Pentium B960 vs Pentium 3550M
Aggregate performance score
Pentium 3550M outperforms Pentium B960 by a substantial 35% based on our aggregate benchmark results.
Primary details
Comparing Pentium 3550M and Pentium B960 processor market type (desktop or notebook), architecture, sales start time and price.
| Place in the ranking | 2588 | 2792 |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | not in top-100 |
| Market segment | Laptop | Laptop |
| Series | Intel Pentium | Intel Pentium |
| Power efficiency | 2.15 | 1.68 |
| Architecture codename | Haswell (2013−2015) | Sandy Bridge (2011−2013) |
| Release date | 1 September 2013 (11 years ago) | 3 October 2011 (13 years ago) |
| Launch price (MSRP) | $134 | $134 |
Detailed specifications
Pentium 3550M and Pentium B960 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 | 2 | 2 |
| Base clock speed | 2.3 GHz | 2.2 GHz |
| Boost clock speed | 2.3 GHz | 2.2 GHz |
| Bus type | no data | DMI 2.0 |
| Bus rate | 5 GT/s | 4 × 5 GT/s |
| Multiplier | no data | 22 |
| L1 cache | 64K (per core) | 128 KB |
| L2 cache | 256K (per core) | 512 KB |
| L3 cache | 2 MB (shared) | 2 MB (shared) |
| Chip lithography | 22 nm | 32 nm |
| Die size | 118 mm2 | 131 mm2 |
| Maximum core temperature | 100 °C | 85 °C |
| Maximum case temperature (TCase) | 105 °C | no data |
| Number of transistors | 1,400 million | 504 million |
| 64 bit support | + | + |
| Windows 11 compatibility | - | - |
Compatibility
Information on Pentium 3550M and Pentium B960 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 | FCPGA946 | FCPGA988,PGA988 |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 37 Watt | 35 Watt |
Technologies and extensions
Technological solutions and additional instructions supported by Pentium 3550M and Pentium B960. 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 |
| FMA | - | + |
| Enhanced SpeedStep (EIST) | + | + |
| My WiFi | no data | - |
| Turbo Boost Technology | - | - |
| Hyper-Threading Technology | - | - |
| 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
Pentium 3550M and Pentium B960 technologies aimed at improving security, for example, by protecting against hacks.
| TXT | - | - |
| EDB | + | + |
| Secure Key | + | no data |
| Anti-Theft | - | - |
Virtualization technologies
Virtual machine speed-up technologies supported by Pentium 3550M and Pentium B960 are enumerated here.
| AMD-V | + | - |
| VT-d | - | - |
| VT-x | + | - |
| EPT | + | no data |
Memory specs
Types, maximum amount and channel quantity of RAM supported by Pentium 3550M and Pentium B960. Depending on the motherboard, higher memory frequencies may be supported.
| Supported memory types | DDR3 | DDR3 |
| Maximum memory size | 32 GB | 16 GB |
| Max memory channels | 2 | 2 |
| Maximum memory bandwidth | 25.6 GB/s | 21.335 GB/s |
Graphics specifications
General parameters of integrated GPUs, if any.
| Integrated graphics card | Intel HD Graphics for 4th Generation Intel Processors | Intel HD Graphics for 2nd Generation Intel Processors |
| Clear Video HD | - | - |
| Graphics max frequency | 1.1 GHz | 1.1 GHz |
Graphics interfaces
Available interfaces and connections of Pentium 3550M and Pentium B960 integrated GPUs.
| Number of displays supported | 3 | 2 |
| eDP | + | + |
| DisplayPort | + | + |
| HDMI | + | + |
| VGA | + | no data |
| SDVO | no data | + |
| CRT | no data | + |
Peripherals
Specifications and connection of peripherals supported by Pentium 3550M and Pentium B960.
| 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.
Pros & cons summary
| Performance score | 0.84 | 0.62 |
| Recency | 1 September 2013 | 3 October 2011 |
| Chip lithography | 22 nm | 32 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 37 Watt | 35 Watt |
Pentium 3550M has a 35.5% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 1 year, and a 45.5% more advanced lithography process.
Pentium B960, on the other hand, has 5.7% lower power consumption.
The Pentium 3550M is our recommended choice as it beats the Pentium B960 in performance tests.
Should you still have questions on choice between Pentium 3550M and Pentium B960, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.
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