Athlon Gold 3150U vs i3-540

Place in the ranking	2496	1755
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	0.11	no data
Market segment	Desktop processor	Laptop
Series	no data	AMD Picasso (Ryzen 3000 APU)
Power efficiency	1.26	15.83
Architecture codename	Clarkdale (2010−2011)	Dali (Zen) (2020)
Release date	7 January 2010 (14 years ago)	6 January 2020 (4 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$45	no data

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance per price, higher is better.

no data

Detailed specifications

Core i3-540 and Athlon Gold 3150U 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	4	4
Base clock speed	3.06 GHz	2.4 GHz
Boost clock speed	0.07 GHz	3.3 GHz
Bus rate	2.5 GT/s	no data
Multiplier	no data	24
L1 cache	64 KB (per core)	192 KB
L2 cache	256 KB (per core)	1 MB
L3 cache	4 MB (shared)	4 MB
Chip lithography	32 nm	14 nm
Die size	81 mm²	no data
Maximum core temperature	73 °C	95 °C
Number of transistors	382 million	4500 Million
64 bit support	+	+
Windows 11 compatibility	-	+

Compatibility

Information on Core i3-540 and Athlon Gold 3150U 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	FCLGA1156	FP5
Power consumption (TDP)	73 Watt	15 Watt

Technologies and extensions

Technological solutions and additional instructions supported by Core i3-540 and Athlon Gold 3150U. You'll probably need this information if you require some particular technology.

Instruction set extensions	Intel® SSE4.2	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	-	+
Enhanced SpeedStep (EIST)	+	no data
Turbo Boost Technology	-	no data
Hyper-Threading Technology	+	no data
Idle States	+	no data
Demand Based Switching	-	no data
PAE	36 Bit	no data
FDI	+	no data
Precision Boost 2	no data	+

Security technologies

Core i3-540 and Athlon Gold 3150U 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 i3-540 and Athlon Gold 3150U are enumerated here.

AMD-V	-	+
VT-x	+	no data
EPT	+	no data

Memory specs

Types, maximum amount and channel quantity of RAM supported by Core i3-540 and Athlon Gold 3150U. Depending on the motherboard, higher memory frequencies may be supported.

Supported memory types	DDR3	DDR4
Maximum memory size	16.38 GB	32 GB
Max memory channels	2	2
Maximum memory bandwidth	21 GB/s	38.397 GB/s
ECC memory support	-	+

Graphics specifications

General parameters of integrated GPUs, if any.

Integrated graphics card Compare	Intel HD Graphics for Previous Generation Intel Processors	AMD Radeon RX Vega 3 ( - 1000 MHz)
Clear Video HD	+	no data

Graphics interfaces

Available interfaces and connections of Core i3-540 and Athlon Gold 3150U integrated GPUs.

Number of displays supported

no data

Peripherals

Specifications and connection of peripherals supported by Core i3-540 and Athlon Gold 3150U.

PCIe version	2.0	3.0
PCI Express lanes	16	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.

i3-540 0.97

Athlon Gold 3150U 2.51
+159%

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.

i3-540 1540

Athlon Gold 3150U 3989
+159%

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.

i3-540 408

Athlon Gold 3150U 815
+99.8%

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.

i3-540 837

Athlon Gold 3150U 1670
+99.5%

Gaming performance

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	0.97	2.51
Integrated graphics card	0.77	2.98
Recency	7 January 2010	6 January 2020
Chip lithography	32 nm	14 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	73 Watt	15 Watt

Athlon Gold 3150U has a 158.8% higher aggregate performance score, 287% faster integrated GPU, an age advantage of 9 years, a 128.6% more advanced lithography process, and 386.7% lower power consumption.

The Athlon Gold 3150U is our recommended choice as it beats the Core i3-540 in performance tests.

Note that Core i3-540 is a desktop processor while Athlon Gold 3150U is a notebook one.

Should you still have questions on choice between Core i3-540 and Athlon Gold 3150U, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.