# Intel Core i3-10100



## W1zzard (Jun 1, 2020)

Intel's Core i3-10100 is the most affordable Comet Lake "Core" processor. Unlike its predecessor, it finally has HyperThreading, which brings the core configuration to 4c/8t. Our Core i3-10100 review takes a close look at how Intel's new budget offering performs against AMD Ryzen 3 3100 and 3300X.

*Show full review*


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## Cobain (Jun 1, 2020)

Thanks for the review! Once again,3300x better option imo. The 2666mhz RAM limite on h410/b460 only hurts Intel.. but it's their decision,nothing to do.


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## theGryphon (Jun 1, 2020)

Cobain said:


> Thanks for the review! Once again,3300x better option imo. The 2666mhz RAM limite on h410/b460 only hurts Intel.. but it's their decision,nothing to do.



This should be emphasized very strongly. The only case where 10100 makes any sense is for a budget build, which means b460 tops = 2666 MT/s RAM tops.

Everyone should focus on the 2666 MT/s performance in order not to get disappointed, or mislead others.


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## dirtyferret (Jun 1, 2020)

Soon to be appearing in a Dell or HP PC near you.


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## Hugis (Jun 1, 2020)

Cheers @W1zzard for putting the little one through its paces in your lab, i wonder how this stacks up against my i7 4770k....
Edit : Techspot have it up against an i7 7700k as well as others and its pretty even, not bad i suppose....


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## watzupken (Jun 1, 2020)

Again, I think it will be good to see if the stock Intel cooler is sufficient to allow the chip to run at a high boost clockspeed. Most people going for budget build may just stick to the stock heatsink, and may not see that kind of performance as shown here with a chunky cooler. 

I feel Intel's artificial and strict no overclocking for mid and low end chip and chipsets are hurting them more at the mid and low end market segment. Which is why the Ryzen 5 3600 is selling so well in the DIY space, relative to Intel's mid end offering. You can tell Intel is slowly caving in to competition by allowing more cores at the mid end, allowing HT across the entire product range, lowering prices, etc.


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## AusWolf (Jun 1, 2020)

At first I was thinking, "bah, no improvement in the last 4 years", but then I thought, "hey, it's my i7-7700 for 1/3 of the release price". It's worthless for owners of Skylake and later generation CPUs, but a good value nonetheless.


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## 1d10t (Jun 1, 2020)

Intel really give word "DOA" to a new height...


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## Joss (Jun 1, 2020)

Truth be told, a good 4/8 is enough for a mid-range gaming/all purpose desktop.


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## cucker tarlson (Jun 1, 2020)

should be cheaper than 3300x but it does have an igpu on the other hand.


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## bug (Jun 1, 2020)

This little bastard trades blows with the 3100 and 3300X. Can you imagine the competition we'd have if Intel moved off 14nm at long last?


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## ppn (Jun 1, 2020)

I don't like Hyperthreading. since it adds 25% more perfomance at the price of effectively reducing the 4C/8T 4Ghz to 2.5GHz 8C/8T equivalent.


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## AddSub (Jun 1, 2020)

So, a 1600X/1600/1600AF that can actually game? Nice. Paired with a $60 16GB RAM kit and a sub $100 Hxxx board and you got yourself a nice no-nonsense easy-peasy gaming combo in the $250 range. You know, about or less of the price of some upcoming B550 boards by themselves. 

A nice cheap upgrade for first gen Ryzen owners on old B or X370 boards, now that Zen 3 is not happenin' for them. Or even for those folks still rocking old Nehalems or AMD FX chips from 2012. Def a nice starting point for those not interested in tweaking or OC'ing. You still get 8 threads and Intel's single x87/32bit threaded advantage for legacy stuffs.

Great review.

...
..
.


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## Vader (Jun 1, 2020)

ppn said:


> I don't like Hyperthreading. since it adds 25% more perfomance at the price of effectively reducing the 4C/8T 4Ghz to 2.5GHz 8C/8T equivalent.



What? Last time i checked, HT/SMT increased efficiency, not reduced it.



AddSub said:


> So, a 1600X/1600/1600AF that can actually game? Nice. Paired with a $60 16GB RAM kit and a sub $100 Hxxx board and you got yourself a nice no-nonsense easy-peasy gaming combo in the $250 range. You know, about or less of the price of some upcoming B550 boards by themselves.



Also applies to 3300X+B450 combo as well, you don't have to buy B550.
I'm interested to see how A520 chipset will fit into all of this, as you don't need to overclock ryzen 3XXX, but these will allow for RAM oc.



AddSub said:


> A nice cheap upgrade for first gen Ryzen owners on old B or X370 boards



Nonsense, these folks can upgrade to ryzen 3600 for the price of 10100+mobo, plus i don't see how this i3 could be an attractive upgrade to anything above an R3 1200


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## Sithaer (Jun 1, 2020)

Vader said:


> Nonsense, these folks can upgrade to ryzen 3600 for the price of 10100+mobo, plus i don't see how this i3 could be an attractive upgrade to anything above an R3 1200



Yea,I'm using a 1600x since 2018 and I don't see why would I even 'upgrade' to something like this.
If I upgraded strictly with gaming in mind then it would be a 3300x or a 3600 more likely,my B350 supports them anyway.

That being said I see zero reason to upgrade from my current CPU since I do not play competitive games and I'm GPU bound pretty much everywhere.


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## cucker tarlson (Jun 1, 2020)

Sithaer said:


> I'm GPU bound pretty much everywhere.


cause you've a weak gpu.
try a 1660 and that 1600x is already gonna feel tight at times.


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## Sithaer (Jun 1, 2020)

cucker tarlson said:


> cause you've a weak gpu.
> try a 1660 and that 1600x is already gonna feel tight at times.



Not really,I did have a 1660 Super borrowed for a day testing and it had no issues running at 99-100% in every game I tried.
I'm not playing in 1080p but a bit higher,2560x1080 which is about -10-12 FPS less compared to standard 1080p so even less CPU importance.

And if thats not enough I cap my FPS at 74 so ye. _'prefer ot stay in my freesync range_'


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## cucker tarlson (Jun 1, 2020)

depends what games those were.and what settings.


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## Sithaer (Jun 1, 2020)

cucker tarlson said:


> depends what games those were.and what settings.



Like I said I play exactly zero e-sport or any competitive games.
So whatever singleplayer games I had installed at the time.

Examples,since I have the comparison screens saved on my pc.
Witcher 3,Man of Medan,Borderlands 3,Plague Tale Innocence,Darksiders 3,Far Cry 5 and We Happy Few

Settings are close to max or maxed._ 'tweaked in BL 3 cause its not worth maxing that game anyway'_


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## cucker tarlson (Jun 1, 2020)

Sithaer said:


> Like I said I play exactly zero e-sport or any competitive games.
> So whatever singleplayer games I had installed at the time.
> 
> Examples,since I have the comparison screens saved on my pc.
> ...


tested that 1600x in novigrad ? with hw off ? and still getting 100% usage on 1600x ?
do not take this personally,but this is anecdotal evidence.


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## Sithaer (Jun 1, 2020)

cucker tarlson said:


> tested that 1600x in novigrad ? with hw off ? and still getting 100% usage on 1600x ?
> do not take this personally,but this is anecdotal evidence.



I tested it where my last save was,early part of Hearts of stone.





Forest part in Plague where the 1660S pulled twice the frames as my 570:




Same story in man of medan,double frames at the same scene:




Would I use this CPU with ~High end cards or high refresh rate gaming?
Probably no but for my case use or for the casual/average gamer first gen Ryzen is still okay imo,especially when they don't plan on pairing with expensvive cards in the first place.

As long as the CPU itself is capable of pushing ~60 FPS in the games I'm interested in I don't see a reason to upgrade,rather save that money for other hardware parts. 

Non taken 'personally',its cool just discussing stuff.


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## Daven (Jun 1, 2020)

As I've said before, if you only game, then any latest quad core or better will be within 10% of the performance of the fastest CPU at 1080p or higher. CPUs don't have much effect on gaming at high resolutions.


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## Joss (Jun 1, 2020)

Sithaer said:


> Would I use this CPU with ~High end cards or *high refresh rate gaming*?


Yes. Most people tend to forget that with a 60hz monitor almost any recent CPU will suffice.


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## bug (Jun 1, 2020)

Mark Little said:


> As I've said before, if you only game, then any latest quad core or better will be within 10% of the performance of the fastest CPU at 1080p or higher. CPUs don't have much effect on gaming at high resolutions.


It depends _how_ you game. For most gamers, you are right, it doesn't matter much. But for competitive play, people tend to lower visual in exchange for high frame rates.


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## Fourstaff (Jun 2, 2020)

10100F going to be released at a cheaper price? It will give some competition to 3100/3300X twin which is currently short in supply.


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## ppn (Jun 2, 2020)

10100F is not officially listed, it may have been cancelled.


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## btarunr (Jun 2, 2020)

theGryphon said:


> This should be emphasized very strongly. The only case where 10100 makes any sense is for a budget build, which means b460 tops = 2666 MT/s RAM tops.
> 
> Everyone should focus on the 2666 MT/s performance in order not to get disappointed, or mislead others.



Intel increased the maximum memory clock to 2933 MHz for the B460. The older gen B365 had that 2667 MHz limitation. So if you have a capable CPU, you can use 2933 MHz modules on a B460 platform.


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## Mussels (Jun 2, 2020)

btarunr said:


> Intel increased the maximum memory clock to 2933 MHz for the B460. The older gen B365 had that 2667 MHz limitation. So if you have a capable CPU, you can use 2933 MHz modules on a B460 platform.



Didn't i see that written only for i7/i9, with i3/i5 stuck at 2667?


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## 1d10t (Jun 2, 2020)

Mussels said:


> Didn't i see that written only for i7/i9, with i3/i5 stuck at 2667?



I'm currently review - testing ASRock B460 , and I can confirm most if not few motherboard maker "unofficially" support RAM speed beyond PC21333.


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## Mussels (Jun 2, 2020)

1d10t said:


> I'm currently review - testing ASRock B460 , and I can confirm most if not few motherboard maker "unofficially" support RAM speed beyond PC21333.



Ahah, good to know how that holds up.

I vaguelly recall similar issues back in the days when i had DDR3 2400 ram, and all my 2000/3000/4000 CPU's behaved totally differently with support, from caps at 1866 to 2133, and finally the 4770k going all the way up (even on Z boards, they had limits)

I much prefer the simpler generations with "X supported, good luck with the rest" and no artificial caps


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## Lucas_ (Jun 2, 2020)

still games not utilizing cpu's I guess .
or cpu's are far ahead that game could not utilize anything more.


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## bug (Jun 2, 2020)

jawad said:


> still games not utilizing cpu's I guess .
> or cpu's are far ahead that game could not utilize anything more.


Unlike encoders/decoders and renderers, most applications can't use any number of cores easily. Imho, one should be pragmatic when choosing a CPU for gaming. Buying a 12c/24t part for gaming and then moaning that the developers are lazy because they don't use them all is a little counter-productive.
That doesn't mean a 12c/24t part isn't needed in _some_ instances. For example, Linus Torvalds had recently moved to a Threadripper for his kernel related stuff. And instantly reaped the rewards


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## btb (Jun 3, 2020)

How come the 10th gen intels idles so much higher than last gen? I mean this one idles at 48 W and something like the i5-9400F idles at 41 W pr the chart.


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## bug (Jun 3, 2020)

btb said:


> How come the 10th gen intels idles so much higher than last gen? I mean this one idles at 48 W and something like the i5-9400F idles at 41 W pr the chart.


Power draw in the review id for the whole system. This is tested with a Z490, something that is both more power hungry and unlikely to be seen in the wild.


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## low351 (Jul 15, 2020)

One thing unmentionned, I bought a z490 motherboard and 3200Mhz ram and paired it with the i3-10100 because I wanted to save some money now and be able to upgrade the CPU later, if I had purchased 2666Mhz and another chipset that would have made the purchase of a 10700k later on senseless.  This way I have a upgrade ready setup,  I didn't have the $500-600 cdn for a higher cpu right now and the i3-10100 is an upgrade from my current i7-3770k anyhow.


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## RandallFlagg (Jul 16, 2020)

low351 said:


> One thing unmentionned, I bought a z490 motherboard and 3200Mhz ram and paired it with the i3-10100 because I wanted to save some money now and be able to upgrade the CPU later, if I had purchased 2666Mhz and another chipset that would have made the purchase of a 10700k later on senseless.  This way I have a upgrade ready setup,  I didn't have the $500-600 cdn for a higher cpu right now and the i3-10100 is an upgrade from my current i7-3770k anyhow.



This is what a lot of enthusiasts are doing.  I have an i5-10400 but plan to upgrade to Rocket Lake when that comes out, assuming it is superior.   That's why I didn't just go for a 10700 right off.  

From what I see out in OEM space right now - and main reason I built my own - is that pretty much any OEM box is going to run slower memory and hobbled chipsets.  This includes AMD OEM systems, you'll find most of them running 2400, 2666, and 3000 (i.e. 2933).  This is logical as technically any RAM over 2933 is overclocked, and OEMs are going to be all about reliability so they don't have to pay for tech support on a cheap PC.  However, you can see in various benchmarks that faster RAM makes a big difference.


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## smegun (Dec 2, 2020)

asus pro w480ace /490 chipset    intell i3 10100  vengence 3600  muskin pilot M.2 

i bought into an intell system to match the series ive had for the last 10 years a WS board  there were only duration limit changes no overclocking and a lot of slots  ... i had a i7k and 1600 mushkin black ram  but couldnt get the use of a xmp 

figured i was shooting for 5 gigahertz  this time i got the xmp ram specifically fired it up with XMP loaded up the os and played eternal for a while after a few more tweaks and reboots  my system took a dump at the log  in screen ...  i managed to GPT my migration drive did a bios flash and a eufi only system boot sequence  nothing to save my aging hardrive back up .... benching was good at higher ram speeds but there are actually a few frames less in eternal and slowly i start to see more flakes from the system

not to fond of auto tweek /optimum putting everything into two settings AS XMP has its lack of luster but there are a myraid of power settings  on the board twek/ performance mode and extreme power settings to get this right 

overclocking the front side bus had its consequences in the past ..similar here  leads to distablization of the OS  i must of forgot to legacy that   thought they would of changed that by now giving independance to clocking the ram 

optimal sets it at jedec giving you only a performance setting to  which i assume is duration limits   

....tried to marginally up the voltage to support the load on the 65 watt proc but it usually ends up with a crash bios or hang  almost positive the problem only exists for the extended chipset and devices currently because i ran tests that show improvement originally and before we speak   

 compute polling rather than misses dont GPT your drives mysteriously from a bios call  

extensively i wouldnt mind to further on the attempt  / blck numbers  willing to try the system again   i see from the article that the traditional memory controller is absent wish i knew that before starting but hey maybe thats why it booted states ddr 7800 in the drop down means there prepared to be laughed at   ....maybe there was time from the intial launch to include a microcode update maybe it cant do that without a proper energy bill ill probly try a newer power supply   ....

..... eternal with metrics tells me that im a few frames short at xmp so there is no need from xmp but ill bet if i did get all the settings right there will be stable improvement  ill probably study up on the duration limits  also or just set it at no limits in the tweaker   if i recall sandy wasnt prone to fail on tdp   its been 10 years give me a consideration  its nice there is xmp but not exaclty a fond believer

i see here the article stating +  blck 103 extended settings  so there may be a chance to make this better 

getting all kinds of funky amd grafics info  back during trials one states 20 the other states 405 fps  it runs eternal better setting back the jedec frequency  but doesnt seem to change the problem of system instability  and i havent stepped through all the way back to jedec yet

back on stock jedec for now now 

anyone know anything about system agent  or CHM for legacy  ? anyway did anyone GPT there drive

using amd pro series driver   the blue one on glitch your in  cant see a GPT drive  or install windows to a GPT partition ?  get the latest iso  UNcheck the box for your system .... the  usb flash drive will now be state in the bios as GPT boot device   eufi is asking the question im putting a stamp on it   vid cards need it systems need it hard drives need it   boot to eufi external is a sign


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