Intel’s four-core eight-thread Core i3-12100 comes with an extremely aggressive $129 price ticket that earns a spot on our checklist of finest CPUs for gaming and Greatest Low-cost CPUs as Intel lastly addresses what has grow to be probably the most ignored a part of the PC market — the sub-$200 phase. That is to not point out that the chip additionally comes as a $104 F-series Core i3-12100F that Intel ships with deactivated built-in graphics for $25 lower than the full-featured mannequin. In truth, with no clear current-gen competitor from AMD and stellar efficiency for its value level, the Core i3-12100 simply leads our CPU benchmark hierarchy within the $105 to $130 bracket.
Intel refreshed its Comet Lake Core i3 lineup when it launched its Eleventh-Gen Rocket Lake chips in 2020, however these fashions did not include a brand new structure or any significant efficiency enhancements. Fairly, they got here as refreshed Tenth-Gen fashions with a paltry 100 MHz clock velocity improve. Not that it mattered — given the realities of the chip shortages, we not often noticed these chips at retail anyway.
Talking of chips that do not actually exist, AMD’s final funds mannequin got here because the extremely spectacular Ryzen 3 3300X that landed again in 2020. The quad-core 3300X introduced an unheard-of degree of efficiency for a $120 chip, promising new ranges of gaming efficiency for funds builds. Sadly, that did not come to fruition because the chip was a ghost and by no means appeared in any significant quantity at retail.
Issues have not improved within the interim, both. AMD deserted the sub-$200 market when it launched its Ryzen 5000 processors, leaving its older 3000-series processors to carry the road. Nonetheless, as you will see in our benchmarks beneath, they don’t seem to be related. AMD’s lowest level of entry into its Zen 3-powered Ryzen 5000 sequence comes within the type of the $259 Ryzen 5 5600G. At twice the value of the 12100, it is a non-factor for lower-end gaming rigs until you intend to make use of built-in graphics.
| Worth | Cores | Threads | P-Core Base/Enhance | E-Core Base/Enhance | TDP / PBP / MTP | DDR4-3200 | L3 Cache | |
| Core i9-12900K / KF | $589 (Ok) – $564 (KF) | 8P + 8E | 16 Cores / 24 Threads | 3.2 / 5.2 GHz | 2.4 / 3.9 GHz | 125W / 241W | DDR4-3200 / DDR5-4800 | 30MB |
| Core i7-12700K / KF | $409 (Ok) – $384 (KF) | 8P + 4E | 12 Cores / 20 Threads | 3.6 / 5.0 GHz | 2.7 / 3.8 GHz | 125W / 190W | DDR4-3200 / DDR5-4800 | 25MB |
| Core i5-12600K / KF | $289 (Ok) – $264 (KF) | 6P + 4E | 10 Cores / 16 Threads | 3.7 / 4.9 GHz | 2.8 / 3.6 GHz | 125W / 150W | DDR4-3200 / DDR5-4800 | 16MB |
| Core i5-12400 / F | $192-$199 | $167-$174 (F) | 6P + 0E | 6 Cores / 12 Threads | 4.4 / 2.5 GHz | n/a | 65W / 117W | DDR4-3200 / DDR5-4800 | 18MB |
| Core i3-12100 / F | $122 – $129 | $97 – $104 | 4P + 0E | 4 Cores / 8 Threads | 3.3 / 4.3 GHz | n/a | 60W / 89W | DDR4-3200 / DDR5-4800 | 12MB |
That leaves Intel unchecked within the funds phase, including to the corporate’s newfound dominance with the Alder Lake chips that even outperform dearer Ryzen 5000 chips. Intel’s benefits additionally lengthen to the motherboard ecosystem too, with B660 and H610 motherboards offering an awesome pairing for the Core i3-12100. So despite the fact that these boards do value greater than we’re accustomed to for the lowest-end fashions, they supply loads of connectivity for funds techniques.
Alder Lake’s efficiency benefits come even with out its help for DDR5 reminiscence and PCIe 5.0 interfaces (each of which Intel dropped at market first). As such, you should utilize commonplace DDR4 reminiscence and PCIe 4.0 gadgets and nonetheless have superior efficiency and connectivity choices over AMD’s getting older AM4 platform. There are additionally loads of B- and H-series boards that leverage less-expensive DDR4 reminiscence, which is a saving grace given the continued DDR5 shortages.
Alder Lake additionally brings one other innovation — the hybrid x86 design. The upper-end Alder Lake chips have massive and quick Efficiency cores (P-cores) for latency-sensitive work paired with clusters of small and highly effective Effectivity cores (E-cores) that chew by background processes. The Golden Cove structure powers the ‘massive’ P-cores, whereas the ‘little’ E-cores include the Gracemont structure.
Nonetheless, the Core i3-12100 does not have a hybrid structure, as an alternative coming with a extra conventional design with solely 4 Golden Cove P-Cores lively. Meaning this four-core eight-thread processor does not want Intel’s new Home windows 11-exclusive Thread Director know-how to put workloads on the right cores. Consequently, not like Intel’s hybrid fashions, the 12100 is simply as potent in Home windows 10 as it’s in Home windows 11.
As you will see in our benchmarks beneath, the Core i3-12100 does not have a similarly-priced competitor from AMD. Nonetheless, regardless of a complete lack of competitors, it nonetheless brings spectacular generational efficiency good points to the desk. In truth, in 1080p gaming, the $129 Core i3-12100 delivers 88% of the $299 Core i5-12400’s efficiency, however for 56% much less money. The Core i3-12100 additionally trails the previous-gen $262 Core i5-11600K by a mere 3% in gaming, however at half the value.
Total, the quad-core i3-12100’s potent mixture of value, efficiency, and improved inventory cooler dominates the $100 to $130 value vary whereas punching up in opposition to dearer rivals.
Intel Alder Lake-S Core i3-12100 Specs and Pricing
We’ve got deep-dive protection of the Alder Lake design and microarchitectures right here, together with a broader overview in our Alder Lake all we all know article. Moreover, Intel now assigns a Processor Base Energy (PBP) spec as an alternative of utilizing the ‘TDP’ (Thermal Design Level) nomenclature. The corporate additionally added a secondary Most Turbo Energy (MTP) worth to signify the very best energy degree throughout increase exercise. You’ll be able to learn extra about that right here.
Intel fabs Alder Lake on the ‘Intel 7’ course of. We beforehand knew this ‘Intel 7’ manufacturing tech as 10nm Enhanced SuperFin, however Intel lately renamed its course of nodes to match business nomenclature. Technically, ‘Intel 7’ is the second era of Intel’s 10nm course of, but it surely’s a primary for desktop PCs.
| Worth | Cores | Threads | P-Core Base/Enhance | E-Core Base/Enhance | TDP / PBP / MTP | Reminiscence Assist | L3 Cache | |
| Ryzen 5 5600X | $299 | 6P | 12 threads | 3.7 / 4.6 GHz | – | 65W | DDR4-3200 | 32MB |
| Ryzen 5 5600G | $259 | 6 / 12 | 3.9 / 4.4 | – | 65W | DDR4-3200 | 16MB |
| Core i5-12400 / F | $192-$199 | $167-$174 (F) | 6P + 0E | 6 Cores / 12 Threads | 4.4 / ~2.5 GHz | n/a | 65W / 117W | DDR4-3200 / DDR5-4800 | 18MB |
| Ryzen 5 3600X | $240 | 6 / 12 | 3.8 / 4.4 | – | 95W | DDR4-3200 | 32MB |
| Ryzen 5 3600 | $200 | 6 / 12 | 3.6 / 4.2 | – | 65W | DDR4-3200 | 32MB |
| Core i3-12100 / F | $122 – $129 | $97 – $104 | 4P + 0E | 4 Cores / 8 Threads | 3.3 / 4.3 GHz | n/a | 60W / 89W | DDR4-3200 / DDR5-4800 | 12MB |
| Core i3-10105 | $122 | 4 / 8 | 3.7 / 4.4 GHz | n/a | 65W | DDR4-2666 | 6MB |
All Alder Lake chips help DDR4-3200 or as much as DDR5-4800 reminiscence, however caveats apply. PCIe help will fluctuate by motherboard, however Alder Lake chips expose as much as 16 lanes of PCIe 5.0 (technically for storage and graphics solely, no networking gadgets) and a further 4 lanes of PCIe 4.0 from the chip for M.2 storage. Intel’s Alder Lake drops into Socket 1700 motherboards from the 600-series, together with Z690, H670, B660, and H610.
The Core i3-12100 comes with a 60W PBP (base) and 89W MTP (peak) energy score. The chip clocks in with a 3.3 GHz base and boosts as much as 4.3 GHz. It additionally comes with 12 MB of L3 cache.
The Core i3-12100 is a locked chip, that means it is not overclockable. Nonetheless, Intel helps reminiscence overclocking on Z690, H670 and B660 motherboards (Z690 does not make sense for this class of chip, although). Manipulating the ability limits serves as a quasi-overclock that may eke out some further efficiency in some gaming and threaded work, however you aren’t getting a lot of a profit with chips this far down on the low finish.
Intel has revamped its inventory air coolers with Alder Lake. These coolers are designed to handle two main deficiencies with Intel’s inventory coolers: Thermal dissipation limitations and aesthetics. AMD’s inventory coolers have lengthy beat Intel in each of those departments, so it is a sorely-needed improve. The Core i3-1100 ships with the Laminar RM1 cooler that comes with out RGB lighting however has an ornamental blue plastic ring lining the fin stack. Intel charges this cooler for ‘quiet efficiency’ at 3.9 BA.
We examined with each the inventory heatsink and a Corsair H115i watercooler to gauge the energy of the air cooler. We did not measure any significant distinction between the 2, so so long as you are not experiencing extreme chip bowing points, you should utilize the inventory cooler with out fear.
The usual Core i3-12100 comes with the UHD Graphics 730 engine with 24 EUs. The engine runs at 300/1400 MHz base/increase frequencies. When you’re trying to avoid wasting coin, the graphics-less Core i3-12100 comes with a $25 value discount and has the identical specs because the 12100, which is extremely enticing for those who plan on utilizing a discrete graphics card. The one distinction between the usual 12100 and the 12100F is that the latter has a 58W PBP score, so efficiency is equivalent with each fashions. Notably, going with the 12100F means you’ll lose Fast Sync capabilities and the iGPU fallback that you should utilize for troubleshooting within the occasion of a difficulty with a discrete GPU.
