Recommended System Requirements | ||
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Game | APU A6-6400K Dual-Core | Core 2 Duo E6420 2.13GHz |
Cyberpunk 2077 | 202% | 294% |
Assassins Creed: Valhalla | 307% | 430% |
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War | 193% | 282% |
Grand Theft Auto VI | 397% | 547% |
FIFA 21 | 183% | 268% |
Genshin Impact | 129% | 198% |
Far Cry 6 | 377% | 521% |
Hitman 3 | 307% | 430% |
Watch Dogs Legion | 307% | 430% |
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands | 370% | 512% |
In terms of overall gaming performance, the AMD APU A6-6400K Dual-Core is noticeably better than the Intel Core 2 Duo E6420 2.13GHz when it comes to running the latest games. This also means it will be less likely to bottleneck more powerful GPUs, allowing them to achieve more of their gaming performance potential.
The APU A6-6400K Dual-Core was released over three years more recently than the Core 2 Duo, and so the APU A6-6400K Dual-Core is likely to have far better levels of support, and will be much more optimized and ultimately superior to the Core 2 Duo when running the latest games.
The APU A6-6400K Dual-Core and the Core 2 Duo both have 2 cores, and so are quite likely to struggle with the latest games, or at least bottleneck high-end graphics cards when running them. With a decent accompanying GPU, the APU A6-6400K Dual-Core and the Core 2 Duo may still be able to run slightly older games fairly effectively.
Both the AMD APU A6-6400K Dual-Core and the Intel Core 2 Duo E6420 2.13GHz have the same number of threads. Both CPUs have one thread per physical core.
Multiple threads are useful for improving the performance of multi-threaded applications. Additional cores and their accompanying thread will always be beneficial for multi-threaded applications. Hyperthreading will be beneficial for applications optimized for it, but it may slow others down. For games, the number of threads is largely irrelevant, as long as you have at least 2 cores (preferably 4), and hyperthreading can sometimes even hit performance.
More important for gaming than the number of cores and threads is the clock rate. Problematically, unless the two CPUs are from the same family, this can only serve as a general guide and nothing like an exact comparison, because the clock cycles per instruction (CPI) will vary so much.
The APU A6-6400K Dual-Core and Core 2 Duo are not from the same family of CPUs, so their clock speeds are by no means directly comparable. Bear in mind, then, that while the APU A6-6400K Dual-Core has a 1.77 GHz faster frequency, this is not always an indicator that it will be superior in performance, despite frequency being crucial when trying to avoid GPU bottlenecking. In this case, however, the difference is probably a good indicator that the is superior.
Aside from the clock rate, the next-most important CPU features for PC game performance are L2 and L3 cache size. Faster than RAM, the more cache available, the more data that can be stored for lightning-fast retrieval. L1 Cache is not usually an issue anymore for gaming, with most high-end CPUs eking out about the same L1 performance, and L2 is more important than L3 - but L3 is still important if you want to reach the highest levels of performance. Bear in mind that although it is better to have a larger cache, the larger it is, the higher the latency, so a balance has to be struck.
The Core 2 Duo has a 3072 KB bigger L2 cache than the APU A6-6400K Dual-Core, but neither of the CPUs have L3 caches, so the Core 2 Duo wins out in this area with its larger L2 cache.
The maximum Thermal Design Power is the power in Watts that the CPU will consume in the worst case scenario. The lithography is the semiconductor manufacturing technology being used to create the CPU - the smaller this is, the more transistors that can be fit into the CPU, and the closer the connections. For both the lithography and the TDP, it is the lower the better, because a lower number means a lower amount of power is necessary to run the CPU, and consequently a lower amount of heat is produced.
Both the APU A6-6400K Dual-Core and the Core 2 Duo have the same TDP of 65 Watts, but the APU A6-6400K Dual-Core has a lower lithography size, and so will affect your yearly electricity bills less adversely.
The APU A6-6400K Dual-Core has an on-board GPU, which means that it will be capable of running basic graphics applications (i.e., games) without the need for a dedicated graphics card. The Core 2 Duo, however, does not, and you will probably have to look for a dedicated card if you wish to use it at all.
For in-depth GPU comparisons with the Radeon HD 8470D, click on the following GPU overview comparison icon (visible throughout Game-Debate), and choose a GPU from the list to compare against:
On-board GPUs tend to be fairly awful in comparison to dedicated cards from the likes of AMD or Nvidia, but as they are built into the CPU, they also tend to be cheaper and require far less power to run (this makes them a good choice for laptops). We would recommend a dedicated card for running the latest games, but integrated GPUs are improving all the time and casual gamers may find less recent games perform perfectly acceptably.
CPU Codename | Richland | Conroe | |||
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MoBo Socket | Socket FM2 | LGA 775/ Socket T | |||
Notebook CPU | no | no | |||
Release Date | 04 Jun 2013 | 22 Apr 2007 | |||
CPU Link | GD Link | GD Link | |||
Approved | ![]() | ![]() |
CPU Cores | 2 | ![]() | vs | ![]() | 2 |
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CPU Threads | 2 | ![]() | vs | ![]() | 2 |
Clock Speed | 3.9 GHz | ![]() | vs | 2.13 GHz | |
Turbo Frequency | 4.1 GHz | ![]() | vs | - | |
System Bus | - | vs | ![]() | 1066 MHz | |
Max TDP | 65 W | ![]() | vs | ![]() | 65 W |
Lithography | 32 nm | ![]() | vs | 65 nm | |
Bit Width | 64 Bit | ![]() | vs | ![]() | 64 Bit |
Max Temperature | 70°C | ![]() | vs | 60°C | |
Virtualization Technology | no | vs | no | ||
Comparison |
L1 Cache Size | 128 KB | ![]() | vs | ![]() | 128 KB |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
L2 Cache Size | 1024 KB | vs | ![]() | 4096 KB | |
L3 Cache Size | - | vs | - | ||
Memory Channels | - | ![]() | vs | ![]() | 2 |
ECC Memory Support | no | vs | no | ||
Comparison |
Graphics | Radeon HD 8470D | ![]() | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Base GPU Frequency | 800 MHz | ![]() | vs | - | |
Max GPU Frequency | - | vs | - | ||
DirectX | 11.1 | ![]() | vs | - | |
Displays Supported | - | vs | - | ||
Comparison |
Package Size | - | vs | - | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Revision | - | vs | - | ||
PCIe Revision | - | vs | - | ||
PCIe Configurations | - | vs | - |
Performance Value | ![]() |
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Mini Review | APU A6-6400K Dual-Core is a performance CPU based on the 32nm, Piledriver architecture. It offers 2 Physical Cores (2 Logical), initially clocked at 3.9GHz, which may go up to 4.1GHz and 1MB of L2 Cache. Among its many features, Turbo Core and Virtualization are activated and the processor has the clock multiplier unlocked, meaning it can be overclocked easily. The processor integrates weak Graphics called Radeon HD 8470D, with 192 Shader Processing Units, clocked at 800MHz, which share the L2 Cache and system RAM with the processor. Both the processor and integrated graphics have a rated board TDP of 65W. It offers average performance. This means it will become a bottleneck in some demanding applications. | Core 2 Duo E6420 2.13GHz is a middle-class Processor based on the 65nm Core micro-architecture. It offers 2 Physical Cores (2 Logical), clocked at 2.13GHz and 2MB of L2 Cache. Among its many features, Virtualization is activated. The processor DOES NOT integrated any graphics. and has a rated board TDP of 65W. Its performance is below the average and so most demanding games will not run optimally. |
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