News Intel Core i3-12100 Review: The Little Gaming Giant

[Admin]

The Intel Core i3-12100 brings an incredible amount of gaming and application performance for a mere $104.

Intel Core i3-12100 Review: The Little Gaming Giant : Read more

 

[zipspyder]

That is pretty impressive. To bad higher motherboard prices don't do budget gaming justice when paired together.

 

[DRagor]

Does not matter now - who cares if you pay 100 or CPU, 100 for mobo, when you have to dig 500+ for GPU. There is no such thing as budget gaming rig currently, so 12100 is a king of nothing.

 

[Neilbob]

I hate the stupid Microsoft Office benchmarks - and I mean that regardless of the CPU vendor.

With the possible exception of certain Excel spreadsheets, what is anyone ever going to do in Office that they'll notice any difference with any of these processors, especially the differences seen in these bar charts?

 

[rluker5]

That is pretty impressive. To bad higher motherboard prices don't do budget gaming justice when paired together.

$85 on Newegg for one with pcie gen4 to max out any gpu at 1440p cheap enough yet?
The platform is only a few months old, I'm sure prices will continue to drop.

 

[zipspyder]

$85 on Newegg for one with pcie gen4 to max out any gpu at 1440p cheap enough yet?
The platform is only a few months old, I'm sure prices will continue to drop.

That certainly is getting there!

 

[rluker5]

That certainly is getting there!

That with ram prices have been tempting me, but the cheapest decent Alder I can find is a $200 12400

 

[spentshells]

Quad-core with hyper threading is perfect for gaming.

Yes after a decade 4 cores 8 threads is all you need beyond a gpu you can afford.

1080p 60 fps is fine.

Gitgud

 

[Alvar "Miles" Udell]

It's entirely reasonable to assume there are many people out there with RX 480 and GTX 1660 rigs based on AMD Bulldozer or Intel 7000 series, and a rig based on this would not only be -far- faster, it would be a relatively inexpensive upgrade.

 

[Matt_ogu812]

Given the lack of GPU availability and the cost of MBs to support this CPU, I have to ask 'what's the point'?

 

[artk2219]

Given the lack of GPU availability and the cost of MBs to support this CPU, I have to ask 'what's the point'?

While I get the sentiment, you cant really claim that you shouldn't buy a new CPU because GPU prices are bad. If you already have a GPU, have a line on a decent priced GPU, or you don't do much gaming then this I3 is a solid upgrade for anyone on a sky lake or Kaby lake era chip and prior, I'd say if you're on AM4 stick with AM4 or wait until AM5 before making a decision. You're on point with the current motherboard situation though, those prices need to drop a bit more, but as stated before $85 is starting to get there. Granted its for a pretty crummy H610 board that ideally should not be more than $65, but its working its way down.

 

[Why_Me]

That with ram prices have been tempting me, but the cheapest decent Alder I can find is a $200 12400

If you don't like that price maybe you should look into a Ryzen 5600X.

 

[zipspyder]

While I get the sentiment, you cant really claim that you shouldn't buy a new CPU because GPU prices are bad. If you already have a GPU, have a line on a decent priced GPU, or you don't do much gaming then this I3 is a solid upgrade for anyone on a sky lake or Kaby lake era chip and prior, I'd say if you're on AM4 stick with AM4 or wait until AM5 before making a decision. You're on point with the current motherboard situation though, those prices need to drop a bit more, but as stated before $85 is starting to get there. Granted its for a pretty crummy H610 board that ideally should be more than $65, but its working its way down.

Agreed but my sentiment is if one were looking for a complete brand new gaming budget build. The gpu pricing just screws everything budget related, which is more a sign of the times than anything else. But that should not stop anyone from at least getting the parts they want now and eventually finishing later.

 

[cyrusfox]

I hate the stupid Microsoft Office benchmarks - and I mean that regardless of the CPU vendor.

With the possible exception of certain Excel spreadsheets, what is anyone ever going to do in Office that they'll notice any difference with any of these processors, especially the differences seen in these bar charts?

There is a core of us for which that metric is the most meaningful.
Office is almost entirely single thread dependent(macros/vba scripting). And while passmark single thread performance gives a decent indication, office benchmarks comparing relevant cpu's tells me exactly how much it can speed up my work flow.

For businesses I would argure this is the most meaningful metric!

 

[Stardude82]

So, we're looking at the i3-12100 fast enough for a 3070 Ti or less while a i3-10105 is only stuck on a 3060... The lows on Hitman 3 are concerning, but an easy upgrade when/if GPU prices decline.

 

[Roger1968]

Here we go again. Started out this month with an i3-10105, returned that for a i5-10400. Now that I am reading this and i3-12100 became available in my country at the same price range and h610 boards took a big dive down in price I ordered this and will return the i5. Not that there is something wrong with the first two CPU´s, they were more then ok. It is just that I suffer a severe form of Buyers Remorse.

 

[Rolan the Brave]

It's entirely reasonable to assume there are many people out there with RX 480 and GTX 1660 rigs based on AMD Bulldozer or Intel 7000 series, and a rig based on this would not only be -far- faster, it would be a relatively inexpensive upgrade.

I'm pretty much in that boat - I have an old ivy bridge build put together 5 years ago from used parts and a then brand new GTX 1060. The GPU is still fine, but the motherboard and CPU are done for. It's a no-brainer to transfer my parts to a new motherboard with better ram and the i3 12100. I've then got a good upgrade path to better 12th and 13th gen CPUs. I'll look at replacing the GTX 1060 when GPU prices are a little less bonkers.