Intel Core i3-3120M vs Intel Core 2 Duo E8400

Core i3-3120M vs Core 2 Duo E8400 specs and performance

In our benchmarks, the Core i3-3120M beats the Core 2 Duo E8400 in overall performance. Furthermore, our gaming benchmark shows that it also outperforms the Core 2 Duo E8400 in all gaming tests too.

When comparing these CPUs we notice that they have the same number of cores but the Core i3-3120M has more threads. These CPUs have different clock speeds. Indeed, the Core 2 Duo E8400 has a slightly higher clock speed compared to the Core i3-3120M. A Core i3-3120M CPU outputs less heat than a Core 2 Duo E8400 CPU because of its significantly lower TDP. This measures the amount of heat they output and can be used to estimate power consumption.

Modern CPUs generally have more logical cores than physical cores, this means that each core is split into multiple virtual cores, improving efficiency for parallel workloads. Indeed, the Core i3-3120M has more threads than cores. Each physical core is split into multiple threads.