Starting with Cinebench R23 multi-core, we find that while not the most impressive CPU we've tested as of late, the 12100F is still mighty impressive for what it is, and perhaps more importantly, what it costs. We have deep-dive coverage of the Alder Lake design and microarchitectures here, along with a broader overview in our Alder Lake all we know article. Additionally, Intel now assigns a Processor Base Power (PBP) spec instead of using the 'TDP' (Thermal Design Point) nomenclature. The company also added a secondary Maximum Turbo Power (MTP) value to represent the highest power level during boost activity. You can read more about that here. It was 19% slower than the 10600K and 11600K, and then 24% slower than the i5-12400, so those extra cores, and cache are certainly helping a lot. But 102 fps on average remains decent performance and it was a 16% boost over the previous Core i3. Power Consumption Time to see how this quad-core handles gaming, and we'll start with a relatively easy title. In F1 2021 the 12100F was capable of driving up to 292 fps on average, while keeping 1% lows above 200 fps. Of course, the 10100F was also very capable in F1 2021, but we're looking at an 18% performance uplift. But is also means when more CPU limited in todays games, the 12100F is often comparable to parts such as the Ryzen 7 3700X and Core i5-10600K, which is remarkable.

The 12100F is also handy for those needing to get some Photoshop work done as the performance is comparable to that of the 11600K, 3700X and 10700K, some pretty high-end CPUs there in comparison. It was also 37% faster than the 10100F, an impressive jump over the previous-gen Core i3 part. Running at the 58w spec, the 12100F never exceeded 78C and this temperature was reported inside the Corsair Obsidian 500D with an ambient room temperature of 21C. A good result overall. The decompression performance is a lot less impressive as the 12100F is barely any faster than the 10100F and is now 42% slower than the Ryzen 5 3600.For testing the Core i3-12100F we're using the MSI B660M Mortar Wi-Fi DDR4 with 32GB of dual-rank, dual-channel DDR4-3200 CL14 memory. This is the same memory we use for all our DDR4 testing and it's typically faster than single-rank DDR4-3800 CL18 memory in terms of performance. Of course, the reason why the 12100F is so much faster than previous generation quad-cores and is able to match fairly modern 6-core/12-thread processors is because of Alder Lakes strong IPC gains. Here we're looking at comparable single core performance to that of the Ryzen 7 5800X, that's faster than the 11600K and 27% faster than the 10th-gen Core series, very impressive stuff.

Horizon Zero Dawn isn't a core-heavy game, so we have another example where the 12100F performs well relative to other more expensive CPUs. Basically it's able to match the i5-12400 making it slightly faster than the 3700X and 10700K.Next up we have code compilation performance and again the 12100F wasn't a great deal slower than previous generation 6-core/12-thread processors such as the 10600K and 3600. We're talking about an 8% increase in completion time. Meanwhile, the 12100F reduced the compile time by over 30% to the 10100F. Intel classifications are for general, educational and planning purposes only and consist of Export Control Classification Numbers (ECCN) and Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) numbers. Any use made of Intel classifications are without recourse to Intel and shall not be construed as a representation or warranty regarding the proper ECCN or HTS. Your company as an importer and/or exporter is responsible for determining the correct classification of your transaction. Age of Empires IV relies heavily on single core performance, so the Core i3-12100F does very well allowing for 190 fps on average, which is the same level of performance you'll receive from the i5-12400. It's also a 27% increase from the 10100F and a 20% boost over the Ryzen 5 3600.