Intel Core i3-2120 vs Intel Core i5-3550S

Core i3-2120 vs Core i5-3550S specs and performance

In our benchmarks, the Core i3-2120 beats the Core i5-3550S in overall performance. Furthermore, our gaming benchmark shows that it also outperforms the Core i5-3550S in all gaming tests too.

With info from our database, we find that the Core i5-3550S has significantly more cores with 4 cores whereas the Core i3-2120 has 2 cores. But they both have the same number of threads. With our hardware info, we find that the Core i3-2120 has a slightly higher clock speed than the Core i5-3550S. 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 i3-2120 has more threads than cores. Each physical core is split into multiple threads.