Intel Core i5-8500 vs Intel Core i3-12100

Core i5-8500 vs Core i3-12100 specs and performance

Our benchmark analysis concludes that the Core i3-12100 performs better than the Core i5-8500. Furthermore, our gaming benchmark shows that it also outperforms the Core i5-8500 in all gaming tests too.

In terms of the number of cores of each of these CPUs, the Core i5-8500 has significantly more cores than the Core i3-12100. Indeed, the Core i5-8500 has 6 cores compared to 4 cores found in the Core i3-12100. Despite this, the Core i3-12100 has more threads than the Core i5-8500. Our comparison shows that the Core i3-12100 has a slightly higher clock speed compared to the Core i5-8500. Also, the Core i3-12100 has a slightly higher turbo speed. The Core i3-12100 outputs less heat than Core i5-8500 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. For instance, the Core i5-8500 has the same number of threads as cores. This means the the CPU does not support hyperthreading.