Atom N550 vs Xeon W3550
Primary details
Comparing Xeon W3550 and Atom N550 processor market type (desktop or notebook), architecture, sales start time and price.
| Place in the ranking | 1899 | not rated |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | not in top-100 |
| Cost-effectiveness evaluation | 0.59 | no data |
| Market segment | Server | Laptop |
| Series | no data | Intel Atom |
| Power efficiency | 1.48 | no data |
| Architecture codename | Bloomfield (2008−2010) | Pineview (2009−2011) |
| Release date | 9 August 2009 (15 years ago) | 23 August 2010 (14 years ago) |
| Launch price (MSRP) | $235 | $86 |
Cost-effectiveness evaluation
Performance per price, higher is better.
Detailed specifications
Xeon W3550 and Atom N550 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 | 8 | 4 |
| Base clock speed | 3.06 GHz | 1.5 GHz |
| Boost clock speed | 3.33 GHz | 1.5 GHz |
| Bus rate | no data | 666 MHz |
| L1 cache | 64 KB (per core) | 64K (per core) |
| L2 cache | 256 KB (per core) | 512K (per core) |
| L3 cache | 8 MB (shared) | 0 KB |
| Chip lithography | 45 nm | 45 nm |
| Die size | 263 mm2 | 87 mm2 |
| Maximum core temperature | 68 °C | no data |
| Number of transistors | 731 million | 176 million |
| 64 bit support | + | + |
| Windows 11 compatibility | - | - |
Compatibility
Information on Xeon W3550 and Atom N550 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 | FCLGA1366 | FCBGA559 |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 130 Watt | 8.5 Watt |
Technologies and extensions
Technological solutions and additional instructions supported by Xeon W3550 and Atom N550. You'll probably need this information if you require some particular technology.
| Instruction set extensions | Intel® SSE4.2 | Intel® SSE2, Intel® SSE3, Intel® SSSE3 |
| Enhanced SpeedStep (EIST) | + | + |
| Turbo Boost Technology | 1.0 | - |
| Hyper-Threading Technology | + | + |
| Idle States | + | no data |
| Thermal Monitoring | - | + |
| Demand Based Switching | + | - |
| PAE | 36 Bit | no data |
Security technologies
Xeon W3550 and Atom N550 technologies aimed at improving security, for example, by protecting against hacks.
| TXT | + | - |
| EDB | + | + |
Virtualization technologies
Virtual machine speed-up technologies supported by Xeon W3550 and Atom N550 are enumerated here.
| VT-d | no data | - |
| VT-x | + | - |
| EPT | + | no data |
Memory specs
Types, maximum amount and channel quantity of RAM supported by Xeon W3550 and Atom N550. Depending on the motherboard, higher memory frequencies may be supported.
| Supported memory types | DDR3 | DDR3 |
| Maximum memory size | 24 GB | 2 GB |
| Max memory channels | 3 | 1 |
| Maximum memory bandwidth | 25.6 GB/s | no data |
| ECC memory support | + | - |
Graphics specifications
General parameters of integrated GPUs, if any.
| Integrated graphics card | N/A | Intel GMA 3150 |
Peripherals
Specifications and connection of peripherals supported by Xeon W3550 and Atom N550.
| PCIe version | 2.0 | 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.
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.
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.
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.
Pros & cons summary
| Recency | 9 August 2009 | 23 August 2010 |
| Physical cores | 4 | 2 |
| Threads | 8 | 4 |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 130 Watt | 8 Watt |
Xeon W3550 has 100% more physical cores and 100% more threads.
Atom N550, on the other hand, has an age advantage of 1 year, and 1525% lower power consumption.
We couldn't decide between Xeon W3550 and Atom N550. We've got no test results to judge.
Be aware that Xeon W3550 is a server/workstation processor while Atom N550 is a notebook one.
Should you still have questions on choice between Xeon W3550 and Atom N550, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.
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