Athlon II X3 460 vs Athlon II X4 605e

The Athlon II X3 460 packs 3 cores / 3 threads, while the Athlon II X4 605e offers 4 cores / 4 threads — the Athlon II X4 605e has 1 more core. Boost clocks reach 3.4 GHz on the Athlon II X3 460 versus 2.3 GHz on the Athlon II X4 605e — a 38.6% clock advantage for the Athlon II X3 460 (base: 3.4 GHz vs 2.3 GHz). The Athlon II X3 460 uses the Rana (2009−2011) architecture (45 nm), while the Athlon II X4 605e uses Propus (2009−2011) (45 nm). In PassMark, the Athlon II X3 460 scores 1,965 against the Athlon II X4 605e's 1,964 — a 0.1% lead for the Athlon II X3 460. Geekbench 6 single-core — the metric most relevant to gaming — records 384 vs 300, a 24.6% lead for the Athlon II X3 460 that directly translates to higher frame rates. Multi-core Geekbench: 944 vs 1,069 (12.4% advantage for the Athlon II X4 605e). Both processors carry 0 kB of L3 cache.

Both processors use the AM3 socket with PCIe 2.0. Both support up to DDR3-1333 memory speed. The Athlon II X4 605e supports up to 32 GB of RAM compared to 16 GB — 66.7% more capacity for professional workloads. Both feature 2-channel memory with ECC support. PCIe lanes: 0 (Athlon II X3 460) vs 16 (Athlon II X4 605e) — the Athlon II X4 605e offers 16 more lanes for additional GPUs or NVMe drives. Chipset compatibility: 760G,770,785G,790FX,870,880G,890FX,970,990FX (Athlon II X3 460) and 760G,785G,790GX,880G,890GX (Athlon II X4 605e).

Neither processor supports overclocking. Both support AMD-V virtualization. Primary use case: Athlon II X3 460 targets Budget, Athlon II X4 605e targets Desktop.

The Athlon II X3 460 launched at $87 MSRP, while the Athlon II X4 605e debuted at $143. At current prices ($15 vs $25), the Athlon II X3 460 is $10 cheaper. In terms of value (PassMark points per dollar), the Athlon II X3 460 delivers 131.0 pts/$ vs 78.6 pts/$ for the Athlon II X4 605e — making the Athlon II X3 460 the 50% better value option.