The Intel Core i3-12300 Review: Quad-Core Alder Lake Shines
by Gavin Bonshor on March 3, 2022 8:30 AM ESTIntel Core i3-12300 Performance: DDR5 vs DDR4
Intel’s 12th generation processors from the top of the stack, including the flagship Core i9-12900K) and the more affordable and entry-level offerings such as the Core i3-12300, allow users to build a new system with the latest technologies available. One of the main elements that make Intel’s Alder Lake processors flexible for users building a new system is that it includes support for both DDR5 and DDR4 memory. It’s no secret that DDR5 memory costs (far) more than the already established DDR4 counterparts. One element to this includes an early adopter’s fee. Having the latest and greatest technology comes at a price premium.
The reason why we have opted to test the difference in performance between DDR5 and DDR4 memory with the Core i3-12300 is simply down to the price point. While users will most likely be looking to use DDR5 with the performance SKUs such as the Core i9-12900K, Core i7-12700K, and Core i5-12600K, users building a new system with the Core i3-12300 are more likely to go down a more affordable route. This includes using DDR4 memory, which is inherently cheaper than DDR5 and opting for a cheaper motherboard such as an H670, B660, or H610 option. Such systems do give up some performance versus what the i3-12300 can do at its peak, but in return it can bring costs down signfiicantly.
Traditionally we test our memory settings at JEDEC specifications. JEDEC is the standards body that determines the requirements for each memory standard. In the case of Intel's Alder Lake, the Core i3 supports both DDR5 and DDR4 memory. Below are the memory settings we used for our DDR5 versus DDR4 testing:
- DDR4-3200 CL22
- DDR5-4800(B) CL40
CPU Performance: DDR5 versus DDR4
In our computational benchmarks, there wasn't much difference between DDR5-4800 CL40 and DDR4-3200 CL22 when using the Core i3-12300. The biggest difference came in our WinRAR benchmark which is heavily reliant on memory to increase performance; the DDR5 performed around 21% better than DDR4 in this scenario.
Gaming Performance: DDR5 versus DDR4
On the whole, DDR5 does perform better in our gaming tests, but not enough to make it a 'must have' in comparison to DDR4 memory. The gains overall are marginal for the most part, with DDR5 offering around 3-7 more frames per second over DDR4 memory, depending on the titles game engine optimization.
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mode_13h - Thursday, March 3, 2022 - link
> The -E/TE are BGA variantsAccording to Intel, they're the same FCLGA1700 package as the CPU reviewed in this article.
https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/compar...
However, whether you can get them in Qty. 1 and whether any retail motherboards have validated ECC support for them is another matter.
mode_13h - Thursday, March 3, 2022 - link
> Are there different levels of ECC for DDR5?No. All DDR5 has on-die ECC, but that's just a band-aid to cover other shortcuts made by DDR5 (increased density, long-refresh) and probably won't deliver a net reliability improvement.
The two variations of ECC currently supported by Intel are traditional out-of-band ECC, which requires special DIMMs and motherboards, or in-band ECC that should work with any DIMMs but at a slight performance penalty. From what I've seen, only certain Elkhart Lake CPUs so far support in-band ECC.
fmyhr - Thursday, March 3, 2022 - link
Thank you! Very much appreciate the info. First I'd heard of in-band ECC.SunMaster - Thursday, March 3, 2022 - link
When it comes to excelling in single thread applications, which applications are we really talking about in 2022 ? MS-DOS emulators and CPU-tests limited to 1 thread?badger2k - Thursday, March 3, 2022 - link
Comments like these are a really easy way to show that you have no knowledge of how computer programs work.SunMaster - Thursday, March 3, 2022 - link
Really. So how with an example where it matters?SunMaster - Thursday, March 3, 2022 - link
I'm not talking about where single threaded software exists, because that's just about everywhere. I'm wondering which singlethreaded applications is it possible to excel in, because they actually exist and their performance actually matter.TheinsanegamerN - Thursday, March 3, 2022 - link
Games. Multithreaded games still have a single primary rendering thread, or other tasks such as ai, that cannot be made parallel easily or at all, hence why alder lake wins at gaming benchmarks, even multithreaded onesmagreen - Thursday, March 3, 2022 - link
OCR of a long document in Adobe Acrobat. It’s infuriating that it’s still single threaded in 2022 even in the pro version, when it’s such an obviously parallelizable task. But it is what it is.CiccioB - Friday, March 4, 2022 - link
I wonder if you are serous or just trolling...If you know "single threaded software exists, because that's just about everywhere. I'm wondering which singlethreaded applications is it possible to excel in, because they actually exist and their performance actually matter."
you may just think that you excel in all those mono tasking application that require times to be completed.
I do not think it is that difficult to understand, so I just think you are just acting as a troll.