AMD Athlon II X2 250 Processor Review

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AMD Athlon II X2 250 Processor Review

The Athlon II X2 250 is a low-cost 3ghz (1MB L2 Cache) dual core from AMD, retailing for less than RM 250.

The Processor

Here’s the Athlon II X2 250 itself.

AMD Athlon II X2 250 Processor Review

Here’s the stock heatsink.

AMD Athlon II X2 250 Processor Review

Here’s the CPU-Z capture of the processor specification.

AMD Athlon II X2 250 Processor Review

Here’s the CPU-Z capture of the processor on overclock, the highest I could reach with stock vcore.

AMD Athlon II X2 250 Processor Review

More details here and here.

Test Setup

The test setup used for this review.

Processor AMD Athlon II X2 250
RAM OCZ 1066mhz 4GB Dual-Channel Kit
Motherboard MSI 770-C45
Cooler Stock heatsink
Monitor 20″ Dell Ultra-sharp Wide-screen LCD
Power Supply Gigabyte Odin GT 550w
Operating System Windows 7 32bit

Benchmarks

The Athlon II X2 250 is benched in both stock and overclocked state.

Super PI 1.5 Mod

The value chosen for Super PI was 1M.

X2 250 X2 250 OC X2 5200+ E7200
27.003 22.137 34.632 20.922
* Lower the better

CINEBENCH R10

Processor X2 250 X2 250 OC X2 5200+ E7200
Rendering (Single CPU) 2311 3178 2212 2733
Rendering (Multiple CPU) 5193 6133 4317 5172

The benchmark was done with default settings. Here’s where you can download MAXON CINEBENCH R10.

*Note : I’ve recently added more benchmark tests for processor reviews so I don’t have any results for the X2 5200+ or E7200, so the i3-530 is the closest I have to give you an idea on how it fares.

PCMark Vantage

X2 250 X2 250 OC i3-530
4890 5361 5392
* Higher the better

Fritz Chess Benchmark

Processor X2 250 X2 250 OC i3-530
Relative Speed 7.67 9.07 17.25
Kilo Nodes/second 3680 4352 8280

SiSoft SANDRA Lite

Processor X2 250 X2 250 OC i3-530
Aggregate Arithmetic 19.8
GOPS		 23.13
GOPS		 34.6
GOPS
Dhrystone ALU 19.82
GIPS		 24.5
GIPS		 36.45
GIPS
Whetstone iSSE3 19.8
GFLOPS		 23.76
GFLOPS		 32.74
GFLOPS
Aggregate Multi-Media 42
MPixel/s		 50.48
MPixel/s		 58.79
MPixel/s
Multi-Media Int 58.24
MPixel/s		 70
MPixel/s		 64.64
MPixel/s
Multi-Media Float 25.8
MPixel/s		 31
MPixel/s		 53.00
MPixel/s
Multi-Media Double 14
MPixel/s		 17
MPixel/s		 27.51
MPixel/s

Thermal Performance

Tests were done with the stock heatsink.

Processor X2 250 X2 250 OC X2 5200+ E7200
Idle 27°C 29°C 31°C 33°C
Load 41°C 41°C 51°C 49°C

It’s good to see that despite being overclocked, the temperature hovers at 41°C even on a stock heatsink.

Conclusion

It’s a good processor for the price actually. You could also opt for the X2 245 which costs a little less and performance difference should be negligible.

goldfries recommended

goldfries rated this product :


11 Comments

  1. 1.3v… sigh…

    I wonder when AMD will be able to compete with Intel, both in term of performance and power consumption. Since people can get Pentium E5300 and E6300 for around RM250, I wonder if this processor can be considered as a good deal.

    I hope one day their processors will be as successful as their graphic cards.
    .-= apamise´s last blog ..Google Wave =-.

  2. @apamise : those 2 pentium platform (LGA 775) is at EOL while the platform in which the athlon II based (AM2+/AM3) on still have a lot of life going. If a consumer is smart, they might go for the amd platform.

  3. Does it matter if Intel stop manufacturing them? They’re still better than AMD in every aspect. I’d be more than happy to use LGA 775 for another 5 years.

    I’m a former AMD user. And it disappoint me.
    .-= apamise´s last blog ..Google Wave =-.

  4. Author

    Been using AMD for years, I’ve not been disappointed in them. the AM2+ being able to cater to AM3 processors is a good thing. I was disappointed with Intel’s LGA1366/1156 because it was so pricey (part breakdown, spare parts cost a bomb) – only recent release of i3 make the situation look better but only for LGA1156. 🙂

    I’m currently using the X2 250+ for gaming. cool temperature is fine. Anyway no point buying LGA775 stuff already IMO, just get LGA1156 if you can afford (I love the Core i3 530). if not then there’s always socket AM2+ where you can use AM3 processor as long as the board supports it.

    I think the competition is healthy so far. 😀


  6. hi.. noob here.. compared this one to E6500 which one is better?



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