The Intel Core i3-12300 Review: Quad-Core Alder Lake Shines
by Gavin Bonshor on March 3, 2022 8:30 AM ESTCPU Benchmark Performance: Simulation And Rendering
Simulation and Science have a lot of overlap in the benchmarking world, however for this distinction we’re separating into two segments mostly based on the utility of the resulting data. The benchmarks that fall under Science have a distinct use for the data they output – in our Simulation section, these act more like synthetics but at some level are still trying to simulate a given environment.
For the Core i3-12300, we are running DDR5 memory at the following settings:
- DDR5-4800(B) CL40
Simulation
In tests that can utilize the higher IPC and lower core count, the Alder Lake i3 reigns supreme. The Core i3-12300 does struggle though in the tests that can really make use of a larger number of cores/threads.
Rendering
It's clear that the Core i3-12300 doesn't perform well in high core and thread situations such as rendering, although single-threaded performance is superb due to the Golden Cove-based P-cores.
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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.