Athlon X4 970 vs Athlon X2 QL-64

Primary details

Comparing Athlon X2 QL-64 and Athlon X4 970 processor market type (desktop or notebook), architecture, sales start time and price.

Place in the ranking	not rated	2057
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Market segment	Laptop	Desktop processor
Series	2x AMD Athlon	no data
Power efficiency	no data	2.43
Architecture codename	Lion (2008−2009)	Bristol Ridge (2016−2019)
Release date	1 January 2009 (15 years ago)	27 July 2017 (7 years ago)

Detailed specifications

Athlon X2 QL-64 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	2 (Dual-core)	4 (Quad-Core)
Threads	2	4
Base clock speed	no data	3.8 GHz
Boost clock speed	2.1 GHz	4 GHz
Bus rate	3600 MHz	no data
L1 cache	256 KB	128 KB (per core)
L2 cache	1 MB	512 KB (per core)
L3 cache	0 KB	0 KB
Chip lithography	65 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 Athlon X2 QL-64 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	1
Socket	S1	AM4
Power consumption (TDP)	35 Watt	65 Watt

Technologies and extensions

Technological solutions and additional instructions supported by Athlon X2 QL-64 and Athlon X4 970. You'll probably need this information if you require some particular technology.

Instruction set extensions	MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, Enhanced 3DNow!, NX bit, AMD64, PowerNow!, AMD Virtualization	no data
AES-NI	-	+
FMA	-	+
AVX	-	+
PowerNow	+	-

Virtualization technologies

Virtual machine speed-up technologies supported by Athlon X2 QL-64 and Athlon X4 970 are enumerated here.

AMD-V

+

+

Memory specs

Types, maximum amount and channel quantity of RAM supported by Athlon X2 QL-64 and Athlon X4 970. Depending on the motherboard, higher memory frequencies may be supported.

Supported memory types

no data

DDR4 Dual-channel

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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Pros & cons summary

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Recency	1 January 2009	27 July 2017
Physical cores	2	4
Threads	2	4
Chip lithography	65 nm	28 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	35 Watt	65 Watt

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Should you still have questions on choice between Athlon X2 QL-64 and Athlon X4 970, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.

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