Athlon X4 840 vs Phenom II X2 X640 BE

Place in the ranking	2429	1856
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Market segment	Laptop	Desktop processor
Series	2x AMD Phenom II	4x Athlon
Power efficiency	2.12	3.04
Architecture codename	Champlain (2010−2011)	Kaveri (2014−2015)
Release date	12 May 2011 (13 years ago)	August 2014 (10 years ago)

Detailed specifications

Phenom II X2 X640 BE and Athlon X4 840 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)	4 (Quad-Core)
Threads	2	4
Base clock speed	no data	3.1 GHz
Boost clock speed	3.2 GHz	3.8 GHz
Bus rate	3600 MHz	no data
L1 cache	256 KB	256K
L2 cache	2 MB	4 MB
Chip lithography	45 nm	28 nm
Die size	no data	245 mm²
Maximum case temperature (TCase)	no data	72 °C
Number of transistors	no data	2,411 million
64 bit support	+	+
Windows 11 compatibility	-	-
Unlocked multiplier	-	+

Compatibility

Information on Phenom II X2 X640 BE and Athlon X4 840 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	no data	1
Socket	S1	Socket FM2+
Power consumption (TDP)	45 Watt	65 watt

Technologies and extensions

Technological solutions and additional instructions supported by Phenom II X2 X640 BE and Athlon X4 840. You'll probably need this information if you require some particular technology.

Instruction set extensions	MMX, 3DNow!, SSE1-3A, AMD64, Enhanced Virus Protection, Virtualization	no data
AES-NI	-	+
FMA	-	+
AVX	-	+
VirusProtect	+	-

Virtualization technologies

Virtual machine speed-up technologies supported by Phenom II X2 X640 BE and Athlon X4 840 are enumerated here.

AMD-V

Memory specs

Types, maximum amount and channel quantity of RAM supported by Phenom II X2 X640 BE and Athlon X4 840. Depending on the motherboard, higher memory frequencies may be supported.

Supported memory types

DDR3

Peripherals

Specifications and connection of peripherals supported by Phenom II X2 X640 BE and Athlon X4 840.

PCIe version	no data	3.0
PCI Express lanes	no data	16

Gaming performance

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	1.05	2.17
Recency	12 May 2011	on August 2014
Physical cores	2	4
Threads	2	4
Chip lithography	45 nm	28 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	45 Watt	65 Watt

Phenom II X2 X640 BE has 44.4% lower power consumption.

Athlon X4 840, on the other hand, has a 106.7% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 3 years, 100% more physical cores and 100% more threads, and a 60.7% more advanced lithography process.

The Athlon X4 840 is our recommended choice as it beats the Phenom II X2 X640 BE in performance tests.

Be aware that Phenom II X2 X640 BE is a notebook processor while Athlon X4 840 is a desktop one.

Should you still have questions on choice between Phenom II X2 X640 BE and Athlon X4 840, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.