Are Quad Cores Redeemed? | i3 12100F

Testing the Intel Core i3-12100F quad core 8-thread CPU in 10 popular and demanding games in 2024, using an RX 6900 XT discrete GPU.

After my previous video roundup, I concluded that older quad cores were no longer worth buying. Sure, there are some fringe instances where one can survive with one, but sooner or later you’ll come across a game that just doesn’t run right without at least a couple more cores. However, plenty of my commenters, as well as other creators, had led me to believe that the i3-12100F was bucking the trend and making quad cores look like a viable budget option once more.

This, I had to see for myself.

Amazon UK links (affiliated)

Track names: “Neon Nights”, “Midnight Racer”, “Binary Sunrise” & “Vercetti Forever”

00:00 Intel Core i3-12100F in 2024
00:56 The Story of the Intel Core i3-12100F
02:25 Test System
02:47 Gaming Benchmarks
02:50 Benchmarks: Valorant
03:54 Benchmarks: Fortnite
04:47 Benchmarks: Counter Strike 2
05:35 Benchmarks: Call of Duty: Warzone
06:20 Benchmarks: Starfield
06:53 Benchmarks: Cyberpunk 2077
07:30 Benchmarks: The Last of Us
08:05 Benchmarks: Dragon’s Dogma 2
09:18 Benchmarks: Flight Simulator 2020
10:00 Benchmarks: Civilization VI
10:16 Synthetics: 3DMark Fire Strike & Time Spy
10:24 Synthetics: CPU-Z & Cinebench R23
10:40 Productivity Test: Davinci Resolve
11:21 Productivity Test: Blender
11:42 Conclusion

A D S
The following links are affiliated. Everything costs the same to you, but I get a commission.

G E A R
Audio:

Video:
Camera & 18-55mm lens kit:

C O N T A C T
Twitter/Insta @IcebergTop10s

#Intel #i3 #QuadCore

[IcebergTech]

NOTES / ERRATA
Oops, I messed up the charts. The i9-9900K and i7-8700K were clocked to 5GHz, not 4.5.

[deamondeathstone]

I actually made a I3-12100f based pc for older titles. It was cheaper then buying an older I7 with a compatible motherboard, because for some reason the ones that support DDR4 still command a premium.

[houseflygaming]

I have this same exact CPU, I received it for free from my school for a class where you assemble a PC and keep it for free.
Safe to say I was WAY ahead of the class on my building game so I decided to invest in it a little more, gave it 16 gigs of RAM where I initially started with 8, then gave it a 5700 XT I had also received for free (note it was originally an eBay purchase, but it was a scam at first. Dead on arrival and didn't properly function. I eventually managed to fix it after giving it a deep clean and it works like brand new, I got a refund and the seller said to keep it they don't want a dead GPU.

Win win either way for me, bottle neck is noticable but it's still a fantastic CPU.

[aadityasingh]

Make a top 10 CPUs chart and redeem your old self Mr. Iceberg.

[shrishpotdar]

Your sarcasm somehow gives me the feeling of Dawid does tech stuff level sarcasm, both have same energy

[antondovydaitis]

Thank you for your detailed reply to my earlier comment.

It gives me much to think about.

[marufulislam]

using a 12100f with rtx 2060 super. um in love with this combination.
i get 60+ fps at 1080p high setting in all latest AAA games most of the time

[Jrambo]

Thank-you for doing this! Your videos are great! I've been wanting to try a "newer" quad core CPU. Last night, I stayed at a Holiday Inn, today I watched Iceberg Tech's i3-12100F video.

[FoundPlayingCards]

Loved my time with this CPU, only upgraded to an i7 when I upgraded my GPU and wanted to push some higher refresh rates. Worked great for my casual video/photo editing needs and was a great entry point for PC gaming in 2021.

Great analysis Iceberg!

[ThatOneTechno]

As I've mentioned some day already, I love your videos, and I dont know what keeps me on them. And it's actually the perfect mix with the music and the cutting. It's like perfectly balanced. Do you have any background in editing? Like, you got some real talent! Love your Videos man, keep it up!

[Josue]

4c/8t (on the Intel side) were already redeemed with the i3-10100 and it reaching the performance of the i5-8400 and the i7-7700.
This cpu just further solidified it.

[StaelTek]

i feel like Intel missed a great chance to make i3s cool again, starting in the 10 series when they moved to 4c/8t config by ending the K SKU models. i would've loved to see an i3 10350K or 12350K!

[auntiepha]

Excellent video, thanks Iceberg Tech!

[RuruFIN]

I have a 6700K @ 4.5 on my 2nd PC and it's still surprisingly capable.

[M_be-r]

@08:44 I thought I was looking at a bad Lara Croft Tomb raider run/game ;-) great content as always!

[Kennephone]

The 14100f is only like 15 bucks more, and performs slightly better, but it's also a 14th gen chip so there really is no upgrade path due to the higher end chips all cooking themselves.

[davidhernandez]

(Hopefully this comment doesn't end up buried)

Hey man. I wanna point out something that seemed really odd to me. In your tests, the i3 12100F performs very similar, if not ever so slightly worse than the i7 6700K. I remember it performing way better than that. I immediately checked the TechPowerUp's review on the 12100F, and I was right! It performs from 13% to 16% better than the i7, and it's very close to the i5 10600K. I fear that the choice of RAM speed (DDR5 4800MT/s) might be the reason of such subpar performance. Please, check the review and inform us of anything you find, TPU tested the CPU with both DDR4 3200 and DDR5 6000. Cheers, keep up the good work!

[FulcanelliTrismegistus]

I just put one in a new rig with an amd 6600. Compared to my i72700 + 3070ti, I dont really see much performance loss besides some fps. The i3 runs fast and with the 600 im still getting 60+ fps on newer games like helldivers2 and DD2, and over 120 fps on some "older" games from just a couple years ago

[Shaatir]

I built a system with an i3-12100F and an RTX 3060. It was such a good combo that I still to this day miss that system.

[mruczyslaw]

I was surprised how close the i7-6700K was, yes it was clocked 200MHz higher but it looked like the IPC improvement was negligible at best.