Home > CPU Comparison > Core i5 10400F or Core i3 12100F: what's better?

Intel Core i5 10400F vs i3 12100F

34 out of 100
Intel Core i5 10400F
VS
48 out of 100
Intel Core i3 12100F
Intel Core i5 10400F
Intel Core i3 12100F

We compared two desktop CPUs: the 2.9 GHz Intel Core i5 10400F with 6-cores against the 3.3 GHz i3 12100F with 4-cores. On this page, you'll find out which processor has better performance in benchmarks, games and other useful information.

  1. Review
  2. Differences
  3. Performance
  4. Specs
  5. Comments

Review

General overview and comparison of the processors
Single-Core Performance
Performance in single-threaded apps and benchmarks
Multi-Core Performance
Measure performance when all cores are involved
Power Efficiency
The efficiency score of power consumption
The "iGPU" and "Power Efficiency" have a minor impact on the NanoReview Score for desktop CPU.
NanoReview Final Score
Choose your main usage scenario to recalculate the Final Score and see which CPU suits your needs.
🔌 Usage Scenario:

Value for money (Beta)

Global average CPU prices are used by default! For better accuracy, enter your current prices and click “Calculate".
Currency
VS
34.3
(Mediocre)
Value Index
113.2
(Excellent)

Key Differences

What are the key differences between 12100F and 10400F
Advantages of Intel Core i5 10400F
  • Has 2 more physical cores
Advantages of Intel Core i3 12100F
  • Around 35.2 GB/s (85%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth
  • Newer PCI Express version – 5.0
  • 73% faster in a single-core Geekbench v6 test - 2529 vs 1459 points
  • More modern manufacturing process – 10 versus 14 nanometers
  • Newer - released 1 year and 8 months later

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks
CPU:
Core i5 10400F
vs
Core i3 12100F

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
Cinebench 2026 (Single) 353 -
Cinebench 2026 (Multi) 1994 -
Submit your benchmark results

GeekBench v6

The new version of this benchmark emulates common operations often used in real-world apps
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
File compression 452.1 MB/sec 792.9 MB/sec
Clang compilation 50.3 Klines/sec 60.1 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 139.6 pages/sec 204.1 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 190.7 Mpixels/sec 263.7 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 151 pages/sec 267.7 pages/sec
Background blur 33.8 images/sec 48.6 images/sec
Photo processing 51.9 images/sec 82.8 images/sec
Ray tracing 10.3 Mpixels/sec 14.4 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] – 435 & 1026 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
Core i5 10400F
12095
Core i3 12100F +15%
13953
Integer math 41.5 GOps/sec 40.8 GOps/sec
Floating point math 26 GOps/sec 31.9 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 35M Primes/sec 59M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 23.2M Strings/sec 15.9M Strings/sec
Data encryption 4.1 GBytes/sec 8 GBytes/sec
Data compression 186 MBytes/sec 159.7 MBytes/sec
Physics 694 Frames/sec 972 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 12.5B Matrices/sec 10.8B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] – 9127 & 3972 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 6.7 PPW 7.6 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 96.4 PPW 152.2 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 186.1 PPW 240.6 PPW
Blender / Watt 1.72 PPW 1.84 PPW
These are rough calculations, as most CPUs surpass PL1 TDP wattage even in multicore workloads.

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
Intel Core i5 10400F
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-07-30 (Semant)Cinebench 2026353 / 1994
📘 2026-04-05 (Manav Sehgal)Cinebench 2026351 / 1884
📘 2025-09-11 (KingdomGaming)Cinebench 202464 / 438
Add View all (3)
Intel Core i3 12100F
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2025-11-02 (idkez)Cinebench 202485 / 442
Add View all (1)

Specifications

Full technical specification of Intel Core i5 10400F and i3 12100F

General

Vendor Intel Intel
Released May 1, 2020 January 4, 2022
Type Desktop Desktop
Instruction Set x86-64 x86-64
Codename Comet Lake Alder Lake
Model number i5-10400F i3-12100F
Integrated GPU No No
Rival Equivalent - AMD Ryzen 5 3600 -
Successor - Intel Core Ultra 5 225F - Intel Core i3 14100F
Intel CPU rating (#172nd place)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 6 4
P-Threads 12 8
Base Frequency (P) 2.9 GHz 3.3 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) 4.3 GHz 4.3 GHz
Total
Total Cores 6 4
Total Threads 12 8
Bus Frequency 100 MHz 100 MHz
Multiplier 29x 33x
Bus Bandwidth 8 GT/s -
L1 Cache 64K (per core) 80K (per core)
L2 Cache 256K (per core) 1280K (per core)
L3 Cache 12MB (shared) 12MB (shared)
Unlocked Multiplier No No

Package

Fabrication Process 14 nm 10 nm
TDP (PL1) 65 W 58 W
Max. Boost TDP (PL2) - 89 W
Socket LGA-1200 LGA-1700
Peak Temperature 100°C 100°C
Desktop CPU ranking (162nd and 115th place)

Memory Support

Memory Types - DDR4-2666 - DDR5-4800
- DDR4-3200
Max. Memory Size 128 GB 128 GB
Memory Channels 2 2
Max. Memory Bandwidth 41.6 GB/s 76.8 GB/s
ECC Support No No

Misc

Official Site Intel Core i5 10400F official page Intel Core i3 12100F official page
PCI Express Version 3.0 5.0
PCI Express Lanes 16 20

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
103 (9.9%)
941 (90.1%)
Total votes: 1044

Competitors

1. Intel Core i5 10400F vs Intel Core i5 12400F
2. Intel Core i5 10400F vs AMD Ryzen 5 5500
3. Intel Core i3 12100F vs AMD Ryzen 5 5500
4. Intel Core i3 12100F vs Intel Core i3 13100F
5. Intel Core i3 12100F vs Intel Core i5 12400F (1)
6. Intel Core i3 12100F vs Intel Core i3 12100
7. Intel Core i3 12100F vs AMD Ryzen 5 5600 (1)
8. Intel Core i3 12100F vs AMD Ryzen 5 3600 (1)
Compare other CPUs (460+)

Comments

So which CPU will you choose: Intel Core i3 12100F or i5 10400F?
🌐 Register your profile and become part of NanoReview community!
EnglishРусский