As the Core i3-10100 is a non-"K" chip—which is to say, "not overclockable"—we didn't get a chance to see what the Core i3-10100 could do without Intel's anti-overclocking shackles on its wrists. All this was packed in ADATA's XPG Invader chassis, fitted with a Deepcool GamerStorm Captain 240 EX 240mm liquid cooler and a 750-watt Corsair power supply. PayPal Credit is a trading name of PayPal UK Ltd, Whittaker House, Whittaker Avenue, Richmond-Upon-Thames, Surrey, United Kingdom, TW9 1EH. In addition, unlike the 3300X, the 10100 also packs integrated graphics with Quick Sync hardware encoding, which alleviates the need for desktop users to purchase a separate GPU. Intel may make changes to manufacturing life cycle, specifications, and product descriptions at any time, without notice.

The i3-10100 is Intel’s entry level 10th generation Comet Lake processor and represents the best value for money within the line-up. Although the i3-10100 requires a new LGA1200 motherboard, Intel have guaranteed that LGA1200 will be compatible with the next generation of Rocket Lake CPUs, expected later this year.

However, it does manage to keep pace with (or set a new one against) the Radeon Vega-IGP-equipped AMD Ryzen 3 3200G, depending on the run, and that chip might be considered a fairer comparison. Please check with the system vendor to determine if your system delivers this feature, or reference the system specifications (motherboard, processor, chipset, power supply, HDD, graphics controller, memory, BIOS, drivers, virtual machine monitor-VMM, platform software, and/or operating system) for feature compatibility. Important: Interest is calculated from the start of the agreement, which means interest will accrue during the holiday period. Intel's entry-level Core i3-10100 CPU requires an all-new motherboard platform to install, and our sample chip's performance numbers are far enough below AMD's competing Ryzens to stifle most of its four-core appeal.

If you have an older-generation board, pair it with an Intel Core i3-9100 instead, which in our tests was often just as good (and sometimes better) than the Core i3-10100 in multi-core runs.

We test CPUs using a variety of synthetic benchmarks that offer proprietary scores, as well as real-world tests using consumer apps like 7-Zip, and 3D games such as Far Cry 5.