Intel’s i3-8100 from their 8th generation of Core processors is a mainstream quad-core CPU. It is the entry model of the latest Coffee Lake line up with a clock speed of 3.6 GHz. Previously, i3 Kaby Lake processors had two cores with hyperthreading, but now, i3 Coffee Lake processors have 4 cores and offer much better value for money in terms of dollars per core. With a performance profile that closely matches last years mid range Kaby Lake i5's (the then go-to mid range gaming choice) and a price tag of just $120, the i3-8100 represents excellent value for money. Unfortunately, like all Coffe Lake processors, the i3-8100 does require a new 300-series motherboard even though it shares the same LGA1151 socket as the previous generation of Kaby Lake 200 motherboards. Intel were clearly mindful of AMD's similarly priced quad core Ryzen 3 1200 which achieves very comparable single, and quad-core benchmarks to the i3-8100. [Oct '17CPUPro]
Within minutes of the first, pre-release, 7000 series userbenchmark results, AMD’s marketers broadcast a 20% win over the 12900K via thousands of anonymous twitter, reddit, forum and youtube accounts. Buying new AMD products is like buying used cars: it takes time, experience and a taste for sales hype. It’s difficult for consumers to make rational choices while AMD completely dominates “sponsored news” and social media channels. Ten years ago, when AMD was the underdog, this type of marketing was understandable. Today, with a capitalization of $150 Billion USD, it’s disrespectful to AMD's own users. Even with Intel's marketing department asleep at the wheel, Ryzen will quickly end up in the same state as Radeon. Following a series of overhyped releases, consumers have little interest in the Radeon brand. The combined market share for all of AMD’s (discrete) Radeon RX 5000 and 6000 GPUs (Steam stats) is just 2%. Although the new 7000 series Zen4 CPUs are actually around 15% faster than their predecessors, they have hefty cooling requirements (TDP +60% vs 5000 series), 30 second BIOS post times, expensive DDR5 RAM requirements and only work with expensive motherboards. Despite the 7000 series struggling to match Intel’s outgoing 12th gen, AMD market it as a “future proof” platform! They want users to pay a premium for last gen performance in exchange for the shallow promise of upgrades in the future. Over the next few days, Intel’s 13th gen (Raptor Lake) will launch. Shoppers will do well to wait until then. Despite AMD’s Neanderthal marketing techniques, it’s hard not to admire their technical progress. AMD-Raptor4 and Intel-Zen13 would be better fitting product names. [Sep '22CPUPro]
We calculate effective speed which measures real world performance for typical users. Effective speed is adjusted by current prices to yield a value for money rating. Our calculated values are checked against thousands of individual user ratings. The customizable table below combines these factors to bring you the definitive list of top CPUs. [CPUPro]
Welcome to our PC speed test tool. UserBenchmark will test your PC and compare the results to other users with the same components. You can quickly size up your PC, identify hardware problems and explore the best value for money upgrades.