Athlon II X2 270 vs i5-480M

Place in the ranking	2576	2583
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	no data	5.15
Market segment	Laptop	Desktop processor
Series	Intel Core i5	no data
Power efficiency	2.26	1.19
Architecture codename	Arrandale (2010−2011)	Regor (2009−2013)
Release date	11 January 2011 (13 years ago)	1 July 2011 (13 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$81	$100

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance per price, higher is better.

no data

Detailed specifications

Core i5-480M and Athlon II X2 270 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	2
Base clock speed	2.66 GHz	3.4 GHz
Boost clock speed	2.93 GHz	3.4 GHz
Bus type	DMI 1.0	no data
Bus rate	1 × 2.5 GT/s	no data
Multiplier	20	no data
L1 cache	128 KB	128 KB
L2 cache	512 KB	1 MB
L3 cache	3 MB (shared)	0 KB
Chip lithography	32 nm	45 nm
Die size	81+114 mm²	117 mm²
Maximum core temperature	105 °C	no data
Number of transistors	382+177 Million	410 million
64 bit support	+	+
Windows 11 compatibility	-	-

Compatibility

Information on Core i5-480M and Athlon II X2 270 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
Socket	BGA1288,PGA988	AM3
Power consumption (TDP)	35 Watt	65 Watt

Technologies and extensions

Technological solutions and additional instructions supported by Core i5-480M and Athlon II X2 270. You'll probably need this information if you require some particular technology.

Instruction set extensions	Intel® SSE4.1, Intel® SSE4.2	no data
FMA	+	-
Enhanced SpeedStep (EIST)	+	no data
Turbo Boost Technology	1.0	no data
Hyper-Threading Technology	+	no data
Idle States	+	no data
Thermal Monitoring	+	-
Flex Memory Access	+	no data
PAE	36 Bit	no data
FDI	+	no data
Fast Memory Access	+	no data

Security technologies

Core i5-480M and Athlon II X2 270 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 i5-480M and Athlon II X2 270 are enumerated here.

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

Memory specs

Types, maximum amount and channel quantity of RAM supported by Core i5-480M and Athlon II X2 270. Depending on the motherboard, higher memory frequencies may be supported.

Supported memory types	DDR3	DDR2, DDR3
Maximum memory size	8 GB	no data
Max memory channels	2	no data
Maximum memory bandwidth	17.051 GB/s	no data

Graphics specifications

General parameters of integrated GPUs, if any.

Integrated graphics card	Intel® HD Graphics for Previous Generation Intel® Processors	no data
Clear Video	+	no data
Clear Video HD	+	no data
Graphics max frequency	766 MHz	no data

Graphics interfaces

Available interfaces and connections of Core i5-480M and Athlon II X2 270 integrated GPUs.

Number of displays supported

no data

Peripherals

Specifications and connection of peripherals supported by Core i5-480M and Athlon II X2 270.

PCIe version	2.0	2.0
PCI Express lanes	16	no data

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.

i5-480M 0.84
+2.4%

Athlon II X2 270 0.82

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.

i5-480M 1324
+1.8%

Athlon II X2 270 1301

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.

i5-480M 362
+5.5%

Athlon II X2 270 343

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.

i5-480M 682
+15.4%

Athlon II X2 270 591

Gaming performance

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	0.84	0.82
Recency	11 January 2011	1 July 2011
Threads	4	2
Chip lithography	32 nm	45 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	35 Watt	65 Watt

i5-480M has a 2.4% higher aggregate performance score, 100% more threads, a 40.6% more advanced lithography process, and 85.7% lower power consumption.

Athlon II X2 270, on the other hand, has an age advantage of 5 months.

Given the minimal performance differences, no clear winner can be declared between Core i5-480M and Athlon II X2 270.

Be aware that Core i5-480M is a notebook processor while Athlon II X2 270 is a desktop one.

Should you still have questions on choice between Core i5-480M and Athlon II X2 270, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.