Athlon 300U vs i5-2520M

Place in the ranking	2220	1772
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Market segment	Laptop	Laptop
Series	Intel Core i5	AMD Athlon
Power efficiency	3.81	15.32
Architecture codename	Sandy Bridge (2011−2013)	Raven Ridge 2 (2019)
Release date	1 February 2011 (13 years ago)	6 January 2019 (5 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$225	no data

Detailed specifications

Core i5-2520M and Athlon 300U 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	2.5 GHz	2.4 GHz
Boost clock speed	3.2 GHz	3.3 GHz
Bus type	DMI 2.0	PCIe 3.0
Bus rate	4 × 5 GT/s	no data
Multiplier	25	24
L1 cache	64K (per core)	128K (per core)
L2 cache	256K (per core)	512K (per core)
L3 cache	3 MB (shared)	4 MB (shared)
Chip lithography	32 nm	14 nm
Die size	149 mm²	209.78 mm²
Maximum core temperature	100 °C	no data
Number of transistors	624 million	4940 Million
64 bit support	+	+
Windows 11 compatibility	-	+

Compatibility

Information on Core i5-2520M and Athlon 300U 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 (Uniprocessor)	1 (Uniprocessor)
Socket	PPGA988	FP5
Power consumption (TDP)	35 Watt	15 Watt

Technologies and extensions

Technological solutions and additional instructions supported by Core i5-2520M and Athlon 300U. You'll probably need this information if you require some particular technology.

Instruction set extensions	Intel® AVX	XFR, FMA3, SSE 4.2, AVX2, SMT
AES-NI	+	+
FMA	+	-
AVX	+	+
vPro	+	no data
Enhanced SpeedStep (EIST)	+	no data
My WiFi	+	no data
Turbo Boost Technology	2.0	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

Core i5-2520M and Athlon 300U technologies aimed at improving security, for example, by protecting against hacks.

TXT	+	no data
EDB	+	no data
Identity Protection	+	-
Anti-Theft	+	no data

Virtualization technologies

Virtual machine speed-up technologies supported by Core i5-2520M and Athlon 300U are enumerated here.

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

Memory specs

Types, maximum amount and channel quantity of RAM supported by Core i5-2520M and Athlon 300U. Depending on the motherboard, higher memory frequencies may be supported.

Supported memory types	DDR3	DDR4 Dual-channel
Maximum memory size	16 GB	64 GB
Max memory channels	2	2
Maximum memory bandwidth	21.335 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 3000	AMD Radeon RX Vega 3 ( - 1000 MHz)
Quick Sync Video	+	-
Clear Video HD	+	no data
Graphics max frequency	1.3 GHz	no data
InTru 3D	+	no data

Graphics interfaces

Available interfaces and connections of Core i5-2520M and Athlon 300U integrated GPUs.

Number of displays supported	2	no data
eDP	+	no data
DisplayPort	+	-
HDMI	+	-
SDVO	+	no data
CRT	+	no data

Peripherals

Specifications and connection of peripherals supported by Core i5-2520M and Athlon 300U.

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.

i5-2520M 1.41

Athlon 300U 2.43
+72.3%

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.

i5-2520M 2237

Athlon 300U 3867
+72.9%

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.

i5-2520M 4041
+1.8%

Athlon 300U 3968

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.

i5-2520M 8815
+1%

Athlon 300U 8724

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.

i5-2520M 18

Athlon 300U 15.44
+16.6%

Gaming performance

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	1.41	2.43
Integrated graphics card	0.66	2.98
Recency	1 February 2011	6 January 2019
Chip lithography	32 nm	14 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	35 Watt	15 Watt

Athlon 300U has a 72.3% higher aggregate performance score, 351.5% faster integrated GPU, an age advantage of 7 years, a 128.6% more advanced lithography process, and 133.3% lower power consumption.

The Athlon 300U is our recommended choice as it beats the Core i5-2520M in performance tests.

Should you still have questions on choice between Core i5-2520M and Athlon 300U, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.