Pentium Extreme Edition 955 vs Pentium B980

Primary details

Comparing Pentium B980 and Pentium Extreme Edition 955 processor market type (desktop or notebook), architecture, sales start time and price.

Place in the ranking	2756	3133
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Market segment	Laptop	Desktop processor
Series	Intel Pentium	no data
Power efficiency	1.83	0.21
Architecture codename	Sandy Bridge (2011−2013)	Presler (2005−2007)
Release date	1 September 2012 (12 years ago)	27 December 2005 (19 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$125	$999

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance per price, higher is better.

Detailed specifications

Pentium B980 and Pentium Extreme Edition 955 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	4
Base clock speed	2.4 GHz	3.466 GHz
Boost clock speed	2.4 GHz	0.47 GHz
Bus type	DMI 2.0	no data
Bus rate	4 × 5 GT/s	no data
Multiplier	24	no data
L1 cache	64K (per core)	16 KB (per core)
L2 cache	256K (per core)	2 MB (per core)
L3 cache	2 MB (shared)	no data
Chip lithography	32 nm	65 nm
Die size	131 mm2	2x 81 mm2
Maximum core temperature	85 °C	no data
Maximum case temperature (TCase)	no data	69 °C
Number of transistors	504 million	376 million
64 bit support	+	+
Windows 11 compatibility	-	no data
Unlocked multiplier	-	+

Compatibility

Information on Pentium B980 and Pentium Extreme Edition 955 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 (Uniprocessor)	1
Socket	FCPGA988,PGA988	775
Power consumption (TDP)	35 Watt	130 Watt

Technologies and extensions

Technological solutions and additional instructions supported by Pentium B980 and Pentium Extreme Edition 955. You'll probably need this information if you require some particular technology.

Instruction set extensions	Intel® SSE4.1, Intel® SSE4.2	no data
FMA	+	-
Enhanced SpeedStep (EIST)	+	no data
My WiFi	-	no data
Turbo Boost Technology	-	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

Pentium B980 and Pentium Extreme Edition 955 technologies aimed at improving security, for example, by protecting against hacks.

TXT	-	no data
EDB	+	no data
Anti-Theft	-	no data

Virtualization technologies

Virtual machine speed-up technologies supported by Pentium B980 and Pentium Extreme Edition 955 are enumerated here.

VT-d	-	no data
VT-x	-	+

Memory specs

Types, maximum amount and channel quantity of RAM supported by Pentium B980 and Pentium Extreme Edition 955. Depending on the motherboard, higher memory frequencies may be supported.

Supported memory types	DDR3	DDR1, DDR2, DDR3 Depends on motherboard
Maximum memory size	16 GB	no data
Max memory channels	2	no data
Maximum memory bandwidth	21.335 GB/s	no data

Graphics specifications

General parameters of integrated GPUs, if any.

Integrated graphics card	Intel HD Graphics for 2nd Generation Intel Processors	On certain motherboards (Chipset feature)
Graphics max frequency	1.15 GHz	no data

Graphics interfaces

Available interfaces and connections of Pentium B980 and Pentium Extreme Edition 955 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 Pentium B980 and Pentium Extreme Edition 955.

PCIe version	2.0	no data
PCI Express lanes	16	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.

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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.

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Pros & cons summary

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Performance score	0.67	0.29
Recency	1 September 2012	27 December 2005
Threads	2	4
Chip lithography	32 nm	65 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	35 Watt	130 Watt

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Should you still have questions on choice between Pentium B980 and Pentium Extreme Edition 955, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.

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