i3-8121U vs Athlon X4 940
Contents
Primary details
Comparing processor market type (desktop or notebook), architecture, sales start time and price.
| Place in the ranking | not rated | 1961 |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | not in top-100 |
| Market segment | Desktop processor | Laptop |
| Series | no data | Intel Core i3 |
| Power efficiency | no data | 3.67 |
| Designer | AMD | Intel |
| Manufacturer | no data | Intel |
| Architecture codename | Bristol Ridge (2016−2019) | Coffee Lake-U (2018−2019) |
| Release date | 27 July 2017 (8 years ago) | 15 May 2018 (7 years ago) |
Detailed specifications
Athlon X4 940 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 cores | 4 (Quad-Core) | 2 (Dual-core) |
| Threads | 4 | 4 |
| Base clock speed | 3.2 GHz | 2.2 GHz |
| Boost clock speed | 3.6 GHz | 3.2 GHz |
| Bus type | no data | OPI |
| Bus rate | no data | 4 GT/s |
| Multiplier | no data | 22 |
| L1 cache | 128 KB (per core) | 128 KB |
| L2 cache | 512 KB (per core) | 512 KB |
| L3 cache | 0 KB | 4 MB (shared) |
| Chip lithography | 28 nm | 10 nm |
| Die size | 246 mm2 | 123 mm2 |
| Maximum core temperature | no data | 105 °C |
| Maximum case temperature (TCase) | 74 °C | 72 °C |
| Number of transistors | 1,178 million | no data |
| 64 bit support | + | + |
| Windows 11 compatibility | - | - |
| Unlocked multiplier | + | - |
Compatibility
Information on Athlon X4 940 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 configuration | 1 | 1 (Uniprocessor) |
| Socket | AM4 | Intel BGA1440 |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 65 Watt | 15 Watt |
Technologies and extensions
Technological solutions and additional instructions supported by Athlon X4 940 and Core i3-8121U. You'll probably need this information if you require some particular technology.
| Instruction set extensions | no data | Intel® SSE4.1, Intel® SSE4.2, Intel® AVX, Intel® AVX2, Intel® AVX-512 |
| AES-NI | + | + |
| FMA | + | - |
| AVX | + | + |
| vPro | no data | - |
| Enhanced SpeedStep (EIST) | no data | + |
| QuickAssist | no data | - |
| Speed Shift | no data | + |
| My WiFi | no data | + |
| Turbo Boost Technology | no data | 2.0 |
| Hyper-Threading Technology | no data | + |
| Idle States | no data | + |
| Thermal Monitoring | - | + |
| Flex Memory Access | no data | + |
| Smart Response | no data | + |
| Demand Based Switching | no data | - |
| HD Audio | no data | + |
| RST | no data | + |
Security technologies
Athlon X4 940 and Core i3-8121U technologies aimed at improving security, for example, by protecting against hacks.
| TXT | no data | - |
| EDB | no data | + |
| Secure Key | no data | + |
| MPX | - | + |
| SGX | no data | - |
| OS Guard | no data | + |
Virtualization technologies
Virtual machine speed-up technologies supported by Athlon X4 940 and Core i3-8121U are enumerated here.
| AMD-V | + | - |
| VT-d | no data | + |
| VT-x | no data | + |
| VT-i | no data | - |
| EPT | no data | + |
Memory specs
Types, maximum amount and channel quantity of RAM supported by Athlon X4 940 and Core i3-8121U. Depending on the motherboard, higher memory frequencies may be supported.
| Supported memory types | DDR4 Dual-channel | DDR4 |
| Maximum memory size | no data | 32 GB |
| Max memory channels | no data | 2 |
| Maximum memory bandwidth | no data | 38.397 GB/s |
Graphics specifications
General parameters of integrated GPUs, if any.
| Integrated graphics card | no data | Iris Pro Plus |
Peripherals
Specifications and connection of peripherals supported by Athlon X4 940 and Core i3-8121U.
| PCIe version | no data | 3.0 |
| PCI Express lanes | no data | 16 |
Pros & cons summary
| Recency | 27 July 2017 | 15 May 2018 |
| Physical cores | 4 | 2 |
| Chip lithography | 28 nm | 10 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 65 Watt | 15 Watt |
Athlon X4 940 has 100% more physical cores.
i3-8121U, on the other hand, has an age advantage of 9 months, a 180% more advanced lithography process, and 333.3% lower power consumption.
We couldn't decide between AMD Athlon X4 940 and Intel Core i3-8121U. We've got no test results to judge.
Note that Athlon X4 940 is a desktop processor while Core i3-8121U is a notebook one.
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