Intel Core i3-2100 vs Intel Core 2 Duo E8500

Core i3-2100 vs Core 2 Duo E8500 comparison

According to the hardwareDB Benchmark tool, the Core i3-2100 is faster than the Core 2 Duo E8500. Furthermore, our gaming benchmark shows that it also outperforms the Core 2 Duo E8500 in all gaming tests too.

Our spec comparison shows that they have an identical amount of cores but the Core i3-2100 has more threads. These CPUs have different clock speeds. Indeed, the Core 2 Duo E8500 has a slightly higher clock speed compared to the Core i3-2100. Both these chips have an identical TDP (Thermal Design Power). 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 i3-2100 has more threads than cores. Each physical core is split into multiple threads.