Dirk Broer
01-08-2013, 02:19 PM
The AMD A8-3870K and the Intel i3-2100 have some things in common. Being chips of the same generation, they're both rated at roughly the same frequency, can run 4 threads at a time, have integrated graphics and were priced roughly $130 upon introduction. There are some differences as well: BOINC can use the integrated graphics of the A8-3870K and its price has dropped considerably since the introduction. These things do not apply to the i3-2100. Owning both I consider them to be of roughly the same performance level, something that got me into some dispute once on Tom's Hardware, where an Intel fan-boy pointed at the higher games benchmarks for the i3-2100 and to which I replied that the games were most probably Intel-opimized and that real-world performance was quite another matter. But am I right, crunching wise?
So let's compare these two CPUs, and throw in some other quads/dual cores with hyperthreading at roughly 3.1 Ghz for a nice comparison as well. To prevent one big, too long table I grouped it in project categories.
The figures given are the highest scores per OS per core/thread per day (in case of one application. When there were more -Einstein- I've taken an average). I would have loved to include the Athlon-II X4 651K and the i3-2105 everywhere, but for most projects there are just not enough -read: mostly none- users also doing WuProp for them. The 651K is essentially a 3870K without graphics and the i3-2105 is essentially a i3-2100 with Intel HD3000 graphics instead of HD2000, so it's no great loss.
1: Astrophysical projects
Project Name
Athlon II X4 645
Phenom II X4 945
Phenom II X4 960T
AMD A8-3780K
Core 2 Quad Q9650
Core i3-540
Core i3-2100
Core i5-2400
Asteroids
na
1,056
na
1,058
na
656
1,023
1,569
Constellation
590
na
628
529
na
521
636
875
Cosmology
na
1,167
621
na
na
1,021
729
1,423
Einstein (SSE/SSE2)
na
718
na
1,024
na
924
953
1,488
Seti
590
na
1,311
830
1,616
1,032
921
1,012
na= Not Available
to come soon: Biology projects (when WuProp has their credits figures)
And as to how the CPUs compare to each other technically:
Feature
Athlon II X4 645
Phenom II X4 945
Phenom II X4 960T
AMD A8-3780K
Core 2 Quad Q9650
Intel i3-540
Intel i3-2100
Intel i5-2400
Frequency
3100 Mhz
3000 Mhz
3000 Mhz (3400 Turbo)
3000 Mhz
3000 Mhz
3067 Mhz
3100 Mhz
3100 Mhz (3400 Turbo)
HT Bus Speed
2000 Mhz
2000 Mhz
2000 Mhz
5000 Mhz
1333 Mhz
2500 Mhz
5000 Mhz
5000 Mhz
Max.Sup. Memory Speed (DDR3)
1333 Mhz
1333 Mhz
1333 Mhz
1866 Mhz
1333 Mhz
1333 Mhz
1333 Mhz
1333 Mhz
Introduction date
Sep 21, 2010
Apr 23, 2009
3rd Q, 2010
Dec 20, 2011
Aug 10, 2008
Jan 7, 2010
Feb 20, 2011
Jan 9, 2011
Manufacturing process
45nm
45nm
45nm
32nm
45nm
32nm
32nm
32nm
Cores
4
4
4
4
4
2
2
4
Threads
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
L1 Cache
4x64k instruction, 4x64K data
4x64k instruction, 4x64K data
4x64k instruction, 4x64K data
4x64k instruction, 4x64K data
4x32k instruction, 4x32K data
2x32k instruction, 2x32K data
2x32k instruction, 2x32K data
4x32k instruction, 4x32K data
L2 Cache
4x 512k
4x 512k
4x 512k
4x 1 Mb
2x 6 Mb
2x 256k
2x 256k
4x 256k
L3 Cache
none
6 Mb
6 Mb
none
none
4 Mb
3 Mb
6 Mb
MMX
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
3DNow!
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
No
SSE
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
SSE2
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
SSE3
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
SSSE3
No
No
No
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
SSE4.1
No
No
No
No
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
SSE4.2
No
No
No
No
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
SSE4a
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
No
AMD64/EM64T
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
AMD-V/Intel VT-x
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
AVX
No
No
No
No
No
No
Yes
Yes
AES
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
Yes
VT-d
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
Yes
TDP
95 Watt
125 Watt
95 Watt
100 Watt
95 Watt
73 Watt
65 Watt
95 Watt
So let's compare these two CPUs, and throw in some other quads/dual cores with hyperthreading at roughly 3.1 Ghz for a nice comparison as well. To prevent one big, too long table I grouped it in project categories.
The figures given are the highest scores per OS per core/thread per day (in case of one application. When there were more -Einstein- I've taken an average). I would have loved to include the Athlon-II X4 651K and the i3-2105 everywhere, but for most projects there are just not enough -read: mostly none- users also doing WuProp for them. The 651K is essentially a 3870K without graphics and the i3-2105 is essentially a i3-2100 with Intel HD3000 graphics instead of HD2000, so it's no great loss.
1: Astrophysical projects
Project Name
Athlon II X4 645
Phenom II X4 945
Phenom II X4 960T
AMD A8-3780K
Core 2 Quad Q9650
Core i3-540
Core i3-2100
Core i5-2400
Asteroids
na
1,056
na
1,058
na
656
1,023
1,569
Constellation
590
na
628
529
na
521
636
875
Cosmology
na
1,167
621
na
na
1,021
729
1,423
Einstein (SSE/SSE2)
na
718
na
1,024
na
924
953
1,488
Seti
590
na
1,311
830
1,616
1,032
921
1,012
na= Not Available
to come soon: Biology projects (when WuProp has their credits figures)
And as to how the CPUs compare to each other technically:
Feature
Athlon II X4 645
Phenom II X4 945
Phenom II X4 960T
AMD A8-3780K
Core 2 Quad Q9650
Intel i3-540
Intel i3-2100
Intel i5-2400
Frequency
3100 Mhz
3000 Mhz
3000 Mhz (3400 Turbo)
3000 Mhz
3000 Mhz
3067 Mhz
3100 Mhz
3100 Mhz (3400 Turbo)
HT Bus Speed
2000 Mhz
2000 Mhz
2000 Mhz
5000 Mhz
1333 Mhz
2500 Mhz
5000 Mhz
5000 Mhz
Max.Sup. Memory Speed (DDR3)
1333 Mhz
1333 Mhz
1333 Mhz
1866 Mhz
1333 Mhz
1333 Mhz
1333 Mhz
1333 Mhz
Introduction date
Sep 21, 2010
Apr 23, 2009
3rd Q, 2010
Dec 20, 2011
Aug 10, 2008
Jan 7, 2010
Feb 20, 2011
Jan 9, 2011
Manufacturing process
45nm
45nm
45nm
32nm
45nm
32nm
32nm
32nm
Cores
4
4
4
4
4
2
2
4
Threads
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
L1 Cache
4x64k instruction, 4x64K data
4x64k instruction, 4x64K data
4x64k instruction, 4x64K data
4x64k instruction, 4x64K data
4x32k instruction, 4x32K data
2x32k instruction, 2x32K data
2x32k instruction, 2x32K data
4x32k instruction, 4x32K data
L2 Cache
4x 512k
4x 512k
4x 512k
4x 1 Mb
2x 6 Mb
2x 256k
2x 256k
4x 256k
L3 Cache
none
6 Mb
6 Mb
none
none
4 Mb
3 Mb
6 Mb
MMX
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
3DNow!
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
No
SSE
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
SSE2
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
SSE3
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
SSSE3
No
No
No
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
SSE4.1
No
No
No
No
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
SSE4.2
No
No
No
No
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
SSE4a
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
No
AMD64/EM64T
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
AMD-V/Intel VT-x
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
AVX
No
No
No
No
No
No
Yes
Yes
AES
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
Yes
VT-d
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
Yes
TDP
95 Watt
125 Watt
95 Watt
100 Watt
95 Watt
73 Watt
65 Watt
95 Watt