Athlon II X4 605e vs Athlon II X3 460

The Athlon II X4 605e packs 4 cores / 4 threads, while the Athlon II X3 460 offers 3 cores / 3 threads — the Athlon II X4 605e has 1 more core. Boost clocks reach 2.3 GHz on the Athlon II X4 605e versus 3.4 GHz on the Athlon II X3 460 — a 38.6% clock advantage for the Athlon II X3 460 (base: 2.3 GHz vs 3.4 GHz). The Athlon II X4 605e uses the Propus (2009−2011) architecture (45 nm), while the Athlon II X3 460 uses Rana (2009−2011) (45 nm). In PassMark, the Athlon II X4 605e scores 1,964 against the Athlon II X3 460's 1,965 — a 0.1% lead for the Athlon II X3 460. Geekbench 6 single-core — the metric most relevant to gaming — records 300 vs 384, a 24.6% lead for the Athlon II X3 460 that directly translates to higher frame rates. Multi-core Geekbench: 1,069 vs 944 (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: 16 (Athlon II X4 605e) vs 0 (Athlon II X3 460) — the Athlon II X4 605e offers 16 more lanes for additional GPUs or NVMe drives. Chipset compatibility: 760G,785G,790GX,880G,890GX (Athlon II X4 605e) and 760G,770,785G,790FX,870,880G,890FX,970,990FX (Athlon II X3 460).

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

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