Athlon II X2 215 vs Pentium B960

Primary details

Comparing Pentium B960 and Athlon II X2 215 processor market type (desktop or notebook), architecture, sales start time and price.

Place in performance ranking	2651	2652
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	no data	8.66
Market segment	Laptop	Desktop processor
Series	Intel Pentium	no data
Architecture codename	Sandy Bridge (2011−2013)	Regor (2009−2013)
Release date	2 October 2011 (12 years ago)	October 2009 (14 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$134	$45
Current price	$19.33 (0.1x MSRP)	$25 (0.6x MSRP)

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance per price, higher is better.

Detailed specifications

Pentium B960 and Athlon II X2 215 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	2	2
Base clock speed	2.2 GHz	no data
Boost clock speed	2.2 GHz	2.7 GHz
L1 cache	64K (per core)	128 KB
L2 cache	256K (per core)	512 KB
L3 cache	2 MB (shared)	0 KB
Chip lithography	32 nm	45 nm
Die size	131 mm2	117 mm2
Maximum core temperature	85 °C	no data
Number of transistors	504 million	410 million
64 bit support	+	+
Windows 11 compatibility	-	-
Unlocked multiplier	No	No

Compatibility

Information on Pentium B960 and Athlon II X2 215 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	FCPGA988,PGA988	AM3
Power consumption (TDP)	35 Watt	65 Watt

Technologies and extensions

Technological solutions and additional instructions supported by Pentium B960 and Athlon II X2 215. You'll probably need this information if you require some particular technology.

Instruction set extensions	Intel® SSE4.1, Intel® SSE4.2	no data
AES-NI	-	no data
FMA	+	no data
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	+	no data
Flex Memory Access	+	no data
Demand Based Switching	-	no data
FDI	+	no data
Fast Memory Access	+	no data
Status	Discontinued	no data

Security technologies

Pentium B960 and Athlon II X2 215 technologies aimed at improving security, for example, by protecting against hacks.

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

Virtualization technologies

Virtual machine speed-up technologies supported by Pentium B960 and Athlon II X2 215 are enumerated here.

VT-d	-	no data
VT-x	-	no data

Memory specs

Types, maximum amount and channel quantity of RAM supported by Pentium B960 and Athlon II X2 215. Depending on the motherboard, higher memory frequencies may be supported.

Supported memory types	DDR3	DDR3
Maximum memory size	16 GB	no data
Max memory channels	2	no data
Maximum memory bandwidth	21.3 GB/s	no data
ECC memory support	-	no data

Graphics specifications

General parameters of integrated GPUs, if any.

Integrated graphics card	Intel® HD Graphics for 2nd Generation Intel® Processors	no data
Graphics max frequency	1.1 GHz	no data

Graphics interfaces

Available interfaces and connections of Pentium B960 and Athlon II X2 215 integrated GPUs.

Number of displays supported	2	no data
eDP	+	no data
DisplayPort	+	no data
HDMI	+	no data
SDVO	+	no data
CRT	+	no data

Peripherals

Specifications and connection of peripherals supported by Pentium B960 and Athlon II X2 215.

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.

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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.

Pentium B960 outperforms Athlon II X2 215 by 2% based on our aggregated benchmark results.

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Pros & cons summary

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Performance score	0.63	0.62
Cost	$134	$45
Chip lithography	32 nm	45 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	35 Watt	65 Watt

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Should you still have questions on choice between Pentium B960 and Athlon II X2 215, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.

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