Intel Core i3-12100 vs Intel Core i5-11260H

Core i3-12100 vs Core i5-11260H benchmarks

Our benchmark analysis concludes that the Core i3-12100 performs better than the Core i5-11260H. Furthermore, our gaming benchmark shows that it also outperforms the Core i5-11260H in all gaming tests too.

When comparing core counts for these CPUs, we notice that the Core i5-11260H has significantly more cores with 6 cores compared to the Core i3-12100 that has 4 cores. It also has more threads than the Core i3-12100. These CPUs have different clock speeds. Indeed, the Core i3-12100 has a slightly higher clock speed compared to the Core i5-11260H. Despite this, the Core i5-11260H has a slightly higher turbo speed. The Core i5-11260H outputs less heat than Core i3-12100 thanks to a slightly lower TDP. This measures the amount of heat they output and can be used to estimate power consumption.

Most CPUs have more threads than cores. This technology, colloquially called hyperthreading, improves performance by splitting a core into multiple virtual ones. This provides more efficient utilisation of a core. Indeed, the Core i3-12100 has more threads than cores. Each physical core is split into multiple threads.