AMD Phenom II X4 960T vs Intel Core i3-3120ME

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CPU comparison with benchmarks


AMD Phenom II X4 960T CPU1 vs CPU2 Intel Core i3-3120ME
AMD Phenom II X4 960T Intel Core i3-3120ME

CPU comparison

AMD Phenom II X4 960T or Intel Core i3-3120ME - which processor is faster? In this comparison we look at the differences and analyze which of these two CPUs is better. We compare the technical data and benchmark results.

The AMD Phenom II X4 960T has 4 cores with 4 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 3.40 GHz. Up to GB of memory is supported in 2 memory channels. The AMD Phenom II X4 960T was released in Q3/2011.

The Intel Core i3-3120ME has 2 cores with 4 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 2.40 GHz. The CPU supports up to 16 GB of memory in 2 memory channels. The Intel Core i3-3120ME was released in Q3/2012.
AMD Phenom II (52) Family Intel Core i3 (202)
AMD Phenom II - 800/900 (23) CPU group Intel Core i 3000M (29)
4 Generation 3
Deneb (K10) Architecture Ivy Bridge H
Desktop / Server Segment Mobile
-- Predecessor --
-- Successor --

CPU Cores and Base Frequency

The AMD Phenom II X4 960T has 4 CPU cores and can calculate 4 threads in parallel. The clock frequency of the AMD Phenom II X4 960T is 3.00 GHz (3.40 GHz) while the Intel Core i3-3120ME has 2 CPU cores and 4 threads can calculate simultaneously. The clock frequency of the Intel Core i3-3120ME is at 2.40 GHz.

AMD Phenom II X4 960T Characteristic Intel Core i3-3120ME
4 Cores 2
4 Threads 4
normal Core architecture normal
No Hyperthreading Yes
Yes Overclocking ? No
3.00 GHz Frequency 2.40 GHz
3.40 GHz Turbo Frequency (1 Core) --
3.40 GHz Turbo Frequency (All Cores) --

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Processors with the support of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) can process many calculations, especially audio, image and video processing, much faster than classic processors. Algorithms for ML improve their performance the more data they have collected via software. ML tasks can be processed up to 10,000 times faster than with a classic processor.

AMD Phenom II X4 960T Characteristic Intel Core i3-3120ME
-- AI hardware --
-- AI specifications --

Internal Graphics

The AMD Phenom II X4 960T or Intel Core i3-3120ME has integrated graphics, called iGPU for short. The iGPU uses the system's main memory as graphics memory and sits on the processor's die.

no iGPU GPU Intel HD Graphics 4000
GPU frequency 0.65 GHz
-- GPU (Turbo) 0.90 GHz
-- GPU Generation 7
Technology 22 nm
Max. displays 3
-- Compute units 16
-- Shader 128
No Hardware Raytracing No
No Frame Generation No
-- Max. GPU Memory 2 GB
-- DirectX Version 11.0

Hardware codec support

A photo or video codec that is accelerated in hardware can greatly accelerate the working speed of a processor and extend the battery life of notebooks or smartphones when playing videos.

no iGPU GPU Intel HD Graphics 4000
No Codec h265 / HEVC (8 bit) No
No Codec h265 / HEVC (10 bit) No
No Codec h264 Decode / Encode
No Codec VP9 No
No Codec VP8 No
No Codec AV1 No
No Codec AVC Decode / Encode
No Codec VC-1 Decode
No Codec JPEG Decode

Memory & PCIe

The AMD Phenom II X4 960T can use up to GB of memory in 2 memory channels. The maximum memory bandwidth is 21.3 GB/s. The Intel Core i3-3120ME supports up to 16 GB of memory in 2 memory channels and achieves a memory bandwidth of up to 25.6 GB/s.

AMD Phenom II X4 960T Characteristic Intel Core i3-3120ME
DDR3-1333, DDR2-1066 Memory DDR3-1600
Max. Memory 16 GB
2 (Dual Channel) Memory channels 2 (Dual Channel)
21.3 GB/s Max. Bandwidth 25.6 GB/s
No ECC Yes
-- L2 Cache --
6.00 MB L3 Cache 3.00 MB
-- PCIe version 2.0
-- PCIe lanes 16
-- PCIe Bandwidth 8.0 GB/s

Thermal Management

The thermal design power (TDP for short) of the AMD Phenom II X4 960T is 95 W, while the Intel Core i3-3120ME has a TDP of 35 W. The TDP specifies the necessary cooling solution that is required to cool the processor sufficiently.

AMD Phenom II X4 960T Characteristic Intel Core i3-3120ME
95 W TDP (PL1 / PBP) 35 W
-- TDP (PL2) --
-- TDP up --
-- TDP down --
-- Tjunction max. 105 °C

Technical details

The AMD Phenom II X4 960T is manufactured in 45 nm and has 6.00 MB cache. The Intel Core i3-3120ME is manufactured in 22 nm and has a 3.00 MB cache.

AMD Phenom II X4 960T Characteristic Intel Core i3-3120ME
45 nm Technology 22 nm
Unknown Chip design Monolithic
x86-64 (64 bit) Instruction set (ISA) x86-64 (64 bit)
SSE3, SSE4a ISA extensions SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AVX
AM3 Socket BGA 1023
AMD-V Virtualization VT-x, VT-x EPT
No AES-NI Yes
Windows 10, Linux Operating systems Windows 10, Linux
Q3/2011 Release date Q3/2012
-- Release price --
show more data show more data


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Average performance in benchmarks

⌀ Single core performance in 1 CPU benchmarks
⌀ Multi core performance in 2 CPU benchmarks

Geekbench 5, 64bit (Single-Core)

Geekbench 5 is a cross plattform benchmark that heavily uses the systems memory. A fast memory will push the result a lot. The single-core test only uses one CPU core, the amount of cores or hyperthreading ability doesn't count.
AMD Phenom II X4 960T AMD Phenom II X4 960T
4C 4T @ 3.40 GHz
436 (94%)
Intel Core i3-3120ME Intel Core i3-3120ME
2C 4T @ 2.40 GHz
462 (100%)

Geekbench 5, 64bit (Multi-Core)

Geekbench 5 is a cross plattform benchmark that heavily uses the systems memory. A fast memory will push the result a lot. The multi-core test involves all CPU cores and taks a big advantage of hyperthreading.
AMD Phenom II X4 960T AMD Phenom II X4 960T
4C 4T @ 3.40 GHz
1362 (100%)
Intel Core i3-3120ME Intel Core i3-3120ME
2C 4T @ 2.40 GHz
1055 (77%)

Estimated results for PassMark CPU Mark

Some of the CPUs listed below have been benchmarked by CPU-monkey. However the majority of CPUs have not been tested and the results have been estimated by a CPU-monkey’s secret proprietary formula. As such they do not accurately reflect the actual Passmark CPU mark values and are not endorsed by PassMark Software Pty Ltd.
AMD Phenom II X4 960T AMD Phenom II X4 960T
4C 4T @ 3.40 GHz
4236 (100%)
Intel Core i3-3120ME Intel Core i3-3120ME
2C 4T @ 2.40 GHz
1629 (38%)

Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)

Geekbench 6 is a benchmark for modern computers, notebooks and smartphones. What is new is an optimized utilization of newer CPU architectures, e.g. based on the big.LITTLE concept and combining CPU cores of different sizes. The single-core benchmark only evaluates the performance of the fastest CPU core, the number of CPU cores in a processor is irrelevant here.
AMD Phenom II X4 960T AMD Phenom II X4 960T
4C 4T @ 3.40 GHz
0 (0%)
Intel Core i3-3120ME Intel Core i3-3120ME
2C 4T @ 2.40 GHz
424 (100%)

Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)

Geekbench 6 is a benchmark for modern computers, notebooks and smartphones. What is new is an optimized utilization of newer CPU architectures, e.g. based on the big.LITTLE concept and combining CPU cores of different sizes. The multi-core benchmark evaluates the performance of all of the processor's CPU cores. Virtual thread improvements such as AMD SMT or Intel's Hyper-Threading have a positive impact on the benchmark result.
AMD Phenom II X4 960T AMD Phenom II X4 960T
4C 4T @ 3.40 GHz
0 (0%)
Intel Core i3-3120ME Intel Core i3-3120ME
2C 4T @ 2.40 GHz
846 (100%)

iGPU - FP32 Performance (Single-precision GFLOPS)

The theoretical computing performance of the internal graphics unit of the processor with simple accuracy (32 bit) in GFLOPS. GFLOPS indicates how many billion floating point operations the iGPU can perform per second.
AMD Phenom II X4 960T AMD Phenom II X4 960T
@ 0.00 GHz
0 (0%)
Intel Core i3-3120ME Intel Core i3-3120ME
Intel HD Graphics 4000 @ 0.90 GHz
230 (100%)

Cinebench R15 (Single-Core)

Cinebench R15 is the successor of Cinebench 11.5 and is also based on the Cinema 4 Suite. Cinema 4 is a worldwide used software to create 3D forms. The single-core test only uses one CPU core, the amount of cores or hyperthreading ability doesn't count.
AMD Phenom II X4 960T AMD Phenom II X4 960T
4C 4T @ 3.40 GHz
89 (100%)
Intel Core i3-3120ME Intel Core i3-3120ME
2C 4T @ 2.40 GHz
0 (0%)

Cinebench R15 (Multi-Core)

Cinebench R15 is the successor of Cinebench 11.5 and is also based on the Cinema 4 Suite. Cinema 4 is a worldwide used software to create 3D forms. The multi-core test involves all CPU cores and taks a big advantage of hyperthreading.
AMD Phenom II X4 960T AMD Phenom II X4 960T
4C 4T @ 3.40 GHz
344 (100%)
Intel Core i3-3120ME Intel Core i3-3120ME
2C 4T @ 2.40 GHz
0 (0%)

Devices using this processor

AMD Phenom II X4 960T Intel Core i3-3120ME
Unknown Unknown

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