Intel Core i3-540 vs Intel Core i3-550

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

Benchmark Score
Other Benchmarks
Specifications
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CPU Comparison

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Benchmark Score

Overall Score

A combined score of all workloads

1037 points

1048 points

1% slightly better overall score

Gaming Score

The raw gaming performance with a fast GPU

2070 points

4% slightly better gaming score

1976 points

Multitasking Score

Performance in workloads using up to 8 cores

769 points

795 points

3% slightly better multitasking score

Heavy Workload Score

Performance in workloads using up to 16 cores

739 points

763 points

3% slightly better heavy workload score

Free CPU Benchmark

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Other Benchmarks

Blender score

Cycles Render (Samples per minute)

14.86 points

54% significantly higher Blender score

9.59 points

Geekbench 5 (multi) score

Multi threaded benchmark

818 points

911 points

11% slightly higher Geekbench 5 (multi) score

Geekbench 5 (single) score

Single threaded benchmark

386 points

417 points

8% slightly higher Geekbench 5 (single) score

Geekbench 6 (multi) score

Multi threaded benchmark

836 points

899 points

7% slightly higher Geekbench 6 (multi) score

Geekbench 6 (single) score

Single threaded benchmark

404 points

437 points

8% slightly higher Geekbench 6 (single) score

Specifications

Cores

Number of physical processing units

Identical

Threads

Number of logical processing units

Identical

Clock Speed

Base frequency at which the chip operates

3.06 GHz

3.2 GHz

4% slightly higher clock speed

TDP

Thermal Design Power: Measure of heat generated by the CPU

73 W

Identical

73 W

PCIe Lanes

Number of physical connections between the CPU and expansion slots

Identical

Memory Channels

Lanes for simultaneous memory access

Identical

Supported Memory

Maximum amount of RAM supported by this CPU

38 GiB

Identical

38 GiB

Other details

Rank

Ranking in the hardwareDB database

955th of 1,107

949th of 1,107

Family

The product line

Core

Release date

The official date of release of this chip

2010 February

2010 May

Memory Type

The type of memory used by this chip

DDR3-1066

Core i3-540 vs Core i3-550 comparison

Our benchmark analysis concludes that the Core i3-550 performs better than the Core i3-540. Furthermore, our gaming benchmark shows that it also outperforms the Core i3-540 in all gaming tests too.

Our spec comparison shows that they have an identical amount of cores and the same number of threads. With our hardware info, we find that the Core i3-550 has a slightly higher clock speed than the Core i3-540. Both these chips have an identical TDP (Thermal Design Power). 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 i3-540 has more threads than cores. Each physical core is split into multiple threads.