Intel’s Core i3 processors are their bottom of the line processors in the Core lineup. These processors are the weakest among the entire series in a particular generation. These chips are mostly designed for office work and media consumption machines. But, some of the Core i3 chips perform great in modern games, and therefore many people consider these chips while building their gaming rigs. But, should you build your PC with a Core i3? Let us find that out in this article.
What are the Latest Core i3 Processors Available in the Market?
Intel’s 12th generation Alder Lake processors have a total of 14 Core i3 branded chips in the lineup. Most of these chips are notebook processors, and some are meant for embedded systems. The quad-core Core i3-12300 is the most powerful desktop chip among them all, however, it is not worth the $143 Intel asks for. The Core i3-12100 is a more budget offering in this lineup and is a quad-core offering too. At $122, this chip is one of the fast-selling Alder Lake processors because of its insane price-to-performance ratio.
All of the 12th gen Core i3 desktop processors come included with Intel UHD iGPUs. The included iGPU is the UHD 730, which can run some less resource-intensive titles like Fortnite at 1080p with a playable FPS. This makes these processors a sought after option for budget gaming.
Are Intel Core i3 Processors Enough for Gaming?
Until Intel Alder Lake, we would have straight up said no to this question. But, the Core i3-12100 makes us rethink the answer. Although the Core i3-12100 is not a good pair for every GPU available on the market today, it beats some much more expensive and power-hungry processors from AMD and the Intel Comet Lake lineup. So, we would change our answer from a complete “No” to a “Yes, if you are building a budget system.” Currently, the Core i3-12100 is the best choice for any sub-US$1000 build, and it will not bottleneck any GPU you can pair with a build of this tier. Intel has come up with an extremely powerful processor at around the $120 mark. The Core i3-12100F, the chip without the UHD 730 on board is even more value-for-money. This chip sells for around US$ 100, and has no performance differences either, thereby making it a cheaper alternative to the Core i3-12100.
Intel’s latest Core i3 processors are impressive. However, if you are planning to go for the older Comet Lake-based Core i3-10100 or the Core i3-10105 or their F variants, look at the Ryzen 3 3000 series chips. They perform much better than these Intel chips.