Athlon II M300 vs Core i7-980

Primary details

Comparing Core i7-980 and Athlon II M300 processor market type (desktop or notebook), architecture, sales start time and price.

Place in performance ranking	1267	not rated
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	1.16	no data
Market segment	Desktop processor	Laptop
Series	no data	AMD Athlon II
Architecture codename	Gulftown (2010−2011)	Caspian (2009)
Release date	26 June 2011 (13 years ago)	10 September 2009 (14 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$1,109	no data
Current price	$219 (0.2x MSRP)	$40

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance per price, higher is better.

Detailed specifications

Core i7-980 and Athlon II M300 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	6 (Hexa-Core)	2 (Dual-core)
Threads	12	2
Base clock speed	3.33 GHz	no data
Boost clock speed	3.6 GHz	2 GHz
Bus support	no data	3200 MHz
L1 cache	64 KB (per core)	128 KB
L2 cache	256 KB (per core)	1 MB
L3 cache	12 MB (shared)	no data
Chip lithography	32 nm	45 nm
Die size	239 mm2	no data
Maximum core temperature	69 °C	no data
Number of transistors	1,170 million	no data
64 bit support	+	+
Windows 11 compatibility	-	-
Unlocked multiplier	No	No

Compatibility

Information on Core i7-980 and Athlon II M300 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	FCLGA1366,LGA1366	Socket S1 (S1g3)
Power consumption (TDP)	130 Watt	35 Watt

Technologies and extensions

Technological solutions and additional instructions supported by Core i7-980 and Athlon II M300. You'll probably need this information if you require some particular technology.

Instruction set extensions	Intel® SSE4.2	MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, Enhanced 3DNow!, NX bit, AMD64, PowerNow!, AMD Virtualization, DDR2 400 MHz Memory Controller
AES-NI	+	no data
PowerNow	no data	+
Enhanced SpeedStep (EIST)	+	no data
Turbo Boost Technology	1.0	no data
Hyper-Threading Technology	+	no data
Idle States	+	no data
Thermal Monitoring	-	no data
Demand Based Switching	-	no data
Status	Discontinued	no data

Security technologies

Core i7-980 and Athlon II M300 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 i7-980 and Athlon II M300 are enumerated here.

VT-x	+	no data
EPT	+	no data

Memory specs

Types, maximum amount and channel quantity of RAM supported by Core i7-980 and Athlon II M300. Depending on the motherboard, higher memory frequencies may be supported.

Supported memory types	DDR3	DDR2
Maximum memory size	24 GB	no data
Max memory channels	3	no data

Peripherals

Specifications and connection of peripherals supported by Core i7-980 and Athlon II M300.

PCIe version

2.0

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.

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Pros & cons summary

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Recency	26 June 2011	10 September 2009
Physical cores	6	2
Threads	12	2
Chip lithography	32 nm	45 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	130 Watt	35 Watt

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Should you still have questions on choice between Core i7-980 and Athlon II M300, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.

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