The slowest i3 gets a passmark score of 2059 while the fastest Turion II gets a score of 1643. The i3 is certainly way faster than an Athlon X2 2,2 Ghz.
the i3 is dual core with multithreading encoded a movie with handbrake in 45 min. not as fast as my athlon 620 but not bad boy I'm glad bestbuy didn't have the 1st laptop I was looking at with a turion this i3 is pretty good for $500