HiSilicon Kirin 970 vs Intel Core i3-2120T

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CPU comparison with benchmarks


HiSilicon Kirin 970 CPU1 vs CPU2 Intel Core i3-2120T
HiSilicon Kirin 970 Intel Core i3-2120T

CPU comparison

HiSilicon Kirin 970 or Intel Core i3-2120T - 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 HiSilicon Kirin 970 has 8 cores with 8 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 2.40 GHz. Up to 8 GB of memory is supported in 4 memory channels. The HiSilicon Kirin 970 was released in Q3/2017.

The Intel Core i3-2120T has 2 cores with 4 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 2.60 GHz. The CPU supports up to 32 GB of memory in 2 memory channels. The Intel Core i3-2120T was released in Q3/2011.
HiSilicon Kirin (29) Family Intel Core i3 (205)
HiSilicon Kirin 970 (1) CPU group Intel Core i 2000 (28)
6 Generation 2
Cortex-A73 / Cortex-A53 Architecture Sandy Bridge S
Mobile Segment Desktop / Server
-- Predecessor --
-- Successor --

CPU Cores and Base Frequency

The HiSilicon Kirin 970 is a 8 core processor with a clock frequency of 2.40 GHz. The Intel Core i3-2120T has 2 CPU cores with a clock frequency of 2.60 GHz.

HiSilicon Kirin 970 Characteristic Intel Core i3-2120T
8 Cores 2
8 Threads 4
hybrid (big.LITTLE) Core architecture normal
No Hyperthreading Yes
No Overclocking ? No
2.40 GHz
4x Cortex-A73
A-Core 2.60 GHz
1.84 GHz
4x Cortex-A53
B-Core --

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.

HiSilicon Kirin 970 Characteristic Intel Core i3-2120T
-- AI hardware --
-- AI specifications --

Internal Graphics

The integrated graphics unit of a processor is not only responsible for the pure image output on the system, but can also significantly increase the efficiency of the system with the support of modern video codecs.

ARM Mali-G72 MP12 GPU Intel HD Graphics 2000
0.75 GHz GPU frequency 0.65 GHz
-- GPU (Turbo) 1.10 GHz
Bifrost 2 GPU Generation 6
16 nm Technology 32 nm
1 Max. displays 2
12 Compute units 6
192 Shader 48
No Hardware Raytracing No
No Frame Generation No
2 GB Max. GPU Memory 2 GB
12 DirectX Version 10.1

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.

ARM Mali-G72 MP12 GPU Intel HD Graphics 2000
Decode / Encode Codec h265 / HEVC (8 bit) No
Decode / Encode Codec h265 / HEVC (10 bit) No
Decode / Encode Codec h264 Decode / Encode
Decode / Encode Codec VP9 No
Decode / Encode Codec VP8 No
No Codec AV1 No
Decode / Encode Codec AVC Decode / Encode
Decode / Encode Codec VC-1 Decode
Decode / Encode Codec JPEG No

Memory & PCIe

The HiSilicon Kirin 970 supports a maximum of 8 GB of memory in 4 memory channels. The Intel Core i3-2120T can connect up to 32 GB of memory in 2 memory channels.

HiSilicon Kirin 970 Characteristic Intel Core i3-2120T
LPDDR4X-2133 Memory DDR3-1066, DDR3-1333
8 GB Max. Memory 32 GB
4 (Quad Channel) Memory channels 2 (Dual Channel)
-- Max. Bandwidth 21.3 GB/s
No ECC No
-- L2 Cache --
2.00 MB L3 Cache 3.00 MB
-- PCIe version 2.0
-- PCIe lanes 16
-- PCIe Bandwidth 8.0 GB/s

Thermal Management

The TDP (Thermal Design Power) of a processor specifies the required cooling solution. The HiSilicon Kirin 970 has a TDP of 9 W, that of the Intel Core i3-2120T is 35 W.

HiSilicon Kirin 970 Characteristic Intel Core i3-2120T
9 W TDP (PL1 / PBP) 35 W
-- TDP (PL2) --
-- TDP up --
-- TDP down --
-- Tjunction max. --

Technical details

The HiSilicon Kirin 970 has a 2.00 MB cache, while the Intel Core i3-2120T cache has a total of 3.00 MB.

HiSilicon Kirin 970 Characteristic Intel Core i3-2120T
10 nm Technology 32 nm
Chiplet Chip design Monolithic
Armv8-A (64 bit) Instruction set (ISA) x86-64 (64 bit)
-- ISA extensions SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AVX
-- Socket LGA 1155
None Virtualization VT-x, VT-x EPT
No AES-NI Yes
Android Operating systems Windows 10, Linux
Q3/2017 Release date Q3/2011
-- Release price 121 $
show more data show more data


Rate these processors

Here you can rate the HiSilicon Kirin 970 to help other visitors make their purchasing decisions. The average rating is 5.0 stars (4 ratings). Rate now:
Here you can rate the Intel Core i3-2120T to help other visitors make their purchasing decisions. The average rating is 0 stars (0 ratings). Rate now:


Average performance in benchmarks

⌀ Single core performance in 1 CPU benchmarks
HiSilicon Kirin 970 (68%)
Intel Core i3-2120T (100%)
⌀ Multi core performance in 1 CPU benchmarks
HiSilicon Kirin 970 (100%)
Intel Core i3-2120T (83%)

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.
HiSilicon Kirin 970 HiSilicon Kirin 970
8C 8T @ 2.40 GHz
349 (68%)
Intel Core i3-2120T Intel Core i3-2120T
2C 4T @ 2.60 GHz
515 (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.
HiSilicon Kirin 970 HiSilicon Kirin 970
8C 8T @ 2.40 GHz
1455 (100%)
Intel Core i3-2120T Intel Core i3-2120T
2C 4T @ 2.60 GHz
1202 (83%)

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.
HiSilicon Kirin 970 HiSilicon Kirin 970
ARM Mali-G72 MP12 @ 0.75 GHz
330 (100%)
Intel Core i3-2120T Intel Core i3-2120T
Intel HD Graphics 2000 @ 1.10 GHz
106 (32%)

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.
HiSilicon Kirin 970 HiSilicon Kirin 970
8C 8T @ 2.40 GHz
0 (0%)
Intel Core i3-2120T Intel Core i3-2120T
2C 4T @ 2.60 GHz
418 (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.
HiSilicon Kirin 970 HiSilicon Kirin 970
8C 8T @ 2.40 GHz
0 (0%)
Intel Core i3-2120T Intel Core i3-2120T
2C 4T @ 2.60 GHz
903 (100%)

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.
HiSilicon Kirin 970 HiSilicon Kirin 970
8C 8T @ 2.40 GHz
0 (0%)
Intel Core i3-2120T Intel Core i3-2120T
2C 4T @ 2.60 GHz
1502 (100%)

Devices using this processor

HiSilicon Kirin 970 Intel Core i3-2120T
Huawei Honor 10
Huawei Note 10
Huawei Play
Huawei Honor View 10
Huawei Mate 10 Pro
Huawei P20
Huawei Nova 3
Huawei Nova 4
Unknown

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