Athlon X4 970 vs Phenom II X3 N830
Aggregate performance score
Athlon X4 970 outperforms Phenom II X3 N830 by a whopping 138% based on our aggregate benchmark results.
Contents
Primary details
Comparing processor market type (desktop or notebook), architecture, sales start time and price.
| Place in the ranking | 2991 | 2332 |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | not in top-100 |
| Market segment | Laptop | Desktop processor |
| Series | 3x AMD Phenom II | no data |
| Power efficiency | 0.76 | 0.98 |
| Designer | AMD | AMD |
| Architecture codename | Champlain (2010−2011) | Bristol Ridge (2016−2019) |
| Release date | 12 May 2010 (15 years ago) | 27 July 2017 (8 years ago) |
Detailed specifications
Phenom II X3 N830 and Athlon X4 970 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 | 3 (Tri-Core) | 4 (Quad-Core) |
| Threads | 3 | 4 |
| Base clock speed | no data | 3.8 GHz |
| Boost clock speed | 2.1 GHz | 4 GHz |
| Bus rate | 3600 MHz | no data |
| L1 cache | no data | 128 KB (per core) |
| L2 cache | 1.5 MB | 512 KB (per core) |
| L3 cache | no data | 0 KB |
| Chip lithography | 45 nm | 28 nm |
| Die size | no data | 246 mm2 |
| Maximum case temperature (TCase) | no data | 74 °C |
| Number of transistors | no data | 1,178 million |
| 64 bit support | + | + |
| Windows 11 compatibility | - | - |
| Unlocked multiplier | - | + |
Compatibility
Information on Phenom II X3 N830 and Athlon X4 970 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 | AM4 |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 35 Watt | 65 Watt |
Technologies and extensions
Technological solutions and additional instructions supported by Phenom II X3 N830 and Athlon X4 970. You'll probably need this information if you require some particular technology.
| Instruction set extensions | 86x MMX(+), 3DNow!(+), SSE(1,2,3,4A),-64, AMD-V | no data |
| AES-NI | - | + |
| FMA | - | + |
| AVX | - | + |
Virtualization technologies
Virtual machine speed-up technologies supported by Phenom II X3 N830 and Athlon X4 970 are enumerated here.
| AMD-V | + | + |
Memory specs
Types, maximum amount and channel quantity of RAM supported by Phenom II X3 N830 and Athlon X4 970. Depending on the motherboard, higher memory frequencies may be supported.
| Supported memory types | DDR3 | DDR4 Dual-channel |
Synthetic benchmarks
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.
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. Other than that, Passmark measures multi-core performance.
Pros & cons summary
| Performance score | 0.63 | 1.50 |
| Recency | 12 May 2010 | 27 July 2017 |
| Physical cores | 3 | 4 |
| Threads | 3 | 4 |
| Chip lithography | 45 nm | 28 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 35 Watt | 65 Watt |
Phenom II X3 N830 has 85.7% lower power consumption.
Athlon X4 970, on the other hand, has a 138.1% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 7 years, 33.3% more physical cores and 33.3% more threads, and a 60.7% more advanced lithography process.
The AMD Athlon X4 970 is our recommended choice as it beats the AMD Phenom II X3 N830 in performance tests.
Be aware that Phenom II X3 N830 is a notebook processor while Athlon X4 970 is a desktop one.
Other comparisons
We've compiled a selection of CPU comparisons, ranging from closely matched processors to other comparisons that may be of interest.
