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CPU Core Details

CPU Codename Bay Trail-M Ivy Bridge
MoBo Socket BGA 1170 BGA 1023
Notebook CPU yes yes
Release Date 03 Nov 2013 24 Jun 2012
CPU Link GD Link GD Link
Approved

CPU Technical Specifications

{
CPU Cores 4 2
CPU Threads 4 -
Clock Speed 2.16 GHz 1.8 GHz
Turbo Frequency 2.42GHz -
Max TDP 8 W 17 W
Lithography 22 nm 22 nm
Bit Width 64 Bit -
Max Temperature 100°C -
Virtualization Technology no no

CPU Cache and Memory

L1 Cache Size 224 KB 128 KB
L2 Cache Size 2048 KB 512 KB
L3 Cache Size - 3 MB
Memory Types
ECC Memory Support no no

CPU Graphics

Integrated Graphics no no
Base GPU Frequency - -
Max GPU Frequency - -
DirectX - -
Displays Supported - -

CPU Mini Review

Mini Review Pentium N3520 2.16GHz is an energy efficient quad core mobile processor, based on the 22nm Silvermont architecture. The Pentium N3520 2.16GHz offers 4-Cores, clocked at 2.16GHz and weak integrated graphics. The Pentium N3520 2.16GHz does not offer the the multi-threading technology but it offers the Turbo Boost technology which raises its clock speed to up to 2.42 GHz. Still, its TDP is of only around 8 Watts and its performance is quite far from Intel's Core i3 Series. Ivy Bridge is the codename for Intel's 22 nm die shrink of the Sandy Bridge microarchitecture based on tri-gate ("3D") transistors. Ivy Bridge processors will be backwards-compatible with the Sandy Bridge platform, but might require a firmware update (vendor specific). Intel has released new 7-series Panther Point chipsets with integrated USB 3.0 to complement Ivy Bridge.Intel announced that volume production of Ivy Bridge chips began in the third quarter of 2011. Quad-core and dual-core-mobile models launched on April 29, 2012 and May 31, 2012 respectively. Meanwhile, Core i3 desktop processors are said to arrive in the third quarter of 2012.

Gaming Performance Comparison

In terms of overall gaming performance, the Intel Core i3-3217U 1.8GHz is noticeably better than the Intel Pentium N3520 2.16GHz when it comes to running the latest games. This also means it will be less likely to bottleneck more powerful GPUs, allowing them to achieve more of their gaming performance potential.

Both the Pentium N3520 2.16GHz and the Core i3-3217U 1.8GHz were released at the same time, so are likely to be quite similar.

The 4 has 2 more cores than the Core i3-3217U 1.8GHz. { With 4 cores, the 4 is much less likely to struggle with the latest games, or bottleneck high-end graphics cards when running them.

More important for gaming than the number of cores and threads is the clock rate. Problematically, unless the two CPUs are from the same family, this can only serve as a general guide and nothing like an exact comparison, because the clock cycles per instruction (CPI) will vary so much.

The Pentium N3520 2.16GHz and Core i3-3217U 1.8GHz are not from the same family of CPUs, so their clock speeds are by no means directly comparable. Bear in mind, then, that while the Pentium N3520 2.16GHz has a 0.36 GHz faster frequency, this is not always an indicator that it will be superior in performance, despite frequency being crucial when trying to avoid GPU bottlenecking. In this case, however, the difference is enough that it possibly indicates the superiority of the 4.

Aside from the clock rate, the next-most important CPU features for PC game performance are L2 and L3 cache size. Faster than RAM, the more cache available, the more data that can be stored for lightning-fast retrieval. L1 Cache is not usually an issue anymore for gaming, with most high-end CPUs eking out about the same L1 performance, and L2 is more important than L3 - but L3 is still important if you want to reach the highest levels of performance. Bear in mind that although it is better to have a larger cache, the larger it is, the higher the latency, so a balance has to be struck.

The <span class='gpu1Mention'>Pentium N3520 2.16GHz</span> has a 1536 KB bigger L2 cache than the <span class='gpu2Mention'>Core i3-3217U 1.8GHz</span>, and although the Pentium N3520 2.16GHz does not appear to have an L3 cache, its larger L2 cache means that it wins out in this area.

The maximum Thermal Design Power is the power in Watts that the CPU will consume in the worst case scenario. The lithography is the semiconductor manufacturing technology being used to create the CPU - the smaller this is, the more transistors that can be fit into the CPU, and the closer the connections. For both the lithography and the TDP, it is the lower the better, because a lower number means a lower amount of power is necessary to run the CPU, and consequently a lower amount of heat is produced.