Core i7-930 vs Athlon Silver 3050e

The Core i7-930 packs 4 cores / 8 threads, while the Athlon Silver 3050e offers 2 cores / 4 threads — the Core i7-930 has 2 more cores. Boost clocks reach 3.06 GHz on the Core i7-930 versus 2.8 GHz on the Athlon Silver 3050e — a 8.9% clock advantage for the Core i7-930 (base: 2.8 GHz vs 1.4 GHz). The Core i7-930 uses the Bloomfield (2008−2010) architecture (45 nm), while the Athlon Silver 3050e uses Dali (Zen) (2020) (14 nm). In PassMark, the Core i7-930 scores 2,993 against the Athlon Silver 3050e's 2,979 — a 0.5% lead for the Core i7-930. L3 cache: 8 MB (total) on the Core i7-930 vs 4 MB on the Athlon Silver 3050e.

The Core i7-930 uses the LGA1366 socket (PCIe 2.0), while the Athlon Silver 3050e uses FP5 (PCIe 3.0) — making them incompatible on the same motherboard. Maximum memory speed reaches DDR3-1066 on the Core i7-930 versus 2400 on the Athlon Silver 3050e — the Athlon Silver 3050e supports 199.5% faster memory, which can translate to measurable gains in memory-sensitive workloads. The Athlon Silver 3050e supports up to 32 of RAM compared to 24 GB — 28.6% more capacity for professional workloads. Memory channels: 3 (Core i7-930) vs 2 (Athlon Silver 3050e). PCIe lanes: 36 (Core i7-930) vs 8 (Athlon Silver 3050e) — the Core i7-930 offers 28 more lanes for additional GPUs or NVMe drives.

Neither processor supports overclocking. Virtualization support: VT-x, VT-d (Core i7-930) vs true (Athlon Silver 3050e). The Athlon Silver 3050e includes integrated graphics (Radeon Vega 3), while the Core i7-930 requires a dedicated GPU. Primary use case: Core i7-930 targets Desktop.

The Core i7-930 launched at $294 MSRP, while the Athlon Silver 3050e debuted at $100. At current prices ($20 vs $60), the Core i7-930 is $40 cheaper. In terms of value (PassMark points per dollar), the Core i7-930 delivers 149.7 pts/$ vs 49.6 pts/$ for the Athlon Silver 3050e — making the Core i7-930 the 100.4% better value option.