Phenom II X3 N850 vs Core 2 Extreme X7900

Place in the ranking	2707	2612
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Market segment	Laptop	Laptop
Series	Intel Core 2 Extreme	3x AMD Phenom II
Power efficiency	1.51	2.14
Architecture codename	Merom (2006−2008)	Champlain (2010−2011)
Release date	1 September 2007 (17 years ago)	4 October 2010 (14 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$851	no data

Detailed specifications

Core 2 Extreme X7900 and Phenom II X3 N850 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)	3 (Tri-Core)
Threads	2	3
Base clock speed	2.8 GHz	no data
Boost clock speed	2.8 GHz	2.2 GHz
Bus rate	800 MHz	3600 MHz
L1 cache	128 KB	384 KB
L2 cache	4 MB	1.5 MB
L3 cache	0 KB	no data
Chip lithography	65 nm	45 nm
Die size	143 mm²	no data
Maximum core temperature	100 °C	no data
64 bit support	+	+
Windows 11 compatibility	-	-
VID voltage range	1.1V-1.375V	no data

Compatibility

Information on Core 2 Extreme X7900 and Phenom II X3 N850 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	no data
Socket	PPGA478	S1 (S1g4)
Power consumption (TDP)	44 Watt	35 Watt

Technologies and extensions

Technological solutions and additional instructions supported by Core 2 Extreme X7900 and Phenom II X3 N850. You'll probably need this information if you require some particular technology.

Instruction set extensions	no data	86x MMX(+), 3DNow!(+), SSE(1,2,3,4A),-64, AMD-V
Enhanced SpeedStep (EIST)	+	no data
Turbo Boost Technology	-	no data
Hyper-Threading Technology	-	no data
Idle States	-	no data
Demand Based Switching	-	no data
AMT	+	no data
FSB parity	-	no data

Security technologies

Core 2 Extreme X7900 and Phenom II X3 N850 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 Extreme X7900 and Phenom II X3 N850 are enumerated here.

AMD-V	-	+
VT-x	+	no data

Memory specs

Types, maximum amount and channel quantity of RAM supported by Core 2 Extreme X7900 and Phenom II X3 N850. Depending on the motherboard, higher memory frequencies may be supported.

Supported memory types

DDR1

DDR3

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 Extreme X7900 0.70

Phenom II X3 N850 0.79
+12.9%

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 Extreme X7900 1104

Phenom II X3 N850 1253
+13.5%

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 Extreme X7900 3022
+57.2%

Phenom II X3 N850 1922

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 Extreme X7900 5764
+11.5%

Phenom II X3 N850 5169

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 Extreme X7900 2449

Phenom II X3 N850 2584
+5.5%

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 Extreme X7900 31.05

Phenom II X3 N850 23.4
+32.7%

Gaming performance

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	0.70	0.79
Recency	1 September 2007	4 October 2010
Physical cores	2	3
Threads	2	3
Chip lithography	65 nm	45 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	44 Watt	35 Watt

Phenom II X3 N850 has a 12.9% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 3 years, 50% more physical cores and 50% more threads, a 44.4% more advanced lithography process, and 25.7% lower power consumption.

The Phenom II X3 N850 is our recommended choice as it beats the Core 2 Extreme X7900 in performance tests.

Should you still have questions on choice between Core 2 Extreme X7900 and Phenom II X3 N850, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.