Athlon 300U vs i7-2960XM

Place in the ranking	1637	1758
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Market segment	Laptop	Laptop
Series	Intel Core i7	AMD Athlon
Power efficiency	5.14	15.33
Architecture codename	Sandy Bridge (2011−2013)	Raven Ridge 2 (2019)
Release date	4 September 2011 (13 years ago)	6 January 2019 (5 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$1,096	no data

Detailed specifications

Core i7-2960XM 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	4 (Quad-Core)	2 (Dual-core)
Threads	8	4
Base clock speed	2.7 GHz	2.4 GHz
Boost clock speed	3.7 GHz	3.3 GHz
Bus type	no data	PCIe 3.0
Bus rate	5 GT/s	no data
Multiplier	no data	24
L1 cache	64K (per core)	128K (per core)
L2 cache	256K (per core)	512K (per core)
L3 cache	8 MB (shared)	4 MB (shared)
Chip lithography	32 nm	14 nm
Die size	216 mm²	209.78 mm²
Maximum core temperature	100 °C	no data
Number of transistors	1,160 million	4940 Million
64 bit support	+	+
Windows 11 compatibility	-	+
Unlocked multiplier	+	-

Compatibility

Information on Core i7-2960XM 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	1 (Uniprocessor)
Socket	FCPGA988	FP5
Power consumption (TDP)	55 Watt	15 Watt

Technologies and extensions

Technological solutions and additional instructions supported by Core i7-2960XM 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	+	+
AVX	+	+
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 i7-2960XM 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 i7-2960XM 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 i7-2960XM and Athlon 300U. Depending on the motherboard, higher memory frequencies may be supported.

Supported memory types	DDR3	DDR4 Dual-channel
Maximum memory size	32 GB	64 GB
Max memory channels	2	2
Maximum memory bandwidth	25.6 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
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 i7-2960XM 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 i7-2960XM 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.

i7-2960XM 2.99
+23%

Athlon 300U 2.43

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.

i7-2960XM 4754
+22.9%

Athlon 300U 3867

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.

i7-2960XM 4928
+24.2%

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.

i7-2960XM 18300
+110%

Athlon 300U 8724

Gaming performance

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	2.99	2.43
Integrated graphics card	0.66	2.98
Recency	4 September 2011	6 January 2019
Physical cores	4	2
Threads	8	4
Chip lithography	32 nm	14 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	55 Watt	15 Watt

i7-2960XM has a 23% higher aggregate performance score, and 100% more physical cores and 100% more threads.

Athlon 300U, on the other hand, has 351.5% faster integrated GPU, an age advantage of 7 years, a 128.6% more advanced lithography process, and 266.7% lower power consumption.

The Core i7-2960XM is our recommended choice as it beats the Athlon 300U in performance tests.

Should you still have questions on choice between Core i7-2960XM and Athlon 300U, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.