Intel Core i3-2100 Review

Performance

With the i3-2100 essentially locked to its maximum frequency of 3.1GHz due to the locked multiplier and lack of Turbo Boost, we were forced to use a single run of benchmarks, rather than producing our usual stock and overclocked results. Even so, we couldn’t help but be surprised at the remarkable performance from this sub-£100 CPU.

In our Gimp image editing test, the i3-2100 produced a score of 1,360 – only 234 points short of the score of the i5-2500K. Incredibly, the i3-2100 was just 16 points short of topping the LGA1366 Core i7-950 as well, which shows that Sandy Bridge really does make lower-echelon LGA1366 CPUs look redundant. It was also much faster than AMD’s Phenom II X6 1100T Black Edition CPU.

However, our HandBrake H.264 video encoding test confirmed our fears that, being a dual-core CPU, the i3-2100 will struggle against quad-core chips in multithreaded tasks. It scored 1,838, whereas the i5-2500K boasted a score of 2,649. However, the i3-2100 is still a match for AMD’s quad-core CPUs – the Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition, which we'll be reviewing soon, could only manage 1,771, despite being clocked at 3.7GHz and sporting two additional cores. Intel clearly has a significant lead over AMD in terms of clock-for-clock performance.

The i3-2100 also lacked grunt when it came to our multi-tasking test – its score of 1,196 was eclipsed by the i5-2500K’s score of 1,423. The i3-2100 was again faster than the 980 BE, however, which managed a paltry 1,072. Overall, the i3-2100 scored 1,465 – enough to better anything from AMD – and even enough to provide a match for the ageing quad-core Core i5-760, which managed 1,490. However, Intel’s Sandy Bridge quad-core chips were all ahead by several hundred points.

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Despite having less Level 3 cache and two fewer cores than similarly clocked CPUs, such as the i5-2400, the i3-2100 managed a similar minimum frame rate in Crysis of 30fps. However, the i5-2400 recorded a lower average frame rate of 52fps, with the i3-2100 managing 55fps. Again, the i3-2100 was a match for any of AMD’s offerings. Meanwhile, in the multi-threaded Cinebench R11.5 test, it wasn’t surprising to see the i3-2100 struggle, only managing a score of 2.97. WPrime told a similar story, with a dire result of 18.029 seconds – again, a result
of the i3-2100’s dual-core, Hyper-Threaded design, as opposed to a true quad-core design.

Intel’s power management also proved to be its usual aggressive self, with the i3-2100’s clock frequency dipping to 1.6GHz when idle. Our test system’s idle power draw was 78W, which is similar to that of Intel’s Sandy Bridge quad-core CPUs. Its load power draw was just 115W, though, which is nearly 30W less than that of an i5-2400.

Conclusion

Despite the lack of Turbo Boost, the i3-2100 was able to hold its own in many of our benchmarks, giving CPUs such as the LGA1366 Core i7-950 and quad-core Core i5-2400 something to think about. Most inspiring of all was its speed in games and image editing, which are probably the tasks most likely to be thrown at it. With a TDP of just 65W, it makes a compelling CPU for a small, low-power gaming or photo-editing PC, despite usually occupying the lower half of the graphs.

However, while its price is attractive, it's tough to accept the fact that the i3-2100 turns up its nose at overclocking. As we’ve seen with CPUs such as the Core i5-2500K, Sandy Bridge chips have a huge amount of overclocking headroom. Frequencies of more than 4.5GHz are possible with good air coolers, and result in simply stellar performance.

Nevertheless, if you can’t stretch beyond £100 for your next CPU, the i3-2100 is a solid option. While another £60 will buy you an i5-2500K, this is a comparatively huge increase in price that doesn’t yield massive gains unless you overclock it and also buy the hardware needed for overclocking. The i3-2100 is therefore still a great processor for a cheap PC.