Turion II M520 vs i3-3120M

Place in the ranking	2410	2824
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Market segment	Laptop	Laptop
Series	Intel Core i3	AMD Turion II
Power efficiency	2.89	1.51
Architecture codename	Ivy Bridge (2012−2013)	Caspian (2009)
Release date	30 September 2012 (12 years ago)	10 September 2009 (15 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$160	no data

Detailed specifications

Core i3-3120M and Turion II M520 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)	2 (Dual-core)
Threads	4	2
Base clock speed	2.5 GHz	no data
Boost clock speed	2.5 GHz	2.3 GHz
Bus rate	5 GT/s	3600 MHz
L1 cache	64K (per core)	128 KB
L2 cache	256K (per core)	1 MB
L3 cache	3 MB (shared)	no data
Chip lithography	22 nm	45 nm
Die size	118 mm²	no data
Maximum core temperature	90C (PGA); 105C (BGA)	no data
64 bit support	+	+
Windows 11 compatibility	-	-

Compatibility

Information on Core i3-3120M and Turion II M520 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	FCBGA1023,FCPGA988	Socket S1 (s1g3) 638-pin
Power consumption (TDP)	35 Watt	35 Watt

Technologies and extensions

Technological solutions and additional instructions supported by Core i3-3120M and Turion II M520. You'll probably need this information if you require some particular technology.

Instruction set extensions	Intel® AVX	MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, Enhanced 3DNow!, NX bit, AMD64, PowerNow!, AMD Virtualization
AVX	+	-
PowerNow	-	+
Enhanced SpeedStep (EIST)	+	no data
My WiFi	+	no data
Turbo Boost Technology	-	no data
Hyper-Threading Technology	+	no data
Idle States	+	no data
Thermal Monitoring	+	-
Flex Memory Access	+	no data
Demand Based Switching	-	no data
FDI	+	no data
Fast Memory Access	+	no data

Security technologies

Core i3-3120M and Turion II M520 technologies aimed at improving security, for example, by protecting against hacks.

TXT	-	no data
EDB	+	no data
Identity Protection	+	-
Anti-Theft	+	no data

Virtualization technologies

Virtual machine speed-up technologies supported by Core i3-3120M and Turion II M520 are enumerated here.

AMD-V	+	-
VT-d	-	no data
VT-x	+	no data
EPT	+	no data

Memory specs

Types, maximum amount and channel quantity of RAM supported by Core i3-3120M and Turion II M520. Depending on the motherboard, higher memory frequencies may be supported.

Supported memory types	DDR3	no data
Maximum memory size	32 GB	no data
Max memory channels	2	no data
Maximum memory bandwidth	25.6 GB/s	no data

Graphics specifications

General parameters of integrated GPUs, if any.

Integrated graphics card	Intel HD Graphics 4000	no data
Quick Sync Video	+	-
Clear Video HD	+	no data
Graphics max frequency	1.1 GHz	no data
InTru 3D	+	no data

Graphics interfaces

Available interfaces and connections of Core i3-3120M and Turion II M520 integrated GPUs.

Number of displays supported	3	no data
eDP	+	no data
DisplayPort	+	-
HDMI	+	-
SDVO	+	no data
CRT	+	no data

Peripherals

Specifications and connection of peripherals supported by Core i3-3120M and Turion II M520.

PCIe version	2.0	no data
PCI Express lanes	16	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.

Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark performance rating. We are regularly improving our combining algorithms, but if you find some perceived inconsistencies, feel free to speak up in comments section, we usually fix problems quickly.

i3-3120M 1.07
+91.1%

Turion II M520 0.56

Cinebench 10 32-bit single-core

Cinebench R10 is an ancient ray tracing benchmark for processors by Maxon, authors of Cinema 4D. Its single core version uses just one CPU thread to render a futuristic looking motorcycle.

i3-3120M 3428
+75.3%

Turion II M520 1955

Cinebench 10 32-bit multi-core

Cinebench Release 10 Multi Core is a variant of Cinebench R10 using all the processor threads. Possible number of threads is limited by 16 in this version.

i3-3120M 6867
+82.9%

Turion II M520 3754

3DMark06 CPU

3DMark06 is a discontinued DirectX 9 benchmark suite from Futuremark. Its CPU part contains two scenarios, one dedicated to artificial intelligence pathfinding, another to game physics using PhysX package.

i3-3120M 3057
+66.2%

Turion II M520 1839

wPrime 32

wPrime 32M is a math multi-thread processor test, which calculates square roots of first 32 million integer numbers. Its result is measured in seconds, so that the less is benchmark result, the faster the processor.

i3-3120M 22.02
+52.6%

Turion II M520 33.6

Cinebench 11.5 64-bit multi-core

Cinebench Release 11.5 Multi Core is a variant of Cinebench R11.5 which uses all the processor threads. A maximum of 64 threads is supported in this version.

i3-3120M 2
+94.4%

Turion II M520 1

Gaming performance

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	1.07	0.56
Recency	30 September 2012	10 September 2009
Threads	4	2
Chip lithography	22 nm	45 nm

i3-3120M has a 91.1% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 3 years, 100% more threads, and a 104.5% more advanced lithography process.

The Core i3-3120M is our recommended choice as it beats the Turion II M520 in performance tests.

Should you still have questions on choice between Core i3-3120M and Turion II M520, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.