i3-8121U vs Phenom II X4 P960

Athlon II P320 Athlon II P340 Athlon II P360 Phenom II X3 N830 Phenom II X3 N850 Phenom II X3 P820 Phenom II X4 N930 Phenom II X4 N950 Phenom II X4 N970 Phenom II X4 P920 Phenom II X4 P960 Turion II P520 Turion II P540 Turion II P560 V-Series V120 V-Series V140 V-Series V160
VS
Core i3-8109U Core i5-8259U Core i5-8279U Core i7-8559U

Aggregate performance score

Phenom II X4 P960
2010
4 cores / 4 threads, 25 Watt
0.97
Core i3-8121U
2018
2 cores / 4 threads, 15 Watt
2.76
+185%

Core i3-8121U outperforms Phenom II X4 P960 by a whopping 185% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

Contents

Phenom II X4 P960 Phenom II X4 P960
i3-8121U i3-8121U

Primary details

Comparing Phenom II X4 P960 and Core i3-8121U processor market type (desktop or notebook), architecture, sales start time and price.

Place in the ranking24961698
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Market segmentLaptopLaptop
Series4x AMD Phenom IIIntel Core i3
Power efficiency3.659.28
Architecture codenameChamplain (2010−2011)Coffee Lake-U (2018−2019)
Release date19 October 2010 (14 years ago)5 May 2018 (6 years ago)

Detailed specifications

Phenom II X4 P960 and Core i3-8121U 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)
Threads44
Base clock speedno data2.2 GHz
Boost clock speed1.8 GHz3.2 GHz
Bus typeno dataOPI
Bus rate3600 MHz4 GT/s
Multiplierno data22
L1 cache512 KB64K (per core)
L2 cache2 MB256K (per core)
L3 cacheno data4 MB (shared)
Chip lithography45 nm10 nm
Die sizeno data123 mm2
Maximum core temperatureno data105 °C
Maximum case temperature (TCase)no data72 °C
64 bit support++
Windows 11 compatibility--

Compatibility

Information on Phenom II X4 P960 and Core i3-8121U 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 configurationno data1 (Uniprocessor)
SocketS1 (S1g4)Intel BGA1440
Power consumption (TDP)25 Watt15 Watt

Technologies and extensions

Technological solutions and additional instructions supported by Phenom II X4 P960 and Core i3-8121U. You'll probably need this information if you require some particular technology.

Instruction set extensionsMMX, 3DNow, SSE (1,2,3,4A), AMD64, Enhanced Virus Protection, Virtualization, HyperTransport 3.0Intel® SSE4.1, Intel® SSE4.2, Intel® AVX, Intel® AVX2, Intel® AVX-512
AES-NI-+
AVX-+
VirusProtect+-
vProno data-
Enhanced SpeedStep (EIST)no data+
QuickAssistno data-
Speed Shiftno data+
My WiFino data+
Turbo Boost Technologyno data2.0
Hyper-Threading Technologyno data+
Idle Statesno data+
Thermal Monitoring-+
Flex Memory Accessno data+
Smart Responseno data+
Demand Based Switchingno data-
HD Audiono data+
RSTno data+

Security technologies

Phenom II X4 P960 and Core i3-8121U technologies aimed at improving security, for example, by protecting against hacks.

TXTno data-
EDBno data+
Secure Keyno data+
MPX-+
SGXno data-
OS Guardno data+

Virtualization technologies

Virtual machine speed-up technologies supported by Phenom II X4 P960 and Core i3-8121U are enumerated here.

AMD-V+-
VT-dno data+
VT-xno data+
VT-ino data-
EPTno data+

Memory specs

Types, maximum amount and channel quantity of RAM supported by Phenom II X4 P960 and Core i3-8121U. Depending on the motherboard, higher memory frequencies may be supported.

Supported memory typesDDR3DDR4
Maximum memory sizeno data32 GB
Max memory channelsno data2
Maximum memory bandwidthno data38.397 GB/s

Graphics specifications

General parameters of integrated GPUs, if any.

Integrated graphics cardno dataIris Pro Plus

Peripherals

Specifications and connection of peripherals supported by Phenom II X4 P960 and Core i3-8121U.

PCIe versionno data3.0
PCI Express lanesno data16

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.

Phenom II X4 P960 0.97
i3-8121U 2.76
+185%

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.

Phenom II X4 P960 232
i3-8121U 1165
+402%

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.

Phenom II X4 P960 796
i3-8121U 2367
+197%

3DMark06 CPU

3DMark06 is a discontinued DirectX 9 benchmark suite from Futuremark. Its CPU part contains two scenarios, one dedicated to artificial intelligence pathfinding, another to game physics using PhysX package.

Phenom II X4 P960 2519
i3-8121U 4314
+71.3%

Gaming performance

Pros & cons summary

Performance score 0.97 2.76
Recency 19 October 2010 5 May 2018
Physical cores 4 2
Chip lithography 45 nm 10 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 25 Watt 15 Watt

Phenom II X4 P960 has 100% more physical cores.

i3-8121U, on the other hand, has a 184.5% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 7 years, a 350% more advanced lithography process, and 66.7% lower power consumption.

The Core i3-8121U is our recommended choice as it beats the Phenom II X4 P960 in performance tests.

Should you still have questions on choice between Phenom II X4 P960 and Core i3-8121U, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.

Vote for your favorite

Do you think we are right or mistaken in our choice? Vote by clicking "Like" button near your favorite CPU.

AMD Phenom II X4 P960
Phenom II X4 P960
Intel Core i3-8121U
Core i3-8121U
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V-Series V140 V Series V140
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i3-8121U Core i3 8121U
Turion 64 ML-40 Turion 64 ML-40
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i3-8121U Core i3 8121U

Community ratings

Here you can see how users rate the processors, as well as rate them yourself.

3.7 171 vote

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Questions & comments

Here you can ask a question about Phenom II X4 P960 or Core i3-8121U, agree or disagree with our judgements, or report an error or mismatch.