Athlon X4 870K vs Xeon E3-1220

Primary details

Comparing Xeon E3-1220 and Athlon X4 870K processor market type (desktop or notebook), architecture, sales start time and price.

Place in performance ranking	1660	1757
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	0.94	no data
Market segment	Server	Desktop processor
Architecture codename	Sandy Bridge (2011−2013)	Godaveri (2014−2018)
Release date	3 April 2011 (13 years ago)	December 2015 (8 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$395	no data
Current price	$85 (0.2x MSRP)	$49

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance per price, higher is better.

Detailed specifications

Xeon E3-1220 and Athlon X4 870K 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)	4 (Quad-Core)
Threads	4	4
Base clock speed	3.1 GHz	3.9 GHz
Boost clock speed	3.4 GHz	4.1 GHz
L1 cache	64 KB (per core)	256K
L2 cache	256 KB (per core)	4 MB
L3 cache	8 MB (shared)	no data
Chip lithography	32 nm	28 nm
Die size	216 mm2	245 mm2
Maximum core temperature	69 °C	no data
Maximum case temperature (TCase)	no data	72 °C
Number of transistors	1,160 million	2,411 million
64 bit support	+	+
Windows 11 compatibility	-	no data
Unlocked multiplier	No	Yes

Compatibility

Information on Xeon E3-1220 and Athlon X4 870K 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	LGA1155	FM2+
Power consumption (TDP)	80 Watt	95 Watt

Technologies and extensions

Technological solutions and additional instructions supported by Xeon E3-1220 and Athlon X4 870K. You'll probably need this information if you require some particular technology.

Instruction set extensions	Intel® SSE4.1, Intel® SSE4.2, Intel® AVX	no data
AES-NI	+	+
FMA	no data	+
AVX	+	+
Enhanced SpeedStep (EIST)	+	no data
Turbo Boost Technology	2.0	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

Xeon E3-1220 and Athlon X4 870K technologies aimed at improving security, for example, by protecting against hacks.

TXT	+	no data
EDB	+	no data
Identity Protection	+	no data

Virtualization technologies

Virtual machine speed-up technologies supported by Xeon E3-1220 and Athlon X4 870K are enumerated here.

AMD-V	no data	+
VT-d	+	no data
VT-x	+	no data
EPT	+	no data

Memory specs

Types, maximum amount and channel quantity of RAM supported by Xeon E3-1220 and Athlon X4 870K. Depending on the motherboard, higher memory frequencies may be supported.

Supported memory types	DDR3	DDR3-2133
Maximum memory size	32 GB	no data
Max memory channels	2	no data
Maximum memory bandwidth	21 GB/s	no data
ECC memory support	+	no data

Peripherals

Specifications and connection of peripherals supported by Xeon E3-1220 and Athlon X4 870K.

PCIe version	2.0	3.0
PCI Express lanes	20	16

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.

Xeon E3-1220 outperforms Athlon X4 870K by 15% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

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Pros & cons summary

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Performance score	2.54	2.20
Chip lithography	32 nm	28 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	80 Watt	95 Watt

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Should you still have questions on choice between Xeon E3-1220 and Athlon X4 870K, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.

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