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The Intel Core i3-12300 Review: Quad-Core Alder Lake Shines

 by Gavin Bonshor on March 3, 2022 8:30 AM EST
140 Comments | Add A Comment
140 Comments

Gaming Performance: 1080p

While a quad core processor is not going to be the first choice for gaming these days (especially when consoles have had 8 cores for the past two generations), 4 Golden Cove P cores still put up enough of a fight that the CPU is never too much of a limiting factor. Here we never drop below a 60fps average on any game.

All of our game testing results, including other resolutions, can be found in our benchmark database: www.anandtech.com/bench. All gaming tests were with an RTX 2080 Ti.

For the Core i3-12300, we are running DDR5 memory at the following settings:

  • DDR5-4800(B) CL40

Civilization VI

(b-7) Civilization VI - 1080p Max - Average FPS

(b-8) Civilization VI - 1080p Max - 95th Percentile

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

(c-7) Deus Ex MD - 1080p Max - Average FPS

(c-8) Deus Ex MD - 1080p Max - 95th Percentile

Final Fantasy 14

(d-4) Final Fantasy 14 - 1080p Max - Average FPS

Final Fantasy 15

(e-3) Final Fantasy 15 - 1080p Standard - Average FPS

(e-4) Final Fantasy 15 - 1080p Standard - 95th Percentile

World of Tanks

(f-3) World of Tanks - 1080p Standard - Average FPS

(f-4) World of Tanks - 1080p Standard - 95th Percentile

(f-5) World of Tanks - 1080p Max - Average FPS

(f-6) World of Tanks - 1080p Max - 95th Percentile

Borderlands 3

(g-7) Borderlands 3 - 1080p Max - Average FPS

(g-8) Borderlands 3 - 1080p Max - 95th Percentile

Far Cry 5

(i-7) Far Cry 5 - 1080p Ultra - Average FPS

(i-8) Far Cry 5 - 1080p Ultra - 95th Percentile

Gears Tactics

(j-7) Gears Tactics - 1080p Ultra - Average FPS

(j-8) Gears Tactics - 1080p Ultra - 95th Percentile

Grand Theft Auto V

(k-7) Grand Theft Auto V - 1080p Max - Average FPS

(k-8) Grand Theft Auto V - 1080p Max - 95th Percentile

Red Dead Redemption 2

(l-7) Red Dead 2 - 1080p Max - Average FPS

(l-8) Red Dead 2 - 1080p Max - 95th Percentile

Strange Brigade (DirectX 12)

(m-7) Strange Brigade DX12 - 1080p Ultra - Average FPS

(m-8) Strange Brigade DX12 - 1080p Ultra - 95th Percentile

Strange Brigade (Vulcan)

(n-7) Strange Brigade Vulkan - 1080p Ultra - Average FPS

(n-8) Strange Brigade Vulkan - 1080p Ultra - 95th Percentile

CPU Benchmark Performance: Legacy and Web Conclusion
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  • Kyrie - Friday, March 4, 2022 - link

    The main problem with 12300 is the existence of 12100(F).

  • Alistair - Friday, March 4, 2022 - link

    The quad cores are garbage because they are either not available or incorrectly priced.

    Right now in Canada I can buy the 12400f for $199, and i3 on the other hand is $220. ... Pointless.

  • yetanotherhuman - Friday, March 4, 2022 - link

    Those fans look to be using turbulent flow, not laminar.
    They blow down, it seems. What a stupid name.

  • AshlayW - Friday, March 4, 2022 - link

    For 150 USD or £140 this is a really nice product from Intel. Good to see some good value/budget options. Normally I would scoff at a quad core but the Golden Cove cores here are strong enough that it does really well for itself. AMD is in a spot of trouble if they don't lower 5600X price.

  • porina - Friday, March 4, 2022 - link

    Did Cinebench R23 change behaviour compared to earlier versions? That's quite a difference with DDR4 - DDR5 scaling in multi-thread. Up to R20 it seemed insignificantly affected by ram. I did quickly test R23 on 6700k at 2133 vs 3200, and saw no significant difference there. So I'd question that specific result, unless DDR5 does something with R23?

  • erotomania - Friday, March 4, 2022 - link

    R23 seems to be the same on the surface, just with the addition of an adjustable looping timer. Perhaps running the test for 10 or 30 minutes shows the RAM differences much better than 1 run, of several seconds to several minutes, depending on core count.

  • brantron - Friday, March 4, 2022 - link

    Gear 1 adds a few watts, which may exceed a power limit. Peak power of 68 watts was with DDR5, which requires gear 2.

    Some 65w Rocket Lake CPUs do the same thing. It can be overridden.

  • porina - Saturday, March 5, 2022 - link

    Good point, fixed power limits can cause what you described. If that is the reason, would it not apply to R20 also? Unless R23 does behave very differently to R20.

  • eastcoast_pete - Friday, March 4, 2022 - link

    Thanks Gavin! While I agree with much of what you wrote, I have one question: Why test a decidedly budget CPU only in a clearly premium-level board, with a also not-so-cheap AIO cooling? Both cost a lot more than the i3 itself. Yes, I assume you're doing so to minimize differences to test of better and pricier CPUs, but I really doubt a $ 130 CPU would find itself in a high-end board with that AIO cooling attached. Wouldn't it make sense to test a CPU in its "natural habitat", so in a budget socket 1700 board with the stock cooler on it? Just wondering.

  • cowymtber - Saturday, March 5, 2022 - link

    AMD doesn't want to be mentioned anywhere near the term, "budget" going forward. AMD's goal is to assume the premium/luxury class role (selling $15k EPYC 3D stacked Genoa). Chasing the low-end makes it difficult to attain high margins. This is why we have not seen the low-end Zen 3 updates to this point.

    With Zen 4, we will see the 1M L2 + 64M 3D stacked-fed L3, full-fat cores. The raw performance in single and multithread will render those Intel E cores worthless. The 7950X3D will give Threadripper-class multithread, along with fantastical single-core performance.

    Its not that AMD doesn't care about the low-end anymore....they just don't care about the low-end anymore.
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