A6-3420M vs Core 2 Duo P9700

Place in the ranking	2696	2606
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Market segment	Laptop	Laptop
Series	Intel Core 2 Duo	AMD A-Series
Power efficiency	2.43	2.19
Architecture codename	Penryn (2008−2011)	Llano (2011−2012)
Release date	2 June 2009 (15 years ago)	20 December 2011 (13 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$348	no data

Detailed specifications

Core 2 Duo P9700 and A6-3420M 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)	4 (Quad-Core)
Threads	2	4
Base clock speed	2.8 GHz	1.5 GHz
Boost clock speed	2.8 GHz	2.4 GHz
Bus rate	1066 MHz	no data
L1 cache	64 KB (per core)	128 KB (per core)
L2 cache	6 MB (shared)	1 MB (per core)
L3 cache	6 MB L2 Cache	0 KB
Chip lithography	45 nm	32 nm
Die size	107 mm²	228 mm²
Maximum core temperature	105 °C	no data
Number of transistors	410 million	1,178 million
64 bit support	+	+
Windows 11 compatibility	-	-
VID voltage range	1.012V-1.175V	no data

Compatibility

Information on Core 2 Duo P9700 and A6-3420M 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
Socket	PGA478	FS1
Power consumption (TDP)	28 Watt	35 Watt

Technologies and extensions

Technological solutions and additional instructions supported by Core 2 Duo P9700 and A6-3420M. You'll probably need this information if you require some particular technology.

Instruction set extensions	no data	3DNow!, MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSE4a, Radeon HD 6480G
Enhanced SpeedStep (EIST)	+	no data
Turbo Boost Technology	-	no data
Hyper-Threading Technology	-	no data
Demand Based Switching	-	no data

Security technologies

Core 2 Duo P9700 and A6-3420M technologies aimed at improving security, for example, by protecting against hacks.

TXT	+	no data
EDB	+	no data

Virtualization technologies

Virtual machine speed-up technologies supported by Core 2 Duo P9700 and A6-3420M are enumerated here.

AMD-V	-	+
VT-x	+	no data

Memory specs

Types, maximum amount and channel quantity of RAM supported by Core 2 Duo P9700 and A6-3420M. Depending on the motherboard, higher memory frequencies may be supported.

Supported memory types

DDR2, DDR3

DDR3

Graphics specifications

General parameters of integrated GPUs, if any.

Integrated graphics card

On certain motherboards (Chipset feature)

AMD Radeon HD 6520G (400 MHz)

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.

Core 2 Duo P9700 0.72

A6-3420M 0.81
+12.5%

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.

Core 2 Duo P9700 1149

A6-3420M 1293
+12.5%

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.

Core 2 Duo P9700 363
+51.9%

A6-3420M 239

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.

Core 2 Duo P9700 622

A6-3420M 625
+0.5%

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.

Core 2 Duo P9700 3425
+105%

A6-3420M 1673

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.

Core 2 Duo P9700 6133
+13.6%

A6-3420M 5399

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.

Core 2 Duo P9700 2540
+10.2%

A6-3420M 2305

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.

Core 2 Duo P9700 54.6

A6-3420M 23.64
+131%

Gaming performance

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	0.72	0.81
Recency	2 June 2009	20 December 2011
Physical cores	2	4
Threads	2	4
Chip lithography	45 nm	32 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	28 Watt	35 Watt

Core 2 Duo P9700 has 25% lower power consumption.

A6-3420M, on the other hand, has a 12.5% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 2 years, 100% more physical cores and 100% more threads, and a 40.6% more advanced lithography process.

The A6-3420M is our recommended choice as it beats the Core 2 Duo P9700 in performance tests.

Should you still have questions on choice between Core 2 Duo P9700 and A6-3420M, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.