Athlon Silver 7120U vs i7-2600K

Place in the ranking	1538	1923
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	0.41	no data
Market segment	Desktop processor	Laptop
Series	Intel Core i7 (Desktop)	no data
Power efficiency	3.45	12.46
Architecture codename	Sandy Bridge (2011−2013)	Mendocino (Zen 2) (2022−2023)
Release date	9 January 2011 (13 years ago)	20 September 2022 (2 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$317	no data

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance per price, higher is better.

no data

Detailed specifications

Core i7-2600K and Athlon Silver 7120U 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	4 (Quad-Core)	2 (Dual-core)
Threads	8	2
Base clock speed	3.4 GHz	2.4 GHz
Boost clock speed	3.8 GHz	3.5 GHz
Bus rate	5 GT/s	no data
L1 cache	64 KB (per core)	64 KB (per core)
L2 cache	256K (per core)	512 KB (per core)
L3 cache	8 MB (shared)	2 MB (shared)
Chip lithography	32 nm	6 nm
Die size	216 mm²	100 mm²
Maximum core temperature	73 °C	no data
Number of transistors	1,160 million	no data
64 bit support	+	+
Windows 11 compatibility	-	no data
Unlocked multiplier	+	-

Compatibility

Information on Core i7-2600K and Athlon Silver 7120U 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	1
Socket	LGA1155	FP6
Power consumption (TDP)	95 Watt	15 Watt

Technologies and extensions

Technological solutions and additional instructions supported by Core i7-2600K and Athlon Silver 7120U. You'll probably need this information if you require some particular technology.

Instruction set extensions	Intel® SSE4.1, Intel® SSE4.2, Intel® AVX	XFR, FMA3, SSE 4.2, AVX2, SMT
AES-NI	+	+
AVX	+	+
Enhanced SpeedStep (EIST)	+	no data
Turbo Boost Technology	+	no data
Hyper-Threading Technology	+	no data
Idle States	+	no data
Thermal Monitoring	+	-
Flex Memory Access	+	no data
FDI	+	no data
Fast Memory Access	+	no data

Security technologies

Core i7-2600K and Athlon Silver 7120U technologies aimed at improving security, for example, by protecting against hacks.

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

Virtualization technologies

Virtual machine speed-up technologies supported by Core i7-2600K and Athlon Silver 7120U 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 i7-2600K and Athlon Silver 7120U. Depending on the motherboard, higher memory frequencies may be supported.

Supported memory types	DDR3	DDR5 Dual-channel
Maximum memory size	32 GB	no data
Max memory channels	2	no data
Maximum memory bandwidth	21 GB/s	no data

Graphics specifications

General parameters of integrated GPUs, if any.

Integrated graphics card Compare	Intel HD Graphics 3000	AMD Radeon 610M
Quick Sync Video	+	-
Clear Video HD	+	no data
Graphics max frequency	1.35 GHz	no data
InTru 3D	+	no data

Graphics interfaces

Available interfaces and connections of Core i7-2600K and Athlon Silver 7120U integrated GPUs.

Number of displays supported

no data

Peripherals

Specifications and connection of peripherals supported by Core i7-2600K and Athlon Silver 7120U.

PCIe version	2.0	3.0
PCI Express lanes	16	4

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.

i7-2600K 3.59
+75.1%

Athlon Silver 7120U 2.05

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.

i7-2600K 5490
+74.7%

Athlon Silver 7120U 3142

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.

i7-2600K 667

Athlon Silver 7120U 960
+43.9%

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.

i7-2600K 2292
+45.2%

Athlon Silver 7120U 1578

Gaming performance

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	3.59	2.05
Integrated graphics card	0.66	2.85
Recency	9 January 2011	20 September 2022
Physical cores	4	2
Threads	8	2
Chip lithography	32 nm	6 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	95 Watt	15 Watt

i7-2600K has a 75.1% higher aggregate performance score, and 100% more physical cores and 300% more threads.

Athlon Silver 7120U, on the other hand, has 331.8% faster integrated GPU, an age advantage of 11 years, a 433.3% more advanced lithography process, and 533.3% lower power consumption.

The Core i7-2600K is our recommended choice as it beats the Athlon Silver 7120U in performance tests.

Note that Core i7-2600K is a desktop processor while Athlon Silver 7120U is a notebook one.

Should you still have questions on choice between Core i7-2600K and Athlon Silver 7120U, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.