Intel Core i5-3210M vs Intel Core i7-860

Compare Intel Core 2 core CPU vs Intel Core 4 core processor, specs and benchmark score. Which is the better CPU for gaming?

CPU Comparison

Quickly search and compare processors

Price

The cheapest price from our partner retailers

$ 39.99
$ 14.26 significantly less expensive
$ 54.25

Benchmark Score

Overall Score

A combined score of all workloads

1066 points
1632 points
53% significantly better overall score

Gaming Score

The raw gaming performance with a fast GPU

2093 points
2607 points
24% slightly better gaming score

Multitasking Score

Performance in workloads using up to 8 cores

796 points
1342 points
68% significantly better multitasking score

Heavy Workload Score

Performance in workloads using up to 16 cores

763 points
1289 points
68% significantly better heavy workload score

Free CPU Benchmark

Want to compare your processor against the Core i5-3210M and the Core i7-860? Download our free and quick PC Performance Test.

Other Benchmarks

Blender score

Blender score

Cycles Render (Samples per minute)

16.49 points
30.74 points
86% significantly higher Blender score
Geekbench 5 (multi) score

Geekbench 5 (multi) score

Multi threaded benchmark

974 points
1475 points
51% significantly higher Geekbench 5 (multi) score
Geekbench 5 (single) score

Geekbench 5 (single) score

Single threaded benchmark

480 points
8% slightly higher Geekbench 5 (single) score
441 points
Geekbench 6 (multi) score

Geekbench 6 (multi) score

Multi threaded benchmark

993 points
1475 points
48% significantly higher Geekbench 6 (multi) score
Geekbench 6 (single) score

Geekbench 6 (single) score

Single threaded benchmark

489 points
8% slightly higher Geekbench 6 (single) score
451 points

Specifications

Cores

Number of physical processing units

2
4
100% significantly more cores

Threads

Number of logical processing units

4
8
100% significantly more threads

Clock Speed

Base frequency at which the chip operates

2.5 GHz
2.8 GHz
11% slightly higher clock speed

Turbo Speed

Higher frequency used for heavy workloads

3.1 GHz
3.46 GHz
11% slightly higher turbo speed

TDP

Thermal Design Power: Measure of heat generated by the CPU

35 W
171% significantly lower TDP
95 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
100% significantly more supported memory
16 GiB

Other details

Rank

Ranking in the hardwareDB database

931st of 1,089
783rd of 1,089

Family

The product line

Core
Core

Release date

The official date of release of this chip

2012 May
2009 August

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
No

Core i5-3210M vs Core i7-860 comparison

According to the hardwareDB Benchmark tool, the Core i7-860 is faster than the Core i5-3210M. Furthermore, our gaming benchmark shows that it also outperforms the Core i5-3210M in all gaming tests too.

In terms of the number of cores of each of these CPUs, the Core i7-860 has significantly more cores than the Core i5-3210M. Indeed, the Core i7-860 has 4 cores compared to 2 cores found in the Core i5-3210M. It also has more threads than the Core i5-3210M. Our comparison shows that the Core i7-860 has a slightly higher clock speed compared to the Core i5-3210M. Also, the Core i7-860 has a slightly higher turbo speed. A Core i5-3210M CPU outputs less heat than a Core i7-860 CPU because of its significantly lower TDP. This measures the amount of heat they output and can be used to estimate power consumption.

The more cores a CPU has, the better the overall performance will be in parallel workloads such as multitasking. Many CPUs have more threads than cores, this means that each physical core is split into multiple logical cores, making them more efficient. Indeed, the Core i5-3210M has more threads than cores. Each physical core is split into multiple threads.

Comments

No comments yet! Be the first to leave a comment using the form below.

Keep comments on topic and be polite. Comments are subject to moderation before they are published.

Popular CPU Comparisons