Athlon II X2 250 vs Pentium N3540

Place in the ranking	2645	2725
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	no data	3.61
Market segment	Laptop	Desktop processor
Series	Intel Pentium	no data
Power efficiency	9.59	0.99
Architecture codename	Bay Trail-M (2013−2014)	Regor (2009−2013)
Release date	22 May 2014 (10 years ago)	2 June 2009 (15 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$251	$39

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance per price, higher is better.

no data

Detailed specifications

Pentium N3540 and Athlon II X2 250 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	4	2
Base clock speed	2.16 GHz	3 GHz
Boost clock speed	2.66 GHz	3 GHz
L1 cache	224 KB	256 KB
L2 cache	2 MB	2 MB
L3 cache	2 MB L2 Cache	0 KB
Chip lithography	22 nm	45 nm
Die size	no data	117 mm²
Maximum core temperature	100 °C	no data
Number of transistors	no data	410 million
64 bit support	+	+
Windows 11 compatibility	-	-

Compatibility

Information on Pentium N3540 and Athlon II X2 250 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	FCBGA1170	AM3
Power consumption (TDP)	7.5 Watt	65 Watt

Technologies and extensions

Technological solutions and additional instructions supported by Pentium N3540 and Athlon II X2 250. You'll probably need this information if you require some particular technology.

Enhanced SpeedStep (EIST)	+	no data
Turbo Boost Technology	-	no data
Hyper-Threading Technology	-	no data
Idle States	+	no data
Smart Connect	+	no data

Security technologies

Pentium N3540 and Athlon II X2 250 technologies aimed at improving security, for example, by protecting against hacks.

EDB	+	no data
Secure Key	+	no data
Anti-Theft	-	no data

Virtualization technologies

Virtual machine speed-up technologies supported by Pentium N3540 and Athlon II X2 250 are enumerated here.

VT-d	-	no data
VT-x	+	no data

Memory specs

Types, maximum amount and channel quantity of RAM supported by Pentium N3540 and Athlon II X2 250. Depending on the motherboard, higher memory frequencies may be supported.

Supported memory types	DDR3L-1333	DDR3
Maximum memory size	8 GB	no data
Max memory channels	2	no data
Maximum memory bandwidth	21.32 GB/s	no data

Graphics specifications

General parameters of integrated GPUs, if any.

Integrated graphics card	Intel HD Graphics for Intel Atom Processor Z3700 Series	On certain motherboards (Chipset feature)
Quick Sync Video	+	-
Graphics max frequency	896 MHz	no data

Graphics interfaces

Available interfaces and connections of Pentium N3540 and Athlon II X2 250 integrated GPUs.

Number of displays supported

no data

Graphics API support

APIs supported by Pentium N3540 and Athlon II X2 250 integrated GPUs, sometimes API versions are included.

DirectX

11.2

no data

Peripherals

Specifications and connection of peripherals supported by Pentium N3540 and Athlon II X2 250.

PCIe version	2.0	2.0
PCI Express lanes	4	no data
USB revision	3.0 and 2.0	no data
Total number of SATA ports	2	no data
Number of USB ports	5	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.

Pentium N3540 0.76
+11.8%

Athlon II X2 250 0.68

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.

Pentium N3540 1200
+11.1%

Athlon II X2 250 1080

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.

Pentium N3540 192

Athlon II X2 250 307
+59.9%

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.

Pentium N3540 549
+1.9%

Athlon II X2 250 539

Gaming performance

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	0.76	0.68
Recency	22 May 2014	2 June 2009
Physical cores	4	2
Threads	4	2
Chip lithography	22 nm	45 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	7 Watt	65 Watt

Pentium N3540 has a 11.8% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 4 years, 100% more physical cores and 100% more threads, a 104.5% more advanced lithography process, and 828.6% lower power consumption.

The Pentium N3540 is our recommended choice as it beats the Athlon II X2 250 in performance tests.

Be aware that Pentium N3540 is a notebook processor while Athlon II X2 250 is a desktop one.

Should you still have questions on choice between Pentium N3540 and Athlon II X2 250, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.