Athlon X4 970 vs Phenom II X3 P860
Primary details
Comparing Phenom II X3 P860 and Athlon X4 970 processor market type (desktop or notebook), architecture, sales start time and price.
| Place in the ranking | not rated | 2060 |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | not in top-100 |
| Market segment | Laptop | Desktop processor |
| Series | 3x AMD Phenom II | no data |
| Power efficiency | no data | 2.42 |
| Architecture codename | Champlain (2010−2011) | Bristol Ridge (2016−2019) |
| Release date | 4 October 2010 (14 years ago) | 27 July 2017 (7 years ago) |
Detailed specifications
Phenom II X3 P860 and Athlon X4 970 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 | 3 (Tri-Core) | 4 (Quad-Core) |
| Threads | 3 | 4 |
| Base clock speed | no data | 3.8 GHz |
| Boost clock speed | 2 GHz | 4 GHz |
| Bus rate | 3600 MHz | no data |
| L1 cache | 384 KB | 128 KB (per core) |
| L2 cache | 1.5 MB | 512 KB (per core) |
| L3 cache | no data | 0 KB |
| Chip lithography | 45 nm | 28 nm |
| Die size | no data | 246 mm2 |
| Maximum case temperature (TCase) | no data | 74 °C |
| Number of transistors | no data | 1,178 million |
| 64 bit support | + | + |
| Windows 11 compatibility | - | - |
| Unlocked multiplier | - | + |
Compatibility
Information on Phenom II X3 P860 and Athlon X4 970 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 | no data | 1 |
| Socket | S1 | AM4 |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 25 Watt | 65 Watt |
Technologies and extensions
Technological solutions and additional instructions supported by Phenom II X3 P860 and Athlon X4 970. You'll probably need this information if you require some particular technology.
| Instruction set extensions | Virtualization, AMD64, Advanced Virus Protection, SSE(1,2,3,4a) | no data |
| AES-NI | - | + |
| FMA | - | + |
| AVX | - | + |
| VirusProtect | + | - |
Virtualization technologies
Virtual machine speed-up technologies supported by Phenom II X3 P860 and Athlon X4 970 are enumerated here.
| AMD-V | + | + |
Memory specs
Types, maximum amount and channel quantity of RAM supported by Phenom II X3 P860 and Athlon X4 970. Depending on the motherboard, higher memory frequencies may be supported.
| Supported memory types | DDR3 | DDR4 Dual-channel |
Pros & cons summary
| Recency | 4 October 2010 | 27 July 2017 |
| Physical cores | 3 | 4 |
| Threads | 3 | 4 |
| Chip lithography | 45 nm | 28 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 25 Watt | 65 Watt |
Phenom II X3 P860 has 160% lower power consumption.
Athlon X4 970, on the other hand, has an age advantage of 6 years, 33.3% more physical cores and 33.3% more threads, and a 60.7% more advanced lithography process.
We couldn't decide between Phenom II X3 P860 and Athlon X4 970. We've got no test results to judge.
Be aware that Phenom II X3 P860 is a notebook processor while Athlon X4 970 is a desktop one.
Should you still have questions on choice between Phenom II X3 P860 and Athlon X4 970, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.
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