Athlon X4 970 vs Ryzen 5 1500X

Primary details

Comparing Ryzen 5 1500X and Athlon X4 970 processor market type (desktop or notebook), architecture, sales start time and price.

Place in the ranking	1124	2062
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	3.20	no data
Market segment	Desktop processor	Desktop processor
Series	AMD Ryzen 5	no data
Power efficiency	8.34	2.42
Architecture codename	Zen (2017−2020)	Bristol Ridge (2016−2019)
Release date	11 April 2017 (7 years ago)	27 July 2017 (7 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$189	no data

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance per price, higher is better.

Detailed specifications

Ryzen 5 1500X 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	4 (Quad-Core)	4 (Quad-Core)
Threads	8	4
Base clock speed	3.5 GHz	3.8 GHz
Boost clock speed	3.7 GHz	4 GHz
Bus rate	4 × 8 GT/s	no data
Multiplier	35	no data
L1 cache	96K (per core)	128 KB (per core)
L2 cache	512K (per core)	512 KB (per core)
L3 cache	16 MB (shared)	0 KB
Chip lithography	14 nm	28 nm
Die size	192 mm2	246 mm2
Maximum case temperature (TCase)	no data	74 °C
Number of transistors	4,800 million	1,178 million
64 bit support	+	+
Windows 11 compatibility	-	-
Unlocked multiplier	+	+

Compatibility

Information on Ryzen 5 1500X 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	1 (Uniprocessor)	1
Socket	AM4	AM4
Power consumption (TDP)	65 Watt	65 Watt

Technologies and extensions

Technological solutions and additional instructions supported by Ryzen 5 1500X and Athlon X4 970. You'll probably need this information if you require some particular technology.

Instruction set extensions	XFR, FMA3, SSE 4.2, AVX2, SMT	no data
AES-NI	+	+
FMA	-	+
AVX	+	+

Virtualization technologies

Virtual machine speed-up technologies supported by Ryzen 5 1500X and Athlon X4 970 are enumerated here.

AMD-V

+

+

Memory specs

Types, maximum amount and channel quantity of RAM supported by Ryzen 5 1500X and Athlon X4 970. Depending on the motherboard, higher memory frequencies may be supported.

Supported memory types	DDR4	DDR4 Dual-channel
Maximum memory size	64 GB	no data
Max memory channels	2	no data
Maximum memory bandwidth	42.671 GB/s	no data
ECC memory support	+	-

Peripherals

Specifications and connection of peripherals supported by Ryzen 5 1500X and Athlon X4 970.

PCIe version	3.0	no data
PCI Express lanes	20	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	5.73	1.66
Recency	11 April 2017	27 July 2017
Threads	8	4
Chip lithography	14 nm	28 nm

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Should you still have questions on choice between Ryzen 5 1500X and Athlon X4 970, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.

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