i3-3227U vs i7-3540M

Place in the ranking	1987	2607
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Market segment	Laptop	Laptop
Series	Intel Core i7	Intel Core i3
Power efficiency	5.08	4.51
Architecture codename	Ivy Bridge (2012−2013)	Ivy Bridge (2012−2013)
Release date	8 January 2013 (11 years ago)	8 January 2013 (11 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$349	$225

Detailed specifications

Core i7-3540M and Core i3-3227U 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	3 GHz	1.9 GHz
Boost clock speed	3.7 GHz	1.9 GHz
Bus rate	5 GT/s	5 GT/s
L1 cache	64K (per core)	64K (per core)
L2 cache	256K (per core)	256K (per core)
L3 cache	4 MB (shared)	3 MB (shared)
Chip lithography	22 nm	22 nm
Die size	118 mm²	118 mm²
Maximum core temperature	105 °C	105 °C
64 bit support	+	+
Windows 11 compatibility	-	-

Compatibility

Information on Core i7-3540M and Core i3-3227U 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	FCBGA1023,FCPGA988	FCBGA1023
Power consumption (TDP)	35 Watt	17 Watt

Technologies and extensions

Technological solutions and additional instructions supported by Core i7-3540M and Core i3-3227U. You'll probably need this information if you require some particular technology.

Instruction set extensions	Intel® AVX	Intel® AVX
AES-NI	+	-
AVX	+	+
Enhanced SpeedStep (EIST)	+	+
My WiFi	+	+
Turbo Boost Technology	2.0	-
Hyper-Threading Technology	+	+
Idle States	+	+
Thermal Monitoring	+	+
Flex Memory Access	+	+
Demand Based Switching	-	-
FDI	+	+
Fast Memory Access	+	+

Security technologies

Core i7-3540M and Core i3-3227U technologies aimed at improving security, for example, by protecting against hacks.

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

Virtualization technologies

Virtual machine speed-up technologies supported by Core i7-3540M and Core i3-3227U are enumerated here.

AMD-V	+	-
VT-d	+	-
VT-x	+	+
EPT	+	+

Memory specs

Types, maximum amount and channel quantity of RAM supported by Core i7-3540M and Core i3-3227U. Depending on the motherboard, higher memory frequencies may be supported.

Supported memory types	DDR3	DDR3
Maximum memory size	32 GB	32 GB
Max memory channels	2	2
Maximum memory bandwidth	25.6 GB/s	25.6 GB/s

Graphics specifications

General parameters of integrated GPUs, if any.

Integrated graphics card	Intel HD Graphics 4000	Intel HD Graphics 4000
Quick Sync Video	+	+
Clear Video HD	+	+
Graphics max frequency	1.3 GHz	1.1 GHz
InTru 3D	+	+

Graphics interfaces

Available interfaces and connections of Core i7-3540M and Core i3-3227U integrated GPUs.

Number of displays supported	3	3
eDP	+	+
DisplayPort	+	+
HDMI	+	+
SDVO	+	+
CRT	+	+

Peripherals

Specifications and connection of peripherals supported by Core i7-3540M and Core i3-3227U.

PCIe version	3.0	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.

i7-3540M 1.88
+132%

i3-3227U 0.81

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.

i7-3540M 2984
+131%

i3-3227U 1293

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.

i7-3540M 566
+88%

i3-3227U 301

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.

i7-3540M 1161
+78.1%

i3-3227U 652

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.

i7-3540M 5030
+95.7%

i3-3227U 2571

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.

i7-3540M 10811
+86.2%

i3-3227U 5806

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.

i7-3540M 4320
+79%

i3-3227U 2413

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.

i7-3540M 14.86
+95.6%

i3-3227U 29.06

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.

i7-3540M 3
+86.5%

i3-3227U 2

Cinebench 11.5 64-bit single-core

Cinebench R11.5 is an old benchmark by Maxon, authors of Cinema 4D. It was superseded by later versions of Cinebench, which use more modern variants of Cinema 4D engine. The Single Core version loads a single thread with ray tracing to render a glossy room full of crystal spheres and light sources.

i7-3540M 1.53
+107%

i3-3227U 0.74

TrueCrypt AES

TrueCrypt is a discontinued piece of software that was widely used for on-the-fly-encryption of disk partitions, now superseded by VeraCrypt. It contains several embedded performance tests, one of them being TrueCrypt AES, which measures data encryption speed using AES algorithm. Result is encryption speed in gigabytes per second.

i7-3540M 1.7
+795%

i3-3227U 0.2

WinRAR 4.0

WinRAR 4.0 is an outdated version of a popular file archiver. It contains an internal speed test, using 'Best' setting of RAR compression on large chunks of randomly generated data. Its results are measured in kilobytes per second.

i7-3540M 2940
+45.9%

i3-3227U 2015

x264 encoding pass 2

x264 Pass 2 is a slower variant of x264 video compression that produces a variable bit rate output file, which results in better quality since the higher bit rate is used when it is needed more. Benchmark result is still measured in frames per second.

i7-3540M 20
+83.6%

i3-3227U 11

x264 encoding pass 1

x264 version 4.0 is a video encoding benchmark uses MPEG 4 x264 compression method to compress a sample HD (720p) video. Pass 1 is a faster variant that produces a constant bit rate output file. Its result is measured in frames per second, which means how many frames of the source video file were encoded per second.

i7-3540M 105
+76.7%

i3-3227U 60