Intel Core i3-12100F

[W1zzard]

Core i3-12100F is the most affordable quad-core Alder Lake CPU from Intel. In our review, we test with DDR4 and DDR5 to see whether it has what it takes to build a lean work PC or cost-efficient gaming machine. Thanks to BCLK overclocking, we even managed to overclock it to 5.2 GHz all-core.

Show full review

 

[Lionheart]

Well folks, we have the perfect budget king CPU, never thought I'd say congrats to Intel, great review Wizz.

 

[dirtyferret]

 

[Selaya]

TO THE MOON

(while we're at it: the overclocking subpage of the review's missing) derp it's under clock frequencies

 

[W1zzard]

(while we're at it: the overclocking subpage of the review's missing) derp it's under clock frequencies

Good suggestion, changed the page title to start with "Overclocking", because that's what people will be scanning for

 

[W1zzard]

Why does power consumption differ so much between DDR4 and DDR5? Wasn't the latter supposed to be more power efficient?

No idea, probably the motherboard difference plays a role here too.

 

[dj-electric]

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

 

[W1zzard]

I thought you measured power consumption straight from the CPU. Hm.

It literally says "Whole System" in the chart

 

[Selaya]

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

you can keep doing it, as long as they do not block it via another stepping of the CPU or something (which still cannot retroactively block it for the already shippeds) you can just keep the old BIOS
the beauty of hardware

 

[W1zzard]

Lastly why is "No integrated graphics" listed under the negatives? There's Intel Core i5 12100 which costs just $122. Not an Earth shattering difference. Perhaps you could add something like "Things to note/remember" as a third column.

Intel Core i5-12400F

The Intel Core i5-12400F comes at an extremely attractive price point, yet offers performance comparable to AMD's Ryzen 5 5600X. While Intel introduced a Hybrid core design with Alder Lake, the 12400F is a P-core only design, which helps avoid potential compatibility issues with E-cores. Show...

www.techpowerup.com

 

[Selaya]

speaking of that you may want to amend the conclusions page to suggest a purchase of the 12100 (the non-F sibling) for general home-, business- and office tasks since buying a dgpu for it, especially given the current market's like totally asinine

 

[W1zzard]

speaking of that you may want to amend the conclusions page to suggest a purchase of the 12100 (the non-F sibling) for general home-, business- and office tasks since buying a dgpu for it, especially given the current market's like totally asinine

Added

 

[mechtech]

Nice performance/$…….until you have to find a graphics card. I’m not paying $1000 CAD for an amd 6600 or nvidia 3060. So it would be this chip with the integrated graphics. I can’t see much of these selling due to lack of graphics cards. If one is going to shell out for a new platform and vid card they would probably invest in a beefier cpu. Back in the day of good performing and readily available vid cards in the $200 range this chip probably would have been very popular. I can’t see that happening now.

 

[Xuper]

For budget PC ( game test 1080p ) :
Core i5-12100F ~ (97.1/88.8) 9.34% faster than Ryzen 3300X (Alder Lake vs Zen2 )
Core i5-12100F ~ (97.1/78.4) 23.85% Faster than Core i3-9100F (Alder Lake vs Coffee Lake)
Core i5-12100F ~ ((97.1/84) 15.6 Faster than Core i3-10100 (Alder Lake vs Comet Lake )

So far 12100F is fastest quad cores CPU in market.

 

[HD64G]

Thanks for the review @W1zzard ! Great vfm there! That one could force AMD to cut price at least for their 5X00G line up me thinks and bring their 5300G to the DIY market also.

 

[ModEl4]

Really excellent value, intel went at the same price bracket from i3 10100F to i5 10600K level of performance in 1,5 year gap, so i really wonder what AMD will offer:

AMD allegedly preparing Renoir-X APUs without integrated graphics - VideoCardz.com

AMD to launch Renoir-X CPUs to tackle Intel Core i3 offering A leaker from Chiphell shares information on upcoming CPU products from both AMD and Intel. Among many products that will be launched next year, AMD is supposedly bringing back new CPUs based on Zen2 architecture. The leaker 热心市民描边怪...

videocardz.com

lol, zen 2 4000G without the graphics? 4300G launched in Q3 2020 at $149, so if AMD had launched in Q3 2020 a 4300 without graphics they would be forced to sell it at $108 MAX (-10% from a $120 3300X and +$10 from an i3 10100F if you add the extra lga1200 M/B cost) so if $108 was the competitive price to sell a 4300-igp in Q3 2020, after 1,5year what AMD has to offer to make the same jump in performance as Intel? because i have the feeling that they want to sell a +200MHz 4300 without igp at $99 and this is really ripoff just like 6500XT, we will see...

 

[Space Lynx]

If W1zzy boyo was on Intel forums he would have as many infraction points as I have here!

Intel says, "we condemn BCLK overclocking immensely!"

W1zzy Boyo says, "this is going into my pro list, oh yeah baby!"

 

[seth1911]

Great deal from Intel for retail customers, AMD will become many problems in the Retail Market.


Amd have no Retail CPU against many CPU from Intel (here is the cheapest one a 3000G for about 95€):

Celeron G5900 45€

Pentium Gold G6400 59€

I3 10100F 80€
I3 12100F 109€

I5 10400F 135€
i5 11400F 157€
I5 12400F 179€

Ryzen 3600 231€
Ryzen 5600X 277€

 

[catulitechup]

@W1zzard hi apparently pentium g7400 also oc, maybe good see a test from house

Intel's $64 Pentium Gold G7400T Alder Lake CPU Overclocked to 5.8 GHz

One of the fastest dual-core CPUs ever.

www.tomshardware.com

 

[wheresmycar]

speaking of that you may want to amend the conclusions page to suggest a purchase of the 12100 (the non-F sibling) for general home-, business- and office tasks since buying a dgpu for it, especially given the current market's like totally asinine

good point! Thats exactly what i was thinking. Its bad value if having to purchase a GPU for basic use.

 

[TheUn4seen]

Alder Lake seems line a fairly great showing from Intel. I'm not one for overclocking as I'm not someone who does a lot of CPU-heavy things at home, and for this kind of general usage plus some games (with the 3080 and at 3840x2160 so not CPU limited), there is little point in going higher than the 12100 or, at most, 12400. In all fairness, there is little point in upgrading from my current stock 9600k. This is good.

 

[Sithaer]

Yup good stuff in this price range which is my preferred budget range anyway and I only care about gaming.
Like its mentioned in the review AMD has nothing to offer in this range currently and even the second hand 3600/x is overpriced where I live so its just not worth it imo and rather switch to a new platform that will last me a good while again. 'I have my current mobo+cpu since 2018'

At this point the IPC/single thread uplift vs my CPU is just hard to ignore and some games I play/will play soon rely on that so ye I could use that.

What I'm gonna do is wait till my march payment from my work and then check availability and prices and then decide, but If I do end up retiring my 1600x then this will be my next CPU with some affordable B660 since I don't care about OC.
Heck even the stock cooler seems to be reasonable for gaming only until I buy something better.

Obviously I'm gonna sell my current mobo+cpu after so thats also a - from the overall cost so its not even that much.

 

[Turmania]

I don`t know why, but I love this cpu now a good motherboard around the same price of this cpu, probably would be higher but not by much, it would be great for 1080P systems.

 

[Space Lynx]

I wouldn't mind building me a very budget minded rig with this chip and say an old 1070 ti or 1080 ti, assuming gpu prices come down to what they should be... but they probably won't so that makes this statement null.

 

[Garrus]

Well folks, we have the perfect budget king CPU, never thought I'd say congrats to Intel, great review Wizz.

View attachment 233922

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.

Nice performance/$…….until you have to find a graphics card. I’m not paying $1000 CAD for an amd 6600 or nvidia 3060. So it would be this chip with the integrated graphics. I can’t see much of these selling due to lack of graphics cards. If one is going to shell out for a new platform and vid card they would probably invest in a beefier cpu. Back in the day of good performing and readily available vid cards in the $200 range this chip probably would have been very popular. I can’t see that happening now.

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