AMD Sempron 150 compare Intel Pentium D 820 2.8GHz CPU

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CPU Core Details

CPU Codename	Sargas	Smithfield
MoBo Socket	Socket AM3+	Socket M
Notebook CPU	no	no
Release Date	07 Dec 2010	26 May 2005
CPU Link	GD Link	GD Link
Approved

CPU Technical Specifications

CPU Cores	1	2
Clock Speed	2.9 GHz	2.8 GHz
Turbo Frequency	-	-
System Bus	-	1066 MHz
Max TDP	45 W	95 W
Lithography	45 nm	90 nm
Bit Width	-	-
Virtualization Technology	no	no

CPU Cache and Memory

L1 Cache Size	64 KB	32 KB
L2 Cache Size	1024 KB	2048 KB
L3 Cache Size	-	-
Memory Types
ECC Memory Support	no	no

CPU Graphics

Integrated Graphics	no		no

CPU Mini Review

Mini Review	Sempron 150 is a single core desktop CPU based on the K10 architecture. <br/> Its only core is clocked at 2.9GHz and the memory controller supports DDR3 up to 1333MHz. <br/> Benchmarks indicate the performance is very limited and not recommended for today's modern demanding and very demanding games.	In April 2005, Intel's biggest rival, AMD, had x86 dual-core microprocessors intended for workstations and servers on the market, and was poised to launch a comparable product intended for desktop computers. As a response, Intel developed Smithfield, the first x86 dual-core microprocessor intended for desktop computers, beating AMD's Athlon 64 X2 by a few weeks. Intel first launched Smithfield on April 16, 2005 in the form of the 3.2 GHz Hyper-threading enabled Pentium Extreme Edition 840. On May 26, 2005, Intel launched the mainstream Pentium D branded processor lineup with initial clock speeds of 2.8, 3.0, and 3.2 GHz with model numbers of 820, 830, and 840 respectively. In March 2006, Intel launched the last Smithfield processor, the entry-level Pentium D 805, clocked at 2.66 GHz with a 533 MT/s bus. The relatively cheap 805 was found to be highly overclockable; 3.5 GHz was often possible with good air cooling. Running it at over 4 GHz was possible with water cooling, and at this speed the 805 outperformed the top-of-the-line processors (May 2006) from both major CPU manufacturers (the AMD Athlon 64 FX-60 and Intel Pentium Extreme Edition 965) in many benchmarks including power consumption.

Gaming Performance Comparison

In terms of overall gaming performance, the AMD Sempron 150 is very slightly better than the Intel Pentium D 820 2.8GHz 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 Sempron 150 and the Pentium D 820 2.8GHz were released at the same time, so are likely to be quite similar.

The 2 has 1 more core than the Sempron 150. However, while the 2 will probably perform better than the Sempron 150, both CPUs are likely to struggle with the latest games, and will almost certainly bottleneck high-end graphics cards. This should not affect games that are a few years old, and even the latest games should at least be playable on very low settings, as only recently have game developers begun to harness the power of multiple cores.

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 Sempron 150 and Pentium D 820 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 Sempron 150 has a 0.1 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. As such, we need to look elsewhere for more reliable comparisons.

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 Pentium D 820 has a 1024 KB bigger L2 cache than the Sempron 150, but neither of the CPUs have L3 caches, so the Pentium D 820 wins out in this area with its larger L2 cache.

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.