Intel Celeron 2981U vs AMD Athlon II X4 740

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CPU comparison with benchmarks


Intel Celeron 2981U CPU1 vs CPU2 AMD Athlon II X4 740
Intel Celeron 2981U AMD Athlon II X4 740

CPU comparison

Intel Celeron 2981U or AMD Athlon II X4 740 - 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 Intel Celeron 2981U has 2 cores with 2 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 1.40 GHz. Up to 16 GB of memory is supported in 2 memory channels. The Intel Celeron 2981U was released in Q3/2013.

The AMD Athlon II X4 740 has 4 cores with 4 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 3.70 GHz. The CPU supports up to 16 GB of memory in 2 memory channels. The AMD Athlon II X4 740 was released in Q4/2012.
Intel Celeron (165) Family AMD Athlon II (52)
Intel Celeron 2000 (7) CPU group AMD Athlon II X4 (Trinity) (2)
4 Generation 3
Haswell U Architecture Trinity
Mobile Segment Desktop / Server
-- Predecessor AMD Athlon II X4 640
-- Successor --

CPU Cores and Base Frequency

The Intel Celeron 2981U is a 2 core processor with a clock frequency of 1.40 GHz. The AMD Athlon II X4 740 has 4 CPU cores with a clock frequency of 3.20 GHz (3.70 GHz).

Intel Celeron 2981U Characteristic AMD Athlon II X4 740
2 Cores 4
2 Threads 4
normal Core architecture normal
No Hyperthreading No
No Overclocking ? No
1.40 GHz Frequency 3.20 GHz
-- Turbo Frequency (1 Core) 3.70 GHz
-- Turbo Frequency (All Cores) 3.70 GHz

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.

Intel Celeron 2981U Characteristic AMD Athlon II X4 740
-- 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.

Intel HD Graphics (Haswell GT1) GPU no iGPU
0.20 GHz GPU frequency --
1.00 GHz GPU (Turbo) --
7.5 GPU Generation --
22 nm Technology
3 Max. displays
10 Compute units --
80 Shader --
No Hardware Raytracing No
No Frame Generation No
2 GB Max. GPU Memory --
11.1 DirectX Version --

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.

Intel HD Graphics (Haswell GT1) GPU no iGPU
No Codec h265 / HEVC (8 bit) No
No Codec h265 / HEVC (10 bit) No
Decode / Encode Codec h264 No
No Codec VP9 No
No Codec VP8 No
No Codec AV1 No
Decode / Encode Codec AVC No
Decode Codec VC-1 No
Decode Codec JPEG No

Memory & PCIe

The Intel Celeron 2981U supports a maximum of 16 GB of memory in 2 memory channels. The AMD Athlon II X4 740 can connect up to 16 GB of memory in 2 memory channels.

Intel Celeron 2981U Characteristic AMD Athlon II X4 740
LPDDR3-1600, DDR3L-1600 Memory DDR3-1866
16 GB Max. Memory 16 GB
2 (Dual Channel) Memory channels 2 (Dual Channel)
25.6 GB/s Max. Bandwidth 29.9 GB/s
No ECC No
-- L2 Cache 4.00 MB
2.00 MB L3 Cache --
2.0 PCIe version --
12 PCIe lanes --
6.0 GB/s PCIe Bandwidth --

Thermal Management

The TDP (Thermal Design Power) of a processor specifies the required cooling solution. The Intel Celeron 2981U has a TDP of 15 W, that of the AMD Athlon II X4 740 is 65 W.

Intel Celeron 2981U Characteristic AMD Athlon II X4 740
15 W TDP (PL1 / PBP) 65 W
-- TDP (PL2) --
-- TDP up --
-- TDP down --
100 °C Tjunction max. --

Technical details

The Intel Celeron 2981U has a 2.00 MB cache, while the AMD Athlon II X4 740 cache has a total of 4.00 MB.

Intel Celeron 2981U Characteristic AMD Athlon II X4 740
22 nm Technology 32 nm
Monolithic Chip design Unknown
x86-64 (64 bit) Instruction set (ISA) x86-64 (64 bit)
SSE4.1, SSE4.2 ISA extensions MMX, 3DNow!, SSE3, SSE4a
BGA 1168 Socket FM2
VT-x, VT-x EPT, VT-d Virtualization AMD-V
Yes AES-NI No
Windows 10, Linux Operating systems Windows 10, Linux
Q3/2013 Release date Q4/2012
-- Release price 60 $
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Average performance in benchmarks

⌀ Single core performance in 2 CPU benchmarks
Intel Celeron 2981U (78%)
AMD Athlon II X4 740 (100%)
⌀ Multi core performance in 3 CPU benchmarks
Intel Celeron 2981U (44%)
AMD Athlon II X4 740 (100%)

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.
Intel Celeron 2981U Intel Celeron 2981U
2C 2T @ 1.40 GHz
354 (77%)
AMD Athlon II X4 740 AMD Athlon II X4 740
4C 4T @ 3.70 GHz
461 (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.
Intel Celeron 2981U Intel Celeron 2981U
2C 2T @ 1.40 GHz
694 (50%)
AMD Athlon II X4 740 AMD Athlon II X4 740
4C 4T @ 3.70 GHz
1391 (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.
Intel Celeron 2981U Intel Celeron 2981U
2C 2T @ 1.40 GHz
1024 (38%)
AMD Athlon II X4 740 AMD Athlon II X4 740
4C 4T @ 3.70 GHz
2705 (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.
Intel Celeron 2981U Intel Celeron 2981U
2C 2T @ 1.40 GHz
63 (79%)
AMD Athlon II X4 740 AMD Athlon II X4 740
4C 4T @ 3.70 GHz
80 (100%)

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.
Intel Celeron 2981U Intel Celeron 2981U
2C 2T @ 1.40 GHz
124 (43%)
AMD Athlon II X4 740 AMD Athlon II X4 740
4C 4T @ 3.70 GHz
288 (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.
Intel Celeron 2981U Intel Celeron 2981U
Intel HD Graphics (Haswell GT1) @ 1.00 GHz
160 (100%)
AMD Athlon II X4 740 AMD Athlon II X4 740
@ 0.00 GHz
0 (0%)

CPU-Z Benchmark 17 (Multi-Core)

The CPU-Z benchmark measures a processor's performance by measuring the time it takes the system to complete all benchmark calculations. The faster the benchmark is completed, the higher the score.
Intel Celeron 2981U Intel Celeron 2981U
2C 2T @ 1.40 GHz
0 (0%)
AMD Athlon II X4 740 AMD Athlon II X4 740
4C 4T @ 3.20 GHz
651 (100%)

Devices using this processor

Intel Celeron 2981U AMD Athlon II X4 740
Unknown Unknown

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