Pentium 977 vs i5-520M
Aggregate performance score
Core i5-520M outperforms Pentium 977 by an impressive 50% based on our aggregate benchmark results.
Primary details
Comparing Core i5-520M and Pentium 977 processor market type (desktop or notebook), architecture, sales start time and price.
| Place in the ranking | 2420 | 2700 |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | not in top-100 |
| Market segment | Laptop | Laptop |
| Series | Intel Core i5 | Intel Pentium |
| Power efficiency | 2.92 | 4.01 |
| Architecture codename | Arrandale (2010−2011) | Sandy Bridge (2011−2013) |
| Release date | 7 January 2010 (14 years ago) | 1 January 2012 (12 years ago) |
| Launch price (MSRP) | $225 | $134 |
Detailed specifications
Core i5-520M and Pentium 977 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 | 2.4 GHz | 1.4 GHz |
| Boost clock speed | 2.93 GHz | 1.4 GHz |
| Bus type | DMI 1.0 | DMI 2.0 |
| Bus rate | 1 × 2.5 GT/s | 4 × 5 GT/s |
| Multiplier | 18 | 14 |
| L1 cache | 128 KB | 64K (per core) |
| L2 cache | 512 KB | 256K (per core) |
| L3 cache | 3 MB | 2 MB (shared) |
| Chip lithography | 32 nm | 32 nm |
| Die size | 81+114 mm2 | 131 mm2 |
| Maximum core temperature | 105 °C | 100 °C |
| Number of transistors | 382+177 Million | 504 million |
| 64 bit support | + | + |
| Windows 11 compatibility | - | - |
Compatibility
Information on Core i5-520M and Pentium 977 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 | BGA1288,PGA988 | FCBGA1023 |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 35 Watt | 17 Watt |
Technologies and extensions
Technological solutions and additional instructions supported by Core i5-520M and Pentium 977. You'll probably need this information if you require some particular technology.
| Instruction set extensions | Intel® SSE4.1, Intel® SSE4.2 | Intel® SSE4.1, Intel® SSE4.2 |
| AES-NI | + | - |
| FMA | + | + |
| vPro | + | no data |
| Enhanced SpeedStep (EIST) | + | + |
| My WiFi | no data | - |
| Turbo Boost Technology | + | - |
| Hyper-Threading Technology | + | - |
| Idle States | + | + |
| Thermal Monitoring | + | + |
| Flex Memory Access | + | + |
| Demand Based Switching | no data | - |
| PAE | 36 Bit | no data |
| FDI | + | + |
| Fast Memory Access | + | + |
Security technologies
Core i5-520M and Pentium 977 technologies aimed at improving security, for example, by protecting against hacks.
| TXT | + | - |
| EDB | + | + |
| Anti-Theft | no data | - |
Virtualization technologies
Virtual machine speed-up technologies supported by Core i5-520M and Pentium 977 are enumerated here.
| VT-d | + | - |
| VT-x | + | - |
| EPT | + | no data |
Memory specs
Types, maximum amount and channel quantity of RAM supported by Core i5-520M and Pentium 977. Depending on the motherboard, higher memory frequencies may be supported.
| Supported memory types | DDR3-800, DDR3-1066 | DDR3 |
| Maximum memory size | 8.3 GB | 16.38 GB |
| Max memory channels | 2 | 2 |
| Maximum memory bandwidth | 17.051 GB/s | 21.335 GB/s |
Graphics specifications
General parameters of integrated GPUs, if any.
| Integrated graphics card | Intel HD Graphics for Previous Generation Intel Processors | Intel HD Graphics for 2nd Generation Intel Processors |
| Clear Video | + | no data |
| Clear Video HD | + | - |
| Graphics max frequency | 766 MHz | 1 GHz |
Graphics interfaces
Available interfaces and connections of Core i5-520M and Pentium 977 integrated GPUs.
| Number of displays supported | 2 | 2 |
| eDP | no data | + |
| DisplayPort | - | + |
| HDMI | - | + |
| SDVO | no data | + |
| CRT | no data | + |
Peripherals
Specifications and connection of peripherals supported by Core i5-520M and Pentium 977.
| PCIe version | 2.0 | 2.0 |
| PCI Express lanes | 16 | 16 |
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.
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.
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.
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.
Cinebench 11.5 64-bit multi-core
Cinebench Release 11.5 Multi Core is a variant of Cinebench R11.5 which uses all the processor threads. A maximum of 64 threads is supported in this version.
Pros & cons summary
| Performance score | 1.08 | 0.72 |
| Recency | 7 January 2010 | 1 January 2012 |
| Threads | 4 | 2 |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 35 Watt | 17 Watt |
i5-520M has a 50% higher aggregate performance score, and 100% more threads.
Pentium 977, on the other hand, has an age advantage of 1 year, and 105.9% lower power consumption.
The Core i5-520M is our recommended choice as it beats the Pentium 977 in performance tests.
Should you still have questions on choice between Core i5-520M and Pentium 977, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.
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