |
| Number of transistors | 1,178 million | 4940 Million |
| 64 bit support | + | + |
| Windows 11 compatibility | - | + |
| Unlocked multiplier | + | - |
Compatibility
Information on Athlon X4 970 and Ryzen 5 3500U 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 | 1 | 1 (Uniprocessor) |
| Socket | AM4 | FP5 |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 65 Watt | 15 Watt |
Technologies and extensions
Technological solutions and additional instructions supported by Athlon X4 970 and Ryzen 5 3500U. You'll probably need this information if you require some particular technology.
| Instruction set extensions | no data | MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4A, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AVX, AVX2, BMI2, ABM, FMA, ADX, SMEP, SMAP, SMT, CPB, AES-NI, RDRAND, RDSEED, SHA, SME |
| AES-NI | + | + |
| FMA | + | + |
| AVX | + | + |
Virtualization technologies
Virtual machine speed-up technologies supported by Athlon X4 970 and Ryzen 5 3500U are enumerated here.
| AMD-V | + | + |
Memory specs
Types, maximum amount and channel quantity of RAM supported by Athlon X4 970 and Ryzen 5 3500U. Depending on the motherboard, higher memory frequencies may be supported.
| Supported memory types | DDR4 Dual-channel | DDR4 |
| Maximum memory size | no data | 64 GB |
| Max memory channels | no data | 2 |
| Maximum memory bandwidth | no data | 38.397 GB/s |
| ECC memory support | - | + |
Graphics specifications
General parameters of integrated GPUs, if any.
| Integrated graphics card | no data | AMD Radeon RX Vega 8 (Ryzen 2000/3000) |
Peripherals
Specifications and connection of peripherals supported by Athlon X4 970 and Ryzen 5 3500U.
| PCIe version | no data | 3.0 |
| PCI Express lanes | no data | 12 |
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 | 1.66 | 4.37 |
| Recency | 27 July 2017 | 6 January 2019 |
| Threads | 4 | 8 |
| Chip lithography | 28 nm | 12 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 65 Watt | 15 Watt |
Ryzen 5 3500U has a 163.3% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 1 year, 100% more threads, a 133.3% more advanced lithography process, and 333.3% lower power consumption.
The Ryzen 5 3500U is our recommended choice as it beats the Athlon X4 970 in performance tests.
Note that Athlon X4 970 is a desktop processor while Ryzen 5 3500U is a notebook one.
Should you still have questions on choice between Athlon X4 970 and Ryzen 5 3500U, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.
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