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.
Here’s the stock heatsink.
Here’s the CPU-Z capture of the processor specification.
Here’s the CPU-Z capture of the processor on overclock, the highest I could reach with stock vcore.
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.
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 =-.
@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.
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 =-.
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. 😀
hi.. noob here.. compared this one to E6500 which one is better?
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