Phenom II X3 N870 vs Core 2 Duo P9600

Place in the ranking	2713	2420
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Market segment	Laptop	Laptop
Series	Intel Core 2 Duo	3x AMD Phenom II
Power efficiency	2.61	2.87
Architecture codename	Penryn (2008−2011)	Champlain (2010−2011)
Release date	1 January 2009 (15 years ago)	16 December 2010 (13 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$348	no data

Detailed specifications

Core 2 Duo P9600 and Phenom II X3 N870 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)	3 (Tri-Core)
Threads	2	3
Base clock speed	2.66 GHz	no data
Boost clock speed	2.66 GHz	2.3 GHz
Bus rate	1066 MHz	3600 MHz
L1 cache	128 KB	384 KB
L2 cache	6 MB	1.5 MB
L3 cache	6 MB L2 Cache	no data
Chip lithography	45 nm	45 nm
Die size	107 mm²	no data
Maximum core temperature	105 °C	no data
Number of transistors	410 Million	no data
64 bit support	+	+
Windows 11 compatibility	-	-
VID voltage range	1.05V-1.212V	no data

Compatibility

Information on Core 2 Duo P9600 and Phenom II X3 N870 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.

Socket	PBGA479,PGA478	S1 (S1g4)
Power consumption (TDP)	25 Watt	35 Watt

Technologies and extensions

Technological solutions and additional instructions supported by Core 2 Duo P9600 and Phenom II X3 N870. You'll probably need this information if you require some particular technology.

Instruction set extensions	no data	86x MMX(+), 3DNow!(+), SSE(1,2,3,4A),-64, AMD-V
Enhanced SpeedStep (EIST)	+	no data
Turbo Boost Technology	-	no data
Hyper-Threading Technology	-	no data
Demand Based Switching	-	no data
FSB parity	-	no data

Security technologies

Core 2 Duo P9600 and Phenom II X3 N870 technologies aimed at improving security, for example, by protecting against hacks.

TXT	+	no data
EDB	+	no data

Virtualization technologies

Virtual machine speed-up technologies supported by Core 2 Duo P9600 and Phenom II X3 N870 are enumerated here.

AMD-V	-	+
VT-x	+	no data

Memory specs

Types, maximum amount and channel quantity of RAM supported by Core 2 Duo P9600 and Phenom II X3 N870. Depending on the motherboard, higher memory frequencies may be supported.

Supported memory types

no data

DDR3

Gaming performance

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	0.69	1.06
Recency	1 January 2009	16 December 2010
Physical cores	2	3
Threads	2	3
Power consumption (TDP)	25 Watt	35 Watt

Core 2 Duo P9600 has 40% lower power consumption.

Phenom II X3 N870, on the other hand, has a 53.6% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 1 year, and 50% more physical cores and 50% more threads.

The Phenom II X3 N870 is our recommended choice as it beats the Core 2 Duo P9600 in performance tests.

Should you still have questions on choice between Core 2 Duo P9600 and Phenom II X3 N870, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.