Athlon II X2 240 vs Pentium 3556U
Aggregate performance score
Pentium 3556U outperforms Athlon II X2 240 by a minimal 2% based on our aggregate benchmark results.
Primary details
Comparing Pentium 3556U and Athlon II X2 240 processor market type (desktop or notebook), architecture, sales start time and price.
| Place in the ranking | 2746 | 2756 |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | not in top-100 |
| Cost-effectiveness evaluation | no data | 3.28 |
| Market segment | Laptop | Desktop processor |
| Series | Intel Pentium | no data |
| Power efficiency | 4.21 | 0.96 |
| Architecture codename | Haswell (2013−2015) | Regor (2009−2013) |
| Release date | 1 September 2013 (11 years ago) | 23 July 2009 (15 years ago) |
| Launch price (MSRP) | no data | $35 |
Cost-effectiveness evaluation
Performance per price, higher is better.
Detailed specifications
Pentium 3556U and Athlon II X2 240 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 | 1.7 GHz | 2.8 GHz |
| Boost clock speed | 1.7 GHz | 2.8 GHz |
| Bus rate | 5 GT/s | no data |
| L1 cache | 64K (per core) | 256 KB |
| L2 cache | 256K (per core) | 2 MB |
| L3 cache | 2 MB (shared) | 0 KB |
| Chip lithography | 22 nm | 45 nm |
| Die size | 118 mm2 | 117 mm2 |
| Maximum core temperature | 100 °C | no data |
| Maximum case temperature (TCase) | 105 °C | no data |
| Number of transistors | 1,400 million | 410 million |
| 64 bit support | + | + |
| Windows 11 compatibility | - | - |
Compatibility
Information on Pentium 3556U and Athlon II X2 240 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 | FCBGA1168 | AM3 |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 15 Watt | 65 Watt |
Technologies and extensions
Technological solutions and additional instructions supported by Pentium 3556U and Athlon II X2 240. You'll probably need this information if you require some particular technology.
| Instruction set extensions | Intel® SSE4.1, Intel® SSE4.2 | no data |
| Enhanced SpeedStep (EIST) | + | no data |
| Turbo Boost Technology | - | no data |
| Hyper-Threading Technology | - | no data |
| Idle States | + | no data |
| Thermal Monitoring | + | - |
| Smart Response | - | no data |
| GPIO | + | no data |
| Smart Connect | + | no data |
| FDI | - | no data |
| AMT | 9.5 | no data |
| Matrix Storage | - | no data |
| HD Audio | + | no data |
| RST | + | no data |
Security technologies
Pentium 3556U and Athlon II X2 240 technologies aimed at improving security, for example, by protecting against hacks.
| TXT | - | no data |
| EDB | + | no data |
| Secure Key | + | no data |
| OS Guard | - | no data |
| Anti-Theft | - | no data |
Virtualization technologies
Virtual machine speed-up technologies supported by Pentium 3556U and Athlon II X2 240 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 Pentium 3556U and Athlon II X2 240. Depending on the motherboard, higher memory frequencies may be supported.
| Supported memory types | DDR3 | DDR3 |
| Maximum memory size | 16 GB | no data |
| Max memory channels | 2 | no data |
| Maximum memory bandwidth | 25.6 GB/s | no data |
Graphics specifications
General parameters of integrated GPUs, if any.
| Integrated graphics card | Intel HD Graphics for 4th Generation Intel Processors | On certain motherboards (Chipset feature) |
| Clear Video | + | no data |
| Graphics max frequency | 1 GHz | no data |
Graphics interfaces
Available interfaces and connections of Pentium 3556U and Athlon II X2 240 integrated GPUs.
| Number of displays supported | 3 | no data |
| eDP | + | no data |
| DisplayPort | + | - |
| HDMI | + | - |
Peripherals
Specifications and connection of peripherals supported by Pentium 3556U and Athlon II X2 240.
| PCIe version | 2.0 | 2.0 |
| PCI Express lanes | 10 | no data |
| PCI support | - | no data |
| USB revision | 3.0 | no data |
| Total number of SATA ports | 2 | no data |
| Max number of SATA 6 Gb/s Ports | 2 | no data |
| Integrated IDE | - | no data |
| Number of USB ports | 4 | no data |
| Integrated LAN | - | no data |
| UART | + | no data |
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.
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.
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.
Pros & cons summary
| Performance score | 0.67 | 0.66 |
| Recency | 1 September 2013 | 23 July 2009 |
| Chip lithography | 22 nm | 45 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 15 Watt | 65 Watt |
Pentium 3556U has a 1.5% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 4 years, a 104.5% more advanced lithography process, and 333.3% lower power consumption.
Given the minimal performance differences, no clear winner can be declared between Pentium 3556U and Athlon II X2 240.
Be aware that Pentium 3556U is a notebook processor while Athlon II X2 240 is a desktop one.
Should you still have questions on choice between Pentium 3556U and Athlon II X2 240, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.
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