Athlon II X2 250 vs i3-540

Place in the ranking	2497	2740
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	0.11	3.61
Market segment	Desktop processor	Desktop processor
Power efficiency	1.25	0.98
Architecture codename	Clarkdale (2010−2011)	Regor (2009−2013)
Release date	7 January 2010 (14 years ago)	2 June 2009 (15 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$45	$39

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance per price, higher is better.

Athlon II X2 250 has 3182% better value for money than i3-540.

Detailed specifications

Core i3-540 and Athlon II X2 250 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	3.06 GHz	3 GHz
Boost clock speed	0.07 GHz	3 GHz
Bus rate	2.5 GT/s	no data
L1 cache	64 KB (per core)	256 KB
L2 cache	256 KB (per core)	2 MB
L3 cache	4 MB (shared)	0 KB
Chip lithography	32 nm	45 nm
Die size	81 mm²	117 mm²
Maximum core temperature	73 °C	no data
Number of transistors	382 million	410 million
64 bit support	+	+
Windows 11 compatibility	-	-

Compatibility

Information on Core i3-540 and Athlon II X2 250 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	FCLGA1156	AM3
Power consumption (TDP)	73 Watt	65 Watt

Technologies and extensions

Technological solutions and additional instructions supported by Core i3-540 and Athlon II X2 250. You'll probably need this information if you require some particular technology.

Instruction set extensions	Intel® SSE4.2	no data
Enhanced SpeedStep (EIST)	+	no data
Turbo Boost Technology	-	no data
Hyper-Threading Technology	+	no data
Idle States	+	no data
Demand Based Switching	-	no data
PAE	36 Bit	no data
FDI	+	no data

Security technologies

Core i3-540 and Athlon II X2 250 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 i3-540 and Athlon II X2 250 are enumerated here.

VT-x	+	no data
EPT	+	no data

Memory specs

Types, maximum amount and channel quantity of RAM supported by Core i3-540 and Athlon II X2 250. Depending on the motherboard, higher memory frequencies may be supported.

Supported memory types	DDR3	DDR3
Maximum memory size	16.38 GB	no data
Max memory channels	2	no data
Maximum memory bandwidth	21 GB/s	no data

Graphics specifications

General parameters of integrated GPUs, if any.

Integrated graphics card	Intel HD Graphics for Previous Generation Intel Processors	On certain motherboards (Chipset feature)
Clear Video HD	+	no data

Graphics interfaces

Available interfaces and connections of Core i3-540 and Athlon II X2 250 integrated GPUs.

Number of displays supported

no data

Peripherals

Specifications and connection of peripherals supported by Core i3-540 and Athlon II X2 250.

PCIe version	2.0	2.0
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.

i3-540 0.97
+42.6%

Athlon II X2 250 0.68

Passmark

Passmark CPU Mark is a widespread benchmark, consisting of 8 different types of workload, including integer and floating point math, extended instructions, compression, encryption and physics calculation. There is also one separate single-threaded scenario measuring single-core performance.

i3-540 1540
+42.6%

Athlon II X2 250 1080

GeekBench 5 Single-Core

GeekBench 5 Single-Core is a cross-platform application developed in the form of CPU tests that independently recreate certain real-world tasks with which to accurately measure performance. This version uses only a single CPU core.

i3-540 408
+32.9%

Athlon II X2 250 307

GeekBench 5 Multi-Core

GeekBench 5 Multi-Core is a cross-platform application developed in the form of CPU tests that independently recreate certain real-world tasks with which to accurately measure performance. This version uses all available CPU cores.

i3-540 837
+55.3%

Athlon II X2 250 539

Gaming performance

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	0.97	0.68
Recency	7 January 2010	2 June 2009
Threads	4	2
Chip lithography	32 nm	45 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	73 Watt	65 Watt

i3-540 has a 42.6% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 7 months, 100% more threads, and a 40.6% more advanced lithography process.

Athlon II X2 250, on the other hand, has 12.3% lower power consumption.

The Core i3-540 is our recommended choice as it beats the Athlon II X2 250 in performance tests.

Should you still have questions on choice between Core i3-540 and Athlon II X2 250, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.