i7-3960X vs Ryzen 3 4300U
Aggregate performance score
Core i7-3960X outperforms Ryzen 3 4300U by a moderate 14% based on our aggregate benchmark results.
Primary details
Comparing Ryzen 3 4300U and Core i7-3960X processor market type (desktop or notebook), architecture, sales start time and price.
| Place in the ranking | 1272 | 1170 |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | not in top-100 |
| Cost-effectiveness evaluation | no data | 0.37 |
| Market segment | Laptop | Desktop processor |
| Series | AMD Renoir (Ryzen 4000 APU) | Core i7 (Desktop) |
| Power efficiency | 17.72 | 3.87 |
| Architecture codename | Renoir-U (Zen 2) (2020−2021) | Sandy Bridge-E (2011−2013) |
| Release date | 6 January 2020 (4 years ago) | 14 November 2011 (13 years ago) |
| Launch price (MSRP) | no data | $861 |
Cost-effectiveness evaluation
Performance per price, higher is better.
Detailed specifications
Ryzen 3 4300U and Core i7-3960X 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) | 6 (Hexa-Core) |
| Threads | 4 | 12 |
| Base clock speed | 2.7 GHz | 3.3 GHz |
| Boost clock speed | 3.7 GHz | 3.9 GHz |
| Bus rate | no data | 5 GT/s |
| Multiplier | 27 | no data |
| L1 cache | 128K (per core) | 64 KB (per core) |
| L2 cache | 512K (per core) | 256 KB (per core) |
| L3 cache | 4 MB (shared) | 15 MB (shared) |
| Chip lithography | 7 nm | 32 nm |
| Die size | 156 mm2 | 435 mm2 |
| Maximum core temperature | 105 °C | no data |
| Maximum case temperature (TCase) | no data | 67 °C |
| Number of transistors | 9800 Million | 2,270 million |
| 64 bit support | + | + |
| Windows 11 compatibility | + | - |
| Unlocked multiplier | - | + |
Compatibility
Information on Ryzen 3 4300U and Core i7-3960X 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 | FP6 | FCLGA2011 |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 15 Watt | 130 Watt |
Technologies and extensions
Technological solutions and additional instructions supported by Ryzen 3 4300U and Core i7-3960X. You'll probably need this information if you require some particular technology.
| Instruction set extensions | MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4A, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AVX, AVX2, BMI2, ABM, FMA, ADX, SMEP, SMAP, CPB, AES-NI, RDRAND, RDSEED, SHA, SME | Intel® SSE4.2, Intel® AVX |
| AES-NI | + | + |
| FMA | + | - |
| AVX | + | + |
| Enhanced SpeedStep (EIST) | no data | + |
| Turbo Boost Technology | no data | 2.0 |
| Hyper-Threading Technology | no data | + |
| Idle States | no data | + |
| Thermal Monitoring | - | + |
| Smart Response | no data | + |
| Demand Based Switching | no data | - |
Security technologies
Ryzen 3 4300U and Core i7-3960X technologies aimed at improving security, for example, by protecting against hacks.
| TXT | no data | - |
| EDB | no data | + |
| Identity Protection | - | + |
Virtualization technologies
Virtual machine speed-up technologies supported by Ryzen 3 4300U and Core i7-3960X are enumerated here.
| AMD-V | + | - |
| VT-d | no data | + |
| VT-x | no data | + |
| EPT | no data | + |
Memory specs
Types, maximum amount and channel quantity of RAM supported by Ryzen 3 4300U and Core i7-3960X. Depending on the motherboard, higher memory frequencies may be supported.
| Supported memory types | DDR4 | DDR3 |
| Maximum memory size | 64 GB | 64 GB |
| Max memory channels | no data | 4 |
| Maximum memory bandwidth | 68.27 GB/s | 51.2 GB/s |
Graphics specifications
General parameters of integrated GPUs, if any.
| Integrated graphics card | AMD Radeon RX Vega 5 | no data |
Peripherals
Specifications and connection of peripherals supported by Ryzen 3 4300U and Core i7-3960X.
| PCIe version | 3.0 | 2.0 |
| PCI Express lanes | no data | 40 |
Synthetic benchmark performance
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. 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.
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.
GeekBench 5 Single-Core
GeekBench 5 Single-Core is a cross-platform application developed in the form of CPU tests that independently recreate certain real-world tasks with which to accurately measure performance. This version uses only a single CPU core.
GeekBench 5 Multi-Core
GeekBench 5 Multi-Core is a cross-platform application developed in the form of CPU tests that independently recreate certain real-world tasks with which to accurately measure performance. This version uses all available CPU cores.
3DMark06 CPU
3DMark06 is a discontinued DirectX 9 benchmark suite from Futuremark. Its CPU part contains two scenarios, one dedicated to artificial intelligence pathfinding, another to game physics using PhysX package.
Cinebench 15 64-bit multi-core
Cinebench Release 15 Multi Core is a variant of Cinebench R15 which uses all the processor threads.
Cinebench 15 64-bit single-core
Cinebench R15 (standing for Release 15) is a benchmark made by Maxon, authors of Cinema 4D. It was superseded by later versions of Cinebench, which use more modern variants of Cinema 4D engine. The Single Core version (sometimes called Single-Thread) only uses a single processor thread to render a room full of reflective spheres and light sources.
TrueCrypt AES
TrueCrypt is a discontinued piece of software that was widely used for on-the-fly-encryption of disk partitions, now superseded by VeraCrypt. It contains several embedded performance tests, one of them being TrueCrypt AES, which measures data encryption speed using AES algorithm. Result is encryption speed in gigabytes per second.
x264 encoding pass 2
x264 Pass 2 is a slower variant of x264 video compression that produces a variable bit rate output file, which results in better quality since the higher bit rate is used when it is needed more. Benchmark result is still measured in frames per second.
x264 encoding pass 1
x264 version 4.0 is a video encoding benchmark uses MPEG 4 x264 compression method to compress a sample HD (720p) video. Pass 1 is a faster variant that produces a constant bit rate output file. Its result is measured in frames per second, which means how many frames of the source video file were encoded per second.
WinRAR 4.0
WinRAR 4.0 is an outdated version of a popular file archiver. It contains an internal speed test, using 'Best' setting of RAR compression on large chunks of randomly generated data. Its results are measured in kilobytes per second.
Pros & cons summary
| Performance score | 4.68 | 5.32 |
| Recency | 6 January 2020 | 14 November 2011 |
| Physical cores | 4 | 6 |
| Threads | 4 | 12 |
| Chip lithography | 7 nm | 32 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 15 Watt | 130 Watt |
Ryzen 3 4300U has an age advantage of 8 years, a 357.1% more advanced lithography process, and 766.7% lower power consumption.
i7-3960X, on the other hand, has a 13.7% higher aggregate performance score, and 50% more physical cores and 200% more threads.
The Core i7-3960X is our recommended choice as it beats the Ryzen 3 4300U in performance tests.
Be aware that Ryzen 3 4300U is a notebook processor while Core i7-3960X is a desktop one.
Should you still have questions on choice between Ryzen 3 4300U and Core i7-3960X, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.
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