Intel Core i3-12100F

[FreedomEclipse]

f**k me. If had the money right now - I would totally get myself one of these chips for 5.2Ghz HAHA

How soon before board vendors start patching the 'exploit' out at Intels request though?

 

[bug]

@W1zzard Small boo-boo on the first page. The article says "a shared L3 cache that's only 18 MB", the table says 12MB.

Otherwise a capable little bastard. But perhaps not as surprising if you consider if this was Kaby Lake, it would be an i7.

 

[Crackong]

To be honest

No E-cores should be a Pro.

The BCLK overclocking won't be that smooth if there is any e-cores in the way.

 

[xBruce88x]

I have a S@$% eating grin on my face, because im about to enjoy the same kind of OC that was fun a decade ago, in just a few days too

Yes, basically how I used to overclock Pentium D's and Pentium E series back in the day. Some athlon and phenom2s as well.

Memory could get tricky... Depending on the overclock I'd have to "underclock" the ram speed but then the other overclock would bring it back up. Had to mess with ram/fsb ratios too


This performance gives me hope for the Steam Deck CPU cores being good enough. 4 core 8 thread much like this chip in the review. Looking forward to reviews of Steam Deck cpu.

Wizzard, do you plan to do a cpu review of the steam deck? Gpu review too? Etc.

 

[Metroid]

The best budget cpu till intel finds a way to lock it hehe, I hope they let this generation go, i'm sure they will lock the next generation.

 

[Voodoo Rufus]

I'm highly amused at the 4K gaming performance. Really begs the question of why buy a $300-600 CPU when this does the job fine, on a little quad core no less. Aside from, "because we can".

It would be nice if Intel would bring back an unlocked small core count chip like they did with the 9350K. Unobtanium pretty much stateside, but sometimes it's fun to take little cheap chips and clock the snot out of them.

 

[SL2]

I don't see many comments about the need for DDR5 when overclocking. Yeah, the 12100F is a great budget choice, but 32 GB premium DDR5 isn't (if 32 GB is what you need).

I wonder what makes most sense in terms of cost, 12100F and DDR5, 12100F and DDR4 and a faster GPU, or an i5 and DDR4. It could be an interesting comparison, especially for those that doesn't use it with a $$$$ 3080 or similar anyway, which is a pretty small minority.

Yeah you might think that DDR4 is dead, but remember that we're not talking premium CPU's here, so trying to keep the cost down is nothing unexpected. But then there's the question whether the next CPU generation will work with DDR4, which I guess it will.

 

[Crackong]

I don't see many comments about the need for DDR5 when overclocking. Yeah, this is a great budget CPU choice, but 32 GB premium DDR5 isn't (if 32 GB is what you need).

I wonder what makes most sense in terms of cost, 12100F and DDR5, 12100F and DDR4 and a faster GPU, or an i5 and DDR4. It could be and interesting comparison, especially for those that doesn't use it with a $$$$ 3080 or similar anyway, which is a pretty small minority.

Yeah you might think that DDR4 is dead, but remember that we're not talking premium CPU's here, so trying to keep the cost down is nothing unexpected. But then there's the question whether the next CPU generation will work with DDR4, which I guess it will.

MB makers just need to make D4 boards with external clock gen, then the magic happens......

 

[SL2]

Are there any DDR4 boards with an external clock generator for this CPU? Otherwise, the need for DDR5 for serious overclocking is definitely a CON.

MB makers just need to make D4 boards with external clock gen, then the magic happens......

Well we all know that by then there's a big chance that Intel have stopped this from happening with updated code.
Next CPU generation will certainly need a BIOS update that will block this.

 

[mechtech]

100 percent this is Intel's best CPU in the current market environment. Thanks Intel for keeping quad cores going. I still think that since computers are quite expensive overall the extra money to reach the 12600k is worth it. But at $150 there's no competition, period. There does seem to be a bunch of tricks regarding MSRP so I'm not sure if the 12100's price is sustainable. "$40 off" the launch price on Newegg? What is the actual long term price for the 12100, we'll see.



Radeon 6600 is easy to find for $670 CAD plus tax. It's not $1000.

Have some links? No stores up where I live. I usually stick to Newegg and or amazon. Most of them come up at $750-$950 not including the 13% HST. Even then this is supposed to be $420CAD msrp card. And you’re correct. I should have said in the neighborhood of $1000 after taxes and shipping.

 

[SL2]

Have some links? No stores up where I live. I usually stick to Newegg and or amazon. Most of them come up at $750-$950 not including the 13% HST. Even then this is supposed to be $420CAD msrp card. And you’re correct. I should have said in the neighborhood of $1000 after taxes and shipping.

Yeah, I don't understand the current GPU pricing. Like why are RTX 3080 cards so much more expensive in the US than in Europe?

 

[Garrus]

Have some links? No stores up where I live. I usually stick to Newegg and or amazon. Most of them come up at $750-$950 not including the 13% HST. Even then this is supposed to be $420CAD msrp card. And you’re correct. I should have said in the neighborhood of $1000 after taxes and shipping.

Ah well they are still selling out a lot.

Langley, Victoria, London, Ottawa.

XFX SPEEDSTER SWFT 210 Radeon RX 6600 CORE 8GB w/ HDMI, Triple DP - PCI-E Video Cards - Memory Express Inc.

 

[Upgrayedd]

This is the cpu I was looking at upgrading to from 4th gen intel but am still worried about RT performance being hit hard by the lack of cores.

 

[Forza.Milan]

so, right now, intel is our friendly neighbours and amd playing role as villain

 

[Crackong]

so, right now, intel is our friendly neighbours and amd playing role as villain

Pretty sure Intel will soon "FIX" this "issue" and force you to buy K SKUs for any meaningful overclocking.

 

[Tsukiyomi91]

all hail the new quad-core budget CPU king. Too bad AMD no longer compete in this budget space, leaving Intel taking up all the market profits straight to their pocket.
Also, this CPU with a STRIX B660 and a strong PSU on top with an AIO is all it takes to OC this i3 to the moon. No need LN2 or exotic cooling while STILL retaining the chip's C-states.

 

[Forza.Milan]

i have found a typo, and maybe no just in this article, but in others before as well

 

[watzupken]

Given all the non K overclocking results going around, I feel at some point, Intel is going to clamp down on this. This is almost the case with AMD introducing the X and non X variant of CPU. The non X variant tend to sell a lot better since it can be overclocked to match a X variant. Other benefit of going for lower end Alder Lake is the lack of e-cores, which means no need to switch to Win 11.

I'm highly amused at the 4K gaming performance. Really begs the question of why buy a $300-600 CPU when this does the job fine, on a little quad core no less. Aside from, "because we can".

It would be nice if Intel would bring back an unlocked small core count chip like they did with the 9350K. Unobtanium pretty much stateside, but sometimes it's fun to take little cheap chips and clock the snot out of them.

4K gaming performance is almost always bottlenecked by the GPU, so more cores will not do much good.

However, more cores is better in a sense that if there are CPU intensive background processes running, the extra cores may come online to run and complete the tasks. This should help keep the minimal FPS consistent and higher. I believe most test systems used in reviews don't have that many things running in the background to emulate some users' usage patterns. So I think we should always consider our use cases, and take reviews with a pinch of salt since it is probably the best case scenario.

 

[Outback Bronze]

Nice review yet again W1z.

Um just wondering though,
Is it possible to put some extra games in that take advantage of more CPU cores? I know easier said than done. It looks like Civilization VI is the only game that looks optimized for more cores.
Ill tell you for my reasoning. Its looking like a quad core is sufficient for gaming when this is not always the case. There needs to be some sort of defining difference between 10C/20T and 4C/8T just to show that sometimes you will need something more than 4C/8T. Yes I agree its got a higher ipc but surely it can't compete with say a 10900K in a highly threaded game?
From you graphs it tells me that all I need for gaming is a 4C/8T. Im thinking you need a couple of games to show where a difference in cores can be more of a deciding factor in your conclusion on which CPU to buy. Fully understand is this is not possible.
Not taking anything away from this gem of a cpu.

Thanks.

 

[W1zzard]

Wizzard, do you plan to do a cpu review of the steam deck? Gpu review too? Etc.

highly unlikely, havent worked with valve on this at all yet

View attachment 233964

i have found a typo, and maybe no just in this article, but in others before as well

fixed

Im thinking you need a couple of games to show where a difference in cores can be more of a deciding factor

like which game?

 

[thelawnet]

I feel the headline is invalid, because the OC is completely useless at this point to any actual buyers in that a $600 motherboard and $400 RAM was used, so the headline should be something like 'great value gaming chip', which it is, for many people, whereas the OC isn't actually useful to any real users.

The cheapest motherboard that works is around $250 and then you still need $300 RAM.

I mean there's a solid use case here, which is something like:

* used GPU from ebay/wherever, probably 4GB
* DDR4-3200 C16 RAM
* H610M motherboard (I've not seen any evidence that the B660M is worth the extra $ at this price point)

For $40 more (when you take into account CPU + board) than a 10100f-based system you get:

* PCIE 4.0
* typically 6 main power phases rather than 4
* native 3200 MHz RAM speed (rather than 2933)
* about 30% more CPU performance
* better upgradability

So it's $40 more well-spent at the low-end, but I can't see how it can be worth building this thing into anything other than a very budget setup, i.e., cheap board, DDR4 RAM, used GPU.

 

[Outback Bronze]

highly unlikely, havent worked with valve on this at all yet


fixed


like which game?

Good question. I can do some research if you like? I thought you'd have a better idea than me. I'm not much of a gamer theses days sadly so don't really know of any first hand. I'm only governed by your reviews which is why I'm saying it can come in handy.

I would really like you to decide which games can be added.

In all honesty I just thought it might make your review process more thorough.

 

[W1zzard]

Good question. I can do some research if you like? I thought you'd have a better idea than me. I'm no much of a gamer theses days sadly so don't really know of any first hand. I'm only governed by your reviews which is why I'm saying it can come in handy.

I would really like you to decide which games can be added.

In all honesty I just thought it might make your review process more thorough.

Sure, go for it, but don't look at edge cases or stuff that nobody plays

 

[Selaya]

the only game that i can think of that does put a load on your cpu (well, eventually i guess, when your city gets large enough) that isn't like a meme's, cities: dlcs
steam stats playercount attached below

not sure how you'd bench it tho so there's that

 

[Ferrum Master]

Basically you buy a Celeron and turn it to FSB133.

Brings up memories...