Intel Core i3-3217U vs Intel Core i3-540

Compare Intel Core 2 core CPU vs Intel Core 2 core processor, specs and benchmark score. Which is the better CPU for gaming?

CPU Comparison

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Benchmark Score

Overall Score

A combined score of all workloads

678 points
1037 points
52% significantly better overall score

Gaming Score

The raw gaming performance with a fast GPU

1344 points
2070 points
54% significantly better gaming score

Multitasking Score

Performance in workloads using up to 8 cores

505 points
769 points
52% significantly better multitasking score

Heavy Workload Score

Performance in workloads using up to 16 cores

490 points
739 points
50% significantly better heavy workload score

Free CPU Benchmark

Want to compare your processor against the Core i3-3217U and the Core i3-540? Download our free and quick PC Performance Test.

Other Benchmarks

Blender score

Blender score

Cycles Render (Samples per minute)

7.15 points
14.86 points
107% significantly higher Blender score
Geekbench 5 (multi) score

Geekbench 5 (multi) score

Multi threaded benchmark

605 points
818 points
35% slightly higher Geekbench 5 (multi) score
Geekbench 5 (single) score

Geekbench 5 (single) score

Single threaded benchmark

295 points
386 points
30% slightly higher Geekbench 5 (single) score
Geekbench 6 (multi) score

Geekbench 6 (multi) score

Multi threaded benchmark

616 points
836 points
35% slightly higher Geekbench 6 (multi) score
Geekbench 6 (single) score

Geekbench 6 (single) score

Single threaded benchmark

293 points
404 points
37% slightly higher Geekbench 6 (single) score

Specifications

Cores

Number of physical processing units

2
Identical
2

Threads

Number of logical processing units

4
Identical
4

Clock Speed

Base frequency at which the chip operates

1.8 GHz
3.06 GHz
69% significantly higher clock speed

TDP

Thermal Design Power: Measure of heat generated by the CPU

17 W
329% significantly lower TDP
73 W

PCIe Lanes

Number of physical connections between the CPU and expansion slots

16
Identical
16

Memory Channels

Lanes for simultaneous memory access

2
Identical
2

Supported Memory

Maximum amount of RAM supported by this CPU

32 GiB
38 GiB
18% slightly more supported memory

Other details

Rank

Ranking in the hardwareDB database

1,070th of 1,121
967th of 1,121

Family

The product line

Core
Core

Release date

The official date of release of this chip

2012 May
2010 February

Memory Type

The type of memory used by this chip

DDR3-1333
DDR3-1066

Supports ECC memory

Does this CPU support error correcting memory

No
-

Core i3-3217U vs Core i3-540 specs and performance

According to the hardwareDB Benchmark tool, the Core i3-540 is faster than the Core i3-3217U. Furthermore, our gaming benchmark shows that it also outperforms the Core i3-3217U in all gaming tests too.

When comparing these CPUs we notice that they have the same number of cores and the same number of threads. With our hardware info, we find that the Core i3-540 has a significantly higher clock speed than the Core i3-3217U. A Core i3-3217U CPU outputs less heat than a Core i3-540 CPU because of its significantly lower TDP. This measures the amount of heat they output and can be used to estimate power consumption.

Modern CPUs generally have more logical cores than physical cores, this means that each core is split into multiple virtual cores, improving efficiency for parallel workloads. Indeed, the Core i3-3217U has more threads than cores. Each physical core is split into multiple threads.

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