A6-9400 vs Phenom II X4 N970
Aggregate performance score
A6-9400 outperforms Phenom II X4 N970 by an impressive 66% 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 | 2729 | 2320 |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | not in top-100 |
| Market segment | Laptop | Desktop processor |
| Series | 4x AMD Phenom II | no data |
| Power efficiency | no data | 2.54 |
| Designer | AMD | AMD |
| Manufacturer | no data | GlobalFoundries |
| Architecture codename | Champlain (2010−2011) | Bristol Ridge (2016−2019) |
| Release date | 16 December 2010 (14 years ago) | 16 March 2019 (6 years ago) |
Detailed specifications
Phenom II X4 N970 and A6-9400 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 | 4 (Quad-Core) | 2 (Dual-core) |
| Threads | 4 | 2 |
| Base clock speed | no data | 3.4 GHz |
| Boost clock speed | 2.2 GHz | 3.7 GHz |
| Bus rate | 3600 MHz | no data |
| L1 cache | 512 KB | 160K |
| L2 cache | 2 MB | 1 MB (shared) |
| Chip lithography | 45 nm | 28 nm |
| Die size | no data | 250 mm2 |
| Number of transistors | no data | 3,100 million |
| 64 bit support | + | + |
| Windows 11 compatibility | - | no data |
Compatibility
Information on Phenom II X4 N970 and A6-9400 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) | 2 MB | 65 Watt |
Technologies and extensions
Technological solutions and additional instructions supported by Phenom II X4 N970 and A6-9400. You'll probably need this information if you require some particular technology.
| AES-NI | - | + |
| FMA | - | + |
| AVX | - | + |
Virtualization technologies
Virtual machine speed-up technologies supported by Phenom II X4 N970 and A6-9400 are enumerated here.
| AMD-V | - | + |
Memory specs
Types, maximum amount and channel quantity of RAM supported by Phenom II X4 N970 and A6-9400. Depending on the motherboard, higher memory frequencies may be supported.
| Supported memory types | no data | DDR4-2400 |
Graphics specifications
General parameters of integrated GPUs, if any.
| Integrated graphics card | no data | Radeon R5 |
Peripherals
Specifications and connection of peripherals supported by Phenom II X4 N970 and A6-9400.
| PCIe version | no data | 3.0 |
| PCI Express lanes | no data | 8 |
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 | 0.93 | 1.54 |
| Recency | 16 December 2010 | 16 March 2019 |
| Physical cores | 4 | 2 |
| Threads | 4 | 2 |
| Chip lithography | 45 nm | 28 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 2 Watt | 65 Watt |
Phenom II X4 N970 has 100% more physical cores and 100% more threads, and 3150% lower power consumption.
A6-9400, on the other hand, has a 65.6% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 8 years, and a 60.7% more advanced lithography process.
The AMD A6-9400 is our recommended choice as it beats the AMD Phenom II X4 N970 in performance tests.
Be aware that Phenom II X4 N970 is a notebook processor while A6-9400 is a desktop one.
Other comparisons
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