Phenom II X3 P820 vs Athlon X4 840

Place in the ranking	1873	2738
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Market segment	Desktop processor	Laptop
Series	4x Athlon	3x AMD Phenom II
Power efficiency	3.04	2.49
Architecture codename	Kaveri (2014−2015)	Champlain (2010−2011)
Release date	August 2014 (10 years ago)	12 May 2010 (14 years ago)

Detailed specifications

Athlon X4 840 and Phenom II X3 P820 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)	3 (Tri-Core)
Threads	4	3
Base clock speed	3.1 GHz	no data
Boost clock speed	3.8 GHz	1.8 GHz
Bus rate	no data	3600 MHz
L1 cache	256K	384 KB
L2 cache	4 MB	1.5 MB
Chip lithography	28 nm	45 nm
Die size	245 mm²	no data
Maximum case temperature (TCase)	72 °C	no data
Number of transistors	2,411 million	no data
64 bit support	+	+
Windows 11 compatibility	-	-
Unlocked multiplier	+	-

Compatibility

Information on Athlon X4 840 and Phenom II X3 P820 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	no data
Socket	Socket FM2+	S1
Power consumption (TDP)	65 watt	25 Watt

Technologies and extensions

Technological solutions and additional instructions supported by Athlon X4 840 and Phenom II X3 P820. You'll probably need this information if you require some particular technology.

Instruction set extensions	no data	Virtualization, AMD64, Advanced Virus Protection, SSE(1,2,3,4a)
AES-NI	+	-
FMA	+	-
AVX	+	-
VirusProtect	-	+

Virtualization technologies

Virtual machine speed-up technologies supported by Athlon X4 840 and Phenom II X3 P820 are enumerated here.

AMD-V

Memory specs

Types, maximum amount and channel quantity of RAM supported by Athlon X4 840 and Phenom II X3 P820. Depending on the motherboard, higher memory frequencies may be supported.

Supported memory types

DDR3

Peripherals

Specifications and connection of peripherals supported by Athlon X4 840 and Phenom II X3 P820.

PCIe version	3.0	no data
PCI Express lanes	16	no data

Gaming performance

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	2.10	0.66
Recency	on August 2014	12 May 2010
Physical cores	4	3
Threads	4	3
Chip lithography	28 nm	45 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	65 Watt	25 Watt

Athlon X4 840 has a 218.2% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 4 years, 33.3% more physical cores and 33.3% more threads, and a 60.7% more advanced lithography process.

Phenom II X3 P820, on the other hand, has 160% lower power consumption.

The Athlon X4 840 is our recommended choice as it beats the Phenom II X3 P820 in performance tests.

Note that Athlon X4 840 is a desktop processor while Phenom II X3 P820 is a notebook one.

Should you still have questions on choice between Athlon X4 840 and Phenom II X3 P820, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.