Celeron 2955U vs Pentium N3540

Aggregate performance score

Pentium N3540
2014
4 cores / 4 threads, 7 Watt
0.76
+38.2%
Celeron 2955U
2013
2 cores / 2 threads, 15 Watt
0.55

Pentium N3540 outperforms Celeron 2955U by a substantial 38% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

Primary details

Comparing Pentium N3540 and Celeron 2955U processor market type (desktop or notebook), architecture, sales start time and price.

Place in the ranking26452831
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Market segmentLaptopLaptop
SeriesIntel PentiumIntel Celeron
Power efficiency9.593.47
Architecture codenameBay Trail-M (2013−2014)Haswell (2013−2015)
Release date22 May 2014 (10 years ago)1 September 2013 (11 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)$251no data

Detailed specifications

Pentium N3540 and Celeron 2955U 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 cores4 (Quad-Core)2 (Dual-core)
Threads42
Base clock speed2.16 GHz1.4 GHz
Boost clock speed2.66 GHz1.4 GHz
Bus rateno data5 GT/s
L1 cache224 KB64K (per core)
L2 cache2 MB256K (per core)
L3 cache2 MB L2 Cache2 MB (shared)
Chip lithography22 nm22 nm
Die sizeno data118 mm2
Maximum core temperature100 °C100 °C
Maximum case temperature (TCase)no data105 °C
Number of transistorsno data1,400 million
64 bit support++
Windows 11 compatibility--

Compatibility

Information on Pentium N3540 and Celeron 2955U 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 configuration11
SocketFCBGA1170FCBGA1168
Power consumption (TDP)7.5 Watt15 Watt

Technologies and extensions

Technological solutions and additional instructions supported by Pentium N3540 and Celeron 2955U. You'll probably need this information if you require some particular technology.

Instruction set extensionsno dataIntel® SSE4.1, Intel® SSE4.2
Enhanced SpeedStep (EIST)++
Turbo Boost Technology--
Hyper-Threading Technology--
Idle States++
Thermal Monitoring-+
Smart Responseno data-
GPIOno data+
Smart Connect++
FDIno data-
AMTno data9.5
Matrix Storageno data-
HD Audiono data+
RSTno data+

Security technologies

Pentium N3540 and Celeron 2955U technologies aimed at improving security, for example, by protecting against hacks.

TXTno data-
EDB++
Secure Key++
OS Guardno data-
Anti-Theft--

Virtualization technologies

Virtual machine speed-up technologies supported by Pentium N3540 and Celeron 2955U are enumerated here.

AMD-V-+
VT-d--
VT-x++
EPTno data+

Memory specs

Types, maximum amount and channel quantity of RAM supported by Pentium N3540 and Celeron 2955U. Depending on the motherboard, higher memory frequencies may be supported.

Supported memory typesDDR3L-1333DDR3
Maximum memory size8 GB16 GB
Max memory channels22
Maximum memory bandwidth21.32 GB/s25.6 GB/s

Graphics specifications

General parameters of integrated GPUs, if any.

Integrated graphics cardIntel® HD Graphics for Intel Atom® Processor Z3700 SeriesIntel® HD Graphics for 4th Generation Intel® Processors
Quick Sync Video+-
Clear Videono data+
Graphics max frequency896 MHz1 GHz

Graphics interfaces

Available interfaces and connections of Pentium N3540 and Celeron 2955U integrated GPUs.

Number of displays supported23
eDPno data+
DisplayPort-+
HDMI-+

Graphics API support

APIs supported by Pentium N3540 and Celeron 2955U integrated GPUs, sometimes API versions are included.

DirectX11.2no data

Peripherals

Specifications and connection of peripherals supported by Pentium N3540 and Celeron 2955U.

PCIe version2.02.0
PCI Express lanes410
PCI supportno data-
USB revision3.0 and 2.03.0
Total number of SATA ports22
Max number of SATA 6 Gb/s Portsno data2
Integrated IDEno data-
Number of USB ports54
Integrated LANno data-
UARTno 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
+38.2%
Celeron 2955U 0.55

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
+36.8%
Celeron 2955U 877

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
Celeron 2955U 266
+38.5%

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
+20.7%
Celeron 2955U 455

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.

Pentium N3540 1364
Celeron 2955U 2069
+51.7%

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.

Pentium N3540 4752
+18.8%
Celeron 2955U 4000

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.

Pentium N3540 21.92
+143%
Celeron 2955U 53.2

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.

Pentium N3540 2
+66.7%
Celeron 2955U 1

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.

Pentium N3540 0.5
Celeron 2955U 0.61
+22%

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.

Pentium N3540 0.3
+123%
Celeron 2955U 0.1

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.  

Pentium N3540 11
+47.9%
Celeron 2955U 8

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.  

Pentium N3540 54
+33.4%
Celeron 2955U 41

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.

Pentium N3540 1210
+14.8%
Celeron 2955U 1054

Geekbench 3 32-bit multi-core

Pentium N3540 3254
+46.6%
Celeron 2955U 2220

Geekbench 3 32-bit single-core

Pentium N3540 988
Celeron 2955U 1277
+29.3%

Geekbench 2

Pentium N3540 3490
+28.3%
Celeron 2955U 2720

Gaming performance

Pros & cons summary


Performance score 0.76 0.55
Recency 22 May 2014 1 September 2013
Physical cores 4 2
Threads 4 2
Power consumption (TDP) 7 Watt 15 Watt

Pentium N3540 has a 38.2% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 8 months, 100% more physical cores and 100% more threads, and 114.3% lower power consumption.

The Pentium N3540 is our recommended choice as it beats the Celeron 2955U in performance tests.


Should you still have questions on choice between Pentium N3540 and Celeron 2955U, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.

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Intel Pentium N3540
Pentium N3540
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Celeron 2955U

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