Intel Core i3-2120 vs Intel Core i7-870

Core i3-2120 vs Core i7-870 benchmarks

Our benchmark analysis concludes that the Core i7-870 performs better than the Core i3-2120. Furthermore, our gaming benchmark shows that it also outperforms the Core i3-2120 in all gaming tests too.

When comparing core counts for these CPUs, we notice that the Core i7-870 has significantly more cores with 4 cores compared to the Core i3-2120 that has 2 cores. It also has more threads than the Core i3-2120. Our comparison shows that the Core i3-2120 has a slightly higher clock speed compared to the Core i7-870. A Core i3-2120 CPU outputs less heat than a Core i7-870 CPU because of its significantly 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 i3-2120 has more threads than cores. Each physical core is split into multiple threads.