Building the best gaming PC possible is an expensive endeavour, with graphics card prices reaching double their MSRP and new DDR5 RAM costs that are sure to make your credit score shiver. Yet, if you’re holding out for a budget gaming hero, there may still be hope, as Intel’s unannounced Alder Lake i3 chips could trump AMD’s Zen 3 Ryzen CPUs.
According to benchmarks shared by Bilibili user Enthusiastic Citizen, Intel’s Core i3-12300 boasts a single thread CPU-Z score of 702, and the i3-12100 wields a similar score of 687.5. Both chips also spent some time in Cinebench, resulting in respective scores of 665 and 649. By comparison, AMD’s Ryzen 7 5800X musters a score of 652.8, meaning it could fail to keep up with the blue team’s new budget duo.
It’s important to note that Intel’s Alder Lake i3 is still entry-level, which means both CPUs don’t come out swinging in terms of multi-thread performance. However, when you consider both chips potential $100 and $150 price tags, it’s easy to see why they could be more appealing than AMD’s current lineup.
Intel hasn’t revealed its Alder Lake i3 plans, so we’ll have to wait a little longer before we can confirm the chipset’s impressive single-thread specs. If the i3-1230 and i3-12100 do end up outperforming AMD’s Zen 3 lineup, the red team will need to up the ante considerably with its new Zen 3+ and Zen 4 competitors. After all, Intel’s Pat Gilsinger is gunning for the CPU crown, and the company’s 12th gen offerings have already mapped out a path to the throne.