Intel Core i3-10105F is a rarity: Cheap processor for cheap mobos

Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla

The choice of CPUs for low budget builds is getting weaker and less economical – the current prices of Pentiums are reminiscent of a bad joke. Core i3-1010x(F) are the only ones in sufficient numbers at the moment, and still for reasonable money. It’s just a shame that AMD has no competition here. But the comparison of Core i3 Comet Lake with Core i5-10400(F) is also attractive. You might find that it’s worth the savings.

Intel Core i3-10105F in detail

Cheap hardware is not having a very good time. We often hear that it is produced more or less with reluctance because the cheaper the component is, the lower the profit margin on it. And dealing with such hardware is, after all, “inefficient”. It is better to convince people that they need “something more expensive” even for a low-end office build.

The current lack of production capacity means that AMD has completely abandoned Ryzen 3s, Athlons are therefore not even in question, and this makes Intel unbeatable at least in the retail market in the sub-100 euro processor category. But even here the choice is severely limited and some of the offers don’t even make sense.s

The Celerons have vanished, which is quite natural – they are the number one choice for mining rigs. It’s not much better with Pentiums either. Whoever isn’t able to get their hands on a Celeron will probably reach for a Pentium as well. The cheapest Comet Lake Pentiums (G6400/G6405) are also virtually sold out, as are the G6500s. And the G6600s are in stock for as much as an extreme 150 euros. The G5620 Coffee Lake is also above a hundred euros.

The Core i3 processors are significantly better and more worth it. At least for now. Both the 10100F and the 10105F are sold in sufficient numbers at prices around the recommended level. This means that Core i3s will, paradoxically, set you back less than the slower Pentiums. Of the pair of bargain models, we chose the newer one – the 10105F – for our tests.

The difference from the 10100F is the 100 MHz higher base clock speed, the clock speed for both single-core and multi-core boost. However, the increase in clock speed here does not mean a higher price, and this processor can also be bought from 85 euros, although the average price is more around 90 euros. But that’s still a nice offer with which you can save more than 60 euros compared to the Core i5-10400(F). You do lose two cores/four threads (the Ci3-10105F is a quad-core processor with HT), but for someone it might be enough – definitely for an office PC.

In addition, the Core i3-10105F also offers higher clock speeds, which is the music to the ears for single-threaded applications. How and in what way the Core i3 Comet Lake stands up against the Core i5 Comet Lake will be shown in the tests in the following chapters. These tests are also preparation for January’s Core i3 (12100) and Pentium (G7400/T) Alder Lake. So hopefully the high prices of the H610 boards won’t spoil it for them, as the ones with B660 chipsets will be significantly more expensive than the CPUs themselves. That is, unless Intel rethinks its pricing policy and makes the Core i3 Alder Lake significantly more expensive as well. But now let’s move on to the Ci3-10105F tests, for which you can get a motherboard for just 50 euros.

The choice of CPUs for low budget builds is getting weaker and less economical – the current prices of Pentiums are reminiscent of a bad joke. Core i3-1010x(F) are the only ones in sufficient numbers at the moment, and still for reasonable money. It’s just a shame that AMD has no competition here. But the comparison of Core i3 Comet Lake with Core i5-10400(F) is also attractive. You might find that it’s worth the savings.

Gaming tests

We test performance in games in four resolutions with different graphics settings. To warm up, there is more or less a theoretical resolution of 1280 × 720 px. We had been tweaking graphics settings for this resolution for a long time. We finally decided to go for the lowest possible (Low, Lowest, Ultra Low, …) settings that a game allows.

One could argue that a processor does not calculate how many objects are drawn in such settings (so-called draw calls). However, with high detail at this very low resolution, there was not much difference in performance compared to FHD (which we also test). On the contrary, the GPU load was clearly higher, and this impractical setting should demonstrate the performance of a processor with the lowest possible participation of a graphics card.

At higher resolutions, high settings (for FHD and QHD) and highest (for UHD) are used. In Full HD it’s usually with Anti-Aliasing turned off, but overall, these are relatively practical settings that are commonly used.

The selection of games was made considering the diversity of genres, player popularity and processor performance requirements. For a complete list, see Chapters 7–16. A built-in benchmark is used when a game has one, otherwise we have created our own scenes, which we always repeat with each processor in the same way. We use OCAT to record fps, or the times of individual frames, from which fps are then calculated, and FLAT to analyze CSV. Both were developed by the author of articles (and videos) from GPUreport.cz. For the highest possible accuracy, all runs are repeated three times and the average values of average and minimum fps are drawn in the graphs. These multiple repetitions also apply to non-gaming tests.

Computing tests

Let’s start lightly with PCMark 10, which tests more than sixty sub-tasks in various applications as part of a complete set of “benchmarks for a modern office”. It then sorts them into fewer thematic categories and for the best possible overview we include the gained points from them in the graphs. Lighter test tasks are also represented by tests in a web browser – Speedometer and Octane. Other tests usually represent higher load or are aimed at advanced users.

We test the 3D rendering performance in Cinebench. In R20, where the results are more widespread, but mainly in R23. Rendering in this version takes longer with each processor, cycles of at least ten minutes. We also test 3D rendering in Blender, with the Cycles render in the BMW and Classroom projects. You can also compare the latter with the test results of graphics cards (contains the same number of tiles).

We test how processors perform in video editing in Adobe Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve Studio 17. We use a PugetBench plugin, which deals with all the tasks you may encounter when editing videos. We also use PugetBench services in Adobe After Effects, where the performance of creating graphic effects is tested. Some subtasks use GPU acceleration, but we never turn it off, as no one will do it in practice. Some things don’t even work without GPU acceleration, but on the contrary, it’s interesting to see that the performance in the tasks accelerated by the graphics card also varies as some operations are still serviced by the CPU.

We test video encoding under SVT-AV1, in HandBrake and benchmarks (x264 HD and HWBot x265). x264 HD benchmark works in 32-bit mode (we did not manage to run 64-bit consistently on W10 and in general on newer OS’s it may be unstable and show errors in video). In HandBrake we use the x264 processor encoder for AVC and x265 for HEVC. Detailed settings of individual profiles can be found in the corresponding chapter 25. In addition to video, we also encode audio, where all the details are also stated in the chapter of these tests. Gamers who record their gameplay on video can also have to do with the performance of processor encoders. Therefore, we also test the performance of “processor broadcasting” in two popular applications OBS Studio and Xsplit.

We also have two chapters dedicated to photo editing performance. Adobe has a separate one, where we test Photoshop via PugetBench. However, we do not use PugetBench in Lightroom, because it requires various OS modifications for stable operation, and overall we rather avoided it (due to the higher risk of complications) and create our own test scenes. Both are CPU intensive, whether it’s exporting RAW files to 16-bit TIFF with ProPhotoRGB color space or generating 1:1 thumbnails of 42 lossless CR2 photos.

However, we also have several alternative photo editing applications in which we test CPU performance. These include Affinity Photo, in which we use a built-in benchmark, or XnViewMP for batch photo editing or ZPS X. Of the truly modern ones, there are three Topaz Labz applications that use AI algorithms. DeNoise AI, Gigapixel AI and Sharpen AI. Topaz Labs often and happily compares its results with Adobe applications (Photoshop and Lightroom) and boasts of better results. So we’ll see, maybe we’ll get into it from the image point of view sometime. In processor tests, however, we are primarily focused on performance.

We test compression and decompression performance in WinRAR, 7-Zip and Aida64 (Zlib) benchmarks, decryption in TrueCrypt and Aida64, where in addition to AES there are also SHA3 tests. In Aida64, we also test FPU in the chapter of mathematical calculations. From this category you may also be interested in the results of Stockfish 13 and the number of chess combinations achieved per unit time. We perform many tests that can be included in the category of mathematics in SPECworkstation 3.1. It is a set of professional applications extending to various simulations, such as LAMMPS or NAMD, which are molecular simulators. A detailed description of the tests from SPECworkstation 3.1 can be found at spec.org. We do not test 7-zip, Blender and HandBrake from the list for redundancy, because we test performance in them separately in applications. A detailed listing of SPECWS results usually represents times or fps, but we graph “SPEC ratio”, which represents gained points—higher means better.

Processor settings

We test processors in the default settings, without active PBO2 (AMD) or ABT (Intel) technologies, but naturally with active XMP 2.0.

… and app updates

The tests should also take into account that, over time, individual updates may affect performance comparisons. Some applications are used in portable versions, which are not updated or can be kept on a stable version, but this is not the case for some others. Typically, games update over time. On the other hand, even intentional obsolescence (and testing something out of date that already behaves differently) would not be entirely the way to go.

In short, just take into account that the accuracy of the results you are comparing decreases a bit over time. To make this analysis easier for you, we indicate when each processor was tested. You can find this in the dialog box, where there is information about the test date of each processor. This dialog box appears in interactive graphs, just hover the mouse cursor over any bar.

The choice of CPUs for low budget builds is getting weaker and less economical – the current prices of Pentiums are reminiscent of a bad joke. Core i3-1010x(F) are the only ones in sufficient numbers at the moment, and still for reasonable money. It’s just a shame that AMD has no competition here. But the comparison of Core i3 Comet Lake with Core i5-10400(F) is also attractive. You might find that it’s worth the savings.

Methodology: how we measure power draw

Measuring CPU power consumption is relatively simple, much easier than with graphics cards. All power goes through one or two EPS cables. We also use two to increase the cross-section, which is suitable for high performance AMD processors up to sTR(X)4 or for Intel HEDT, and in fact almost for mainstream processors as well. We have Prova 15 current probes to measure current directly on the wires. This is a much more accurate and reliable way of measuring than relying on internal sensors.

The only limitation of our current probes may be when testing the most powerful processors. These already exceed the maximum range of 30 A, at which high accuracy is guaranteed. For most processors, the range is optimal (even for measuring a lower load, when the probes can be switched to a lower and more accurate range of 4 A), but we will test models with power consumption over 360 W on our own device, a prototype of which we have already built. Its measuring range will no longer be limiting, but for the time being we will be using the Prova probes in the near future.

The probes are properly set to zero and connected to a UNI-T UT71E multimeter before each measurement. It records samples of current values during the tests via the IR-USB interface and writes them in a table at one-second intervals. We can then create bar graphs with power consumption patterns. But we always write average values in bar graphs. Measurements take place in various load modes. The lowest represents an idle Windows 10 desktop. This measurement takes place on a system that had been idle for quite some time.

   

Audio encoding (FLAC) represents a higher load, but processors use only one core or one thread for this. Higher loads, where more cores are involved, are games. We test power consumption in F1 2020, Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Total War Saga: Troy in 1920 × 1080 px. In this resolution, the power consumption is usually the highest or at least similar to that in lower or higher resolutions, where in most cases the CPU power draw rather decreases due to its lower utilization.

Power draw limits are disabled for both Intel and AMD processors, unlocked to the PL2/PPT level. As is the case with most motherboards, this is also set in the default settings. This means that the “Tau” timeout after 56 seconds does not reduce power draw and frequencies even under higher load, and performance is stable. We considered whether or not to accept the more economical settings. In the end, we won’t, on the grounds that the vast majority of users don’t do it either and thus the results and comparisons would be rather uninteresting. The solution would indeed be to test with and without power limit, but this is impossible from a time point of view in the context of processor tests. However, we won’t ignore this issue and it will be getting space in motherboard tests where it makes more sense to us.

We always use motherboards with extremely robust, efficient VRM, so that the losses on MOSFETs distort the measured results as little as possible and the test setups are powered by a high-end 1200 W BeQuiet! Dark Power Pro 12 power supply. It is strong enough to supply every processor, even with a fully loaded GeForce RTX 3080, and at the same time achieves above-standard efficiency even at lower load. For a complete overview of test setup components, see Chapter 5 of this article.



The 12th generation Intel Core processors – Alder Lake is now out and we already have the full-fledged tests for you. These processors are significantly different from the previous ones in many aspects and many things are used “for the first time”. Among them are DDR5 memory support, PCI Express 5.0, 7 nm manufacturing process or hybrid concept of small and large cores. It’s time for a detailed analysis!

Methodology: temperature and clock speed tests

When choosing a cooler, we eventually opted for Noctua NH-U14S. It has a high performance and at the same time there is also the TR4-SP3 variant designed for Threadripper processors. It differs only by the base, the radiator is otherwise the same, so it will be possible to test and compare all processors under the same conditions. The fan on the NH-U14S cooler is set to a maximum speed of 1,500 rpm during all tests.

Measurements always take place on a bench-wall in a wind tunnel which simulates a computer case, with the difference that we have more control over it.

System cooling consists of four Noctua NF-S12A PWM fans, which are in an equilibrium ratio of two at the inlet and two at the outlet. Their speed is set at a fixed 550 rpm, which is a relatively practical speed that is not needed to be exceeded. In short, this should be the optimal configuration based on our tests of various system cooling settings.

It is also important to maintain the same air temperature around the processors. Of course, this also changes with regard to how much heat a particular processor produces, but at the inlet of the tunnel it must always be the same for accurate comparisons. In our air-conditioned test lab, it is currently in the range of 21–21.3 °C.

Maintaining a constant inlet temperature is necessary not only for a proper comparison of processor temperatures, but especially for unbiased performance comparisons. Trend of clock speed and especially single-core boost depends on the temperature. In the summer at higher temperatures, processors may be slower in living spaces than in the winter.

For Intel processors, we register the maximum core temperature for each test, usually of all cores. These maximum values are then averaged and the result is represented by the final value in the graph. From the outputs of single-threaded load, we only pick the registered values from active cores (these are usually two and alternate during the test). It’s a little different with AMD processors. They don’t have temperature sensors for every core. In order for the procedure to be as methodically as possible similar to that applied on Intel processors, the average temperature of all cores is defined by the highest value reported by the CPU Tdie sensor (average). For single-threaded load, however, we already use a CPU sensor (Tctl/Tdie), which usually reports a slightly higher value, which better corresponds to the hotspots of one or two cores. But these values as well as the values from all internal sensors must be taken with a grain of salt, the accuracy of the sensors varies across processors.

Clock speed evaluation is more accurate, each core has its own sensor even on AMD processors. Unlike temperatures, we plot average clock speed values during tests in graphs. We monitor the temperature and clock speed of the processor cores in the same tests, in which we also measure the power consumption. And thus, gradually from the lowest load level on the desktop of idle Windows 10, through audio encoding (single-threaded load), gaming load in three games (F1 2020, Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Total War Saga: Troy), to a 10-minute load in Cinebench R23 and the most demanding video encoding with the x264 encoder in HandBrake.

To record the temperatures and clock speed of the processor cores, we use HWiNFO, in which sampling is set to two seconds. With the exception of audio encoding, the graphs always show the averages of all processor cores in terms of temperatures and clock speed. During audio encoding, the values from the loaded core are given.

The choice of CPUs for low budget builds is getting weaker and less economical – the current prices of Pentiums are reminiscent of a bad joke. Core i3-1010x(F) are the only ones in sufficient numbers at the moment, and still for reasonable money. It’s just a shame that AMD has no competition here. But the comparison of Core i3 Comet Lake with Core i5-10400(F) is also attractive. You might find that it’s worth the savings.

Test setup

*We use the following BIOSes on motherboards. For the MSI MEG Z590 Ace v1.14, for the MSI MEG X570 v1E and for the MSI MEG Z490 v17.

Note: Graphics drivers used at the time of testing: Nvidia GeForce 466.77 and OS Windows 10 build 19043.

   

The choice of CPUs for low budget builds is getting weaker and less economical – the current prices of Pentiums are reminiscent of a bad joke. Core i3-1010x(F) are the only ones in sufficient numbers at the moment, and still for reasonable money. It’s just a shame that AMD has no competition here. But the comparison of Core i3 Comet Lake with Core i5-10400(F) is also attractive. You might find that it’s worth the savings.

3DMark

We use 3DMark Professional for the tests and the following tests: Night Raid (DirectX 12), Fire Strike (DirectX 11) and Time Spy (DirectX 12). In the graphs you will find partial CPU scores, combined scores, but also graphics scores. You can find out to what extent the given processor limits the graphics card.

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The choice of CPUs for low budget builds is getting weaker and less economical – the current prices of Pentiums are reminiscent of a bad joke. Core i3-1010x(F) are the only ones in sufficient numbers at the moment, and still for reasonable money. It’s just a shame that AMD has no competition here. But the comparison of Core i3 Comet Lake with Core i5-10400(F) is also attractive. You might find that it’s worth the savings.

Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla

Test environment: resolution 1280 × 720 px; graphics settings preset Low; API DirectX 12; no extra settings; test scene: built-in benchmark.

   

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Test environment: resolution 1920 × 1080 px; graphics settings preset Low; API DirectX 12; extra settings Anti-Aliasing: low; test scene: built-in benchmark.

   

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Test environment: resolution 2560 × 1440 px; graphics settings preset High; API DirectX 12; no extra settings; test scene: built-in benchmark.

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Test environment: resolution 3840 × 2160 px; graphics settings preset Ultra High; API DirectX 12; no extra settings; test scene: built-in benchmark.

   

The choice of CPUs for low budget builds is getting weaker and less economical – the current prices of Pentiums are reminiscent of a bad joke. Core i3-1010x(F) are the only ones in sufficient numbers at the moment, and still for reasonable money. It’s just a shame that AMD has no competition here. But the comparison of Core i3 Comet Lake with Core i5-10400(F) is also attractive. You might find that it’s worth the savings.

Borderlands 3

Test environment: resolution 1280 × 720 px; graphics settings preset Very Low; API DirectX 12; no extra settings; test scene: built-in benchmark.

   

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Test environment: resolution 1920 × 1080 px; graphics settings preset High; API DirectX 12; extra settings Anti-Aliasing: None; test scene: built-in benchmark.

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Test environment: resolution 2560 × 1440 px; graphics settings preset High; API DirectX 12; no extra settings; test scene: built-in benchmark.

   

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Test environment: resolution 3840 × 2160 px; graphics settings preset Ultra; API DirectX 12; no extra settings; test scene: built-in benchmark.

   

The choice of CPUs for low budget builds is getting weaker and less economical – the current prices of Pentiums are reminiscent of a bad joke. Core i3-1010x(F) are the only ones in sufficient numbers at the moment, and still for reasonable money. It’s just a shame that AMD has no competition here. But the comparison of Core i3 Comet Lake with Core i5-10400(F) is also attractive. You might find that it’s worth the savings.

Counter-Strike: GO

Test environment: resolution 1280 × 720 px; lowest graphics settings and w/o Anti-Aliasing, API DirectX 9; test platform script with Dust 2 map tour.

   

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Test environment: resolution 1920 × 1080 px; high graphics settings and w/o Anti-Aliasing, API DirectX 9; test platform script with Dust 2 map tour.

   

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Test environment: resolution 2560 × 1440 px; high graphics settings; 4× MSAA, API DirectX 9; test platform script with Dust 2 map tour.

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Test environment: resolution 3840 × 2160 px; very high graphics settings; 4× MSAA, API DirectX 9; test platform script with Dust 2 map tour.

   

The choice of CPUs for low budget builds is getting weaker and less economical – the current prices of Pentiums are reminiscent of a bad joke. Core i3-1010x(F) are the only ones in sufficient numbers at the moment, and still for reasonable money. It’s just a shame that AMD has no competition here. But the comparison of Core i3 Comet Lake with Core i5-10400(F) is also attractive. You might find that it’s worth the savings.

Cyberpunk 2077

Test environment: resolution 1280 × 720 px; graphics settings preset Low; API DirectX 12; no extra settings; test scene: custom (Little China).

   

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Test environment: resolution 1920 × 1080 px; graphics settings preset High; API DirectX 12; no extra settings; test scene: custom (Little China).

   

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Test environment: resolution 2560 × 1440 px; graphics settings preset High; API DirectX 12; no extra settings; test scene: custom (Little China).

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Test environment: resolution 3840 × 2160 px; graphics settings preset Ultra; API DirectX 12; no extra settings; test scene: custom (Little China).

   

The choice of CPUs for low budget builds is getting weaker and less economical – the current prices of Pentiums are reminiscent of a bad joke. Core i3-1010x(F) are the only ones in sufficient numbers at the moment, and still for reasonable money. It’s just a shame that AMD has no competition here. But the comparison of Core i3 Comet Lake with Core i5-10400(F) is also attractive. You might find that it’s worth the savings.

DOOM Eternal

Test environment: resolution 1280 × 720 px; graphics settings preset Low; API Vulkan; extra settings Present From Compute: off, Motion Blur: Low, Depth of Field Anti-Aliasing: off; test scene: custom.

   

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Test environment: resolution 1920 × 1080 px; graphics settings preset High; API Vulkan; extra settings Present From Compute: on, Motion Blur: High, Depth of Field Anti-Aliasing: off; test scene: custom.

   

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Test environment: resolution 2560 × 1440 px; graphics settings preset High; API Vulkan; extra settings Present From Compute: on, Motion Blur: High, Depth of Field Anti-Aliasing: on; test scene: custom.

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Test environment: resolution 3840 × 2160 px; graphics settings preset Ultra Nightmare; API Vulkan; extra settings Present From Compute: on, Motion Blur: High, Depth of Field Anti-Aliasing: on; test scene: custom.

   

The choice of CPUs for low budget builds is getting weaker and less economical – the current prices of Pentiums are reminiscent of a bad joke. Core i3-1010x(F) are the only ones in sufficient numbers at the moment, and still for reasonable money. It’s just a shame that AMD has no competition here. But the comparison of Core i3 Comet Lake with Core i5-10400(F) is also attractive. You might find that it’s worth the savings.

F1 2020

Test environment: resolution 1280 × 720 px; graphics settings preset Ultra Low; API DirectX 12; extra settings Anti-Aliasing: off, Anisotropic Filtering: off; test scene: built-in benchmark (Australia, Clear/Dry, Cycle).

   

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Test environment: resolution 1920 × 1080 px; graphics settings preset High; API DirectX 12; extra settings Anti-Aliasing: off, Skidmarks Blending: off; test scene: built-in benchmark (Australia, Clear/Dry, Cycle).

   

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Test environment: resolution 2560 × 1440 px; graphics settings preset High; API DirectX 12; extra settings Anti-Aliasing: TAA, Skidmarks Blending: off; test scene: built-in benchmark (Australia, Clear/Dry, Cycle).

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Test environment: resolution 3840 × 2160 px; graphics settings preset Ultra High; API DirectX 12; extra settings Anti-Aliasing: TAA, Skidmarks Blending: off; test scene: built-in benchmark (Australia, Clear/Dry, Cycle).

The choice of CPUs for low budget builds is getting weaker and less economical – the current prices of Pentiums are reminiscent of a bad joke. Core i3-1010x(F) are the only ones in sufficient numbers at the moment, and still for reasonable money. It’s just a shame that AMD has no competition here. But the comparison of Core i3 Comet Lake with Core i5-10400(F) is also attractive. You might find that it’s worth the savings.

Metro Exodus

Test environment: resolution 1280 × 720 px; graphics settings preset Low; API DirectX 12; no extra settings test scene: built-in benchmark.

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Test environment: resolution 1920 × 1080 px; graphics settings preset High; API DirectX 12; no extra settings; test scene: built-in benchmark.

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Test environment: resolution 2560 × 1440 px; graphics settings preset High; API DirectX 12; no extra settings; test scene: built-in benchmark.

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Test environment: resolution 3840 × 2160 px; graphics settings preset Extreme; API DirectX 12; no extra settings; test scene: built-in benchmark.

The choice of CPUs for low budget builds is getting weaker and less economical – the current prices of Pentiums are reminiscent of a bad joke. Core i3-1010x(F) are the only ones in sufficient numbers at the moment, and still for reasonable money. It’s just a shame that AMD has no competition here. But the comparison of Core i3 Comet Lake with Core i5-10400(F) is also attractive. You might find that it’s worth the savings.

Microsoft Flight Simulator

Note: We are not using the results from this game to calculate the average game performance. This is because after the big July update, the performance has changed significantly, as you can see in this test, and we have re-tested only some processors.

Test environment: resolution 1280 × 720 px; graphics settings preset Low; API DirectX 11; extra settings Anti-Aliasing: off; test scene: custom (Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Air Traffic: AI, February 14, 9:00) autopilot: from 1000 m until hitting the terrain.

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Test environment: resolution 1920 × 1080 px; graphics settings preset Low; API DirectX 11; extra settings Anti-Aliasing: off; test scene: custom (Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Air Traffic: AI, February 14, 9:00) autopilot: from 1000 m until hitting the terrain.

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Test environment: resolution 2560 × 1440 px; graphics settings preset High; API DirectX 11; extra settings Anti-Aliasing: TAA; test scene: custom (Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Air Traffic: AI, February 14, 9:00) autopilot: from 1000 m until hitting the terrain.

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Test environment: resolution 3840 × 2160 px; graphics settings preset Ultra; API DirectX 11; extra settings Anti-Aliasing: TAA; test scene: custom (Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Air Traffic: AI, February 14, 9:00) autopilot: from 1000 m until hitting the terrain.

   

The choice of CPUs for low budget builds is getting weaker and less economical – the current prices of Pentiums are reminiscent of a bad joke. Core i3-1010x(F) are the only ones in sufficient numbers at the moment, and still for reasonable money. It’s just a shame that AMD has no competition here. But the comparison of Core i3 Comet Lake with Core i5-10400(F) is also attractive. You might find that it’s worth the savings.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider

Test environment: resolution 1280 × 720 px; graphics settings preset Lowest; API DirectX 12; extra settings Anti-Aliasing: off; test scene: built-in benchmark.

   

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Test environment: resolution 1920 × 1080 px; graphics settings preset High; API DirectX 12; extra settings Anti-Aliasing: off; test scene: built-in benchmark.

   

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Test environment: resolution 2560 × 1440 px; graphics settings preset High; API DirectX 12; extra settings Anti-Aliasing: TAA; test scene: built-in benchmark.

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Test environment: resolution 3840 × 2160 px; graphics settings preset Highest; API DirectX 12; extra settings Anti-Aliasing: TAA; test scene: built-in benchmark.

The choice of CPUs for low budget builds is getting weaker and less economical – the current prices of Pentiums are reminiscent of a bad joke. Core i3-1010x(F) are the only ones in sufficient numbers at the moment, and still for reasonable money. It’s just a shame that AMD has no competition here. But the comparison of Core i3 Comet Lake with Core i5-10400(F) is also attractive. You might find that it’s worth the savings.

Total War Saga: Troy

Test environment: resolution 1280 × 720 px; graphics settings preset Low; API DirectX 11; no extra settings; test scene: built-in benchmark.

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Test environment: resolution 1920 × 1080 px; graphics settings preset High; API DirectX 11; no extra settings; test scene: built-in benchmark.

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Test environment: resolution 2560 × 1440 px; graphics settings preset High; API DirectX 11; no extra settings; test scene: built-in benchmark.

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Test environment: resolution 3840 × 2160 px; graphics settings preset Ultra; API DirectX 11; no extra settings; test scene: built-in benchmark.

The choice of CPUs for low budget builds is getting weaker and less economical – the current prices of Pentiums are reminiscent of a bad joke. Core i3-1010x(F) are the only ones in sufficient numbers at the moment, and still for reasonable money. It’s just a shame that AMD has no competition here. But the comparison of Core i3 Comet Lake with Core i5-10400(F) is also attractive. You might find that it’s worth the savings.

Overall gaming performancep

To calculate average gaming performance, we normalized the Intel Core i7-11900K processor. The percentage differences of all other processors are based on this, with each of the games contributing an equal weight to the final result. To see exactly what the formula we use to arrive at each value looks like, see “New average CPU score measuring method”.

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The choice of CPUs for low budget builds is getting weaker and less economical – the current prices of Pentiums are reminiscent of a bad joke. Core i3-1010x(F) are the only ones in sufficient numbers at the moment, and still for reasonable money. It’s just a shame that AMD has no competition here. But the comparison of Core i3 Comet Lake with Core i5-10400(F) is also attractive. You might find that it’s worth the savings.

Gaming performance per euro

The choice of CPUs for low budget builds is getting weaker and less economical – the current prices of Pentiums are reminiscent of a bad joke. Core i3-1010x(F) are the only ones in sufficient numbers at the moment, and still for reasonable money. It’s just a shame that AMD has no competition here. But the comparison of Core i3 Comet Lake with Core i5-10400(F) is also attractive. You might find that it’s worth the savings.

PCMark

Geekbench

The choice of CPUs for low budget builds is getting weaker and less economical – the current prices of Pentiums are reminiscent of a bad joke. Core i3-1010x(F) are the only ones in sufficient numbers at the moment, and still for reasonable money. It’s just a shame that AMD has no competition here. But the comparison of Core i3 Comet Lake with Core i5-10400(F) is also attractive. You might find that it’s worth the savings.

Speedometer (2.0) and Octane (2.0)

Test environment: We’re using a portable version of Google Chrome (91.0.472.101) 64-bit so that real-time results are not affected by browser updates. GPU hardware acceleration is enabled as each user has in the default settings.

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Note: The values in the graphs represent the average of the points obtained in the subtasks, which are grouped according to their nature into seven categories (Core language features, Memory and GC, Strings and arrays, Virtual machine and GC, Loading and Parsing, Bit and Math operations and Compiler and GC latency).

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The choice of CPUs for low budget builds is getting weaker and less economical – the current prices of Pentiums are reminiscent of a bad joke. Core i3-1010x(F) are the only ones in sufficient numbers at the moment, and still for reasonable money. It’s just a shame that AMD has no competition here. But the comparison of Core i3 Comet Lake with Core i5-10400(F) is also attractive. You might find that it’s worth the savings.

Cinebench R20

Cinebench R23

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Blender@Cycles

Test environment: We use well-known projects BMW (510 tiles) a Classroom (2040 tiles) and renderer Cycles. Render settings are set to None, with which all the work falls on the CPU.

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LuxRender (SPECworkstation 3.1)

The choice of CPUs for low budget builds is getting weaker and less economical – the current prices of Pentiums are reminiscent of a bad joke. Core i3-1010x(F) are the only ones in sufficient numbers at the moment, and still for reasonable money. It’s just a shame that AMD has no competition here. But the comparison of Core i3 Comet Lake with Core i5-10400(F) is also attractive. You might find that it’s worth the savings.

Adobe Premiere Pro (PugetBench)

Test environment: set of PugetBench tests. App version of Adobe Premiere Pro is 15.2.

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The choice of CPUs for low budget builds is getting weaker and less economical – the current prices of Pentiums are reminiscent of a bad joke. Core i3-1010x(F) are the only ones in sufficient numbers at the moment, and still for reasonable money. It’s just a shame that AMD has no competition here. But the comparison of Core i3 Comet Lake with Core i5-10400(F) is also attractive. You might find that it’s worth the savings.

DaVinci Resolve Studio (PugetBench)

Test environment: set of PugetBench tests, test type: standard. App version of DaVinci Resolve Studio is 17.2.1 (build 12).

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The choice of CPUs for low budget builds is getting weaker and less economical – the current prices of Pentiums are reminiscent of a bad joke. Core i3-1010x(F) are the only ones in sufficient numbers at the moment, and still for reasonable money. It’s just a shame that AMD has no competition here. But the comparison of Core i3 Comet Lake with Core i5-10400(F) is also attractive. You might find that it’s worth the savings.

Graphic effects: Adobe After Effects

Test environment: set of PugetBench tests. App version of Adobe After Effects is 18.2.1.

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The choice of CPUs for low budget builds is getting weaker and less economical – the current prices of Pentiums are reminiscent of a bad joke. Core i3-1010x(F) are the only ones in sufficient numbers at the moment, and still for reasonable money. It’s just a shame that AMD has no competition here. But the comparison of Core i3 Comet Lake with Core i5-10400(F) is also attractive. You might find that it’s worth the savings.

HandBrake

   

Test environment: For video conversion we’re using a 4K video LG Demo Snowboard with a 43,9 Mb/s bitrate. AVC (x264) and HEVC (x265) profiles are set for high quality and encoder profiles are “slow”. HandBrake version is 1.3.3 (2020061300).

Benchmarky x264 a x265

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SVT-AV1

Test environment: We are encoding a short, publicly available sample park_joy_2160p50.y4m: uncompressed video 4096 × 2160 px, 8bit, 50 fps. Length is 500 frames with encoding quality set to 6 which makes the encoding still relatively slow. This test can make use of the AVX2 i AVX-512 instructions.

Version: SVT-AV1 Encoder Lib v0.8.7-61-g685afb2d via FFMpeg N-104429-g069f7831a2-20211026 (64bit)
Build from: https://github.com/BtbN/FFmpeg-Builds/releases
Command line: ffmpeg.exe -i “park_joy_2160p50.y4m” -c:v libsvtav1 -rc 0 -qp 55 -preset 6 -f null output.webm

The choice of CPUs for low budget builds is getting weaker and less economical – the current prices of Pentiums are reminiscent of a bad joke. Core i3-1010x(F) are the only ones in sufficient numbers at the moment, and still for reasonable money. It’s just a shame that AMD has no competition here. But the comparison of Core i3 Comet Lake with Core i5-10400(F) is also attractive. You might find that it’s worth the savings.

Audio encoding

Test environment: Audio encoding is done using command line encoders, we measure the time it takes for the conversion to finish. The same 42-minute long 16-bit WAV file (stereo) with 44.1 kHz is always used (Love Over Gold by Dire Straits album rip in a single audio file).

Encoder settings are selected to achieve maximum or near maximum compression. The bitrate is relatively high, with the exception of lossless FLAC of about 200 kb/s.

Note: These tests measure single-thread performance.

FLAC: reference encoder 1.3.2, 64-bit build. Launch options: flac.exe -s -8 -m -e -p -f

MP3: encoder lame3.100.1, 64-bit build (Intel 19 Compiler) from RareWares. Launch options: lame.exe -S -V 0 -q 0

AAC: uses Apple QuickTime libraries, invoked through the application from the command line, QAAC 2.72, 64-bit build, Intel 19 Compiler (does not require installation of the whole Apple package). Launch options: qaac64.exe -V 100 -s -q 2

Opus: reference encoder 1.3.1, Launch options: opusenc.exe –comp 10 –quiet –vbr –bitrate 192

The choice of CPUs for low budget builds is getting weaker and less economical – the current prices of Pentiums are reminiscent of a bad joke. Core i3-1010x(F) are the only ones in sufficient numbers at the moment, and still for reasonable money. It’s just a shame that AMD has no competition here. But the comparison of Core i3 Comet Lake with Core i5-10400(F) is also attractive. You might find that it’s worth the savings.

Broadcasting

Test environment: Applications OBS Studio and Xsplit. We’re using the built-in benchmark (scene Australia, Clear/Dry, Cycle)in F1 2020, in a resolution of 2560 × 1440 px and the same graphics settings, as with standard game performance tests. Thanks to this, we can measure the performance decrease if you record your gameplay with the x264 software encoder while playing. The output is 2560 × 1440 px at 60 fps.

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The choice of CPUs for low budget builds is getting weaker and less economical – the current prices of Pentiums are reminiscent of a bad joke. Core i3-1010x(F) are the only ones in sufficient numbers at the moment, and still for reasonable money. It’s just a shame that AMD has no competition here. But the comparison of Core i3 Comet Lake with Core i5-10400(F) is also attractive. You might find that it’s worth the savings.

Adobe Photoshop (PugetBench)

Test environment: set of PugetBench tests. App version of Adobe Photoshop is 22.4.2.

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Adobe Lightroom Classic

Test environment: With the settings above, we export 42 uncompressed .CR2 (RAW Canon) photos with a size of 20 Mpx. Then we create 1:1 previews from them, which also represent one of the most processor intensive tasks in Lightroom. The version of Adobe Lightroom Classic is 10.3

The choice of CPUs for low budget builds is getting weaker and less economical – the current prices of Pentiums are reminiscent of a bad joke. Core i3-1010x(F) are the only ones in sufficient numbers at the moment, and still for reasonable money. It’s just a shame that AMD has no competition here. But the comparison of Core i3 Comet Lake with Core i5-10400(F) is also attractive. You might find that it’s worth the savings.

Affinity Photo (benchmark)

Test environment: built-in benchmark.

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Topaz Labs AI apps

Topaz DeNoise AI, Gigapixel AI and Sharpen AI. These single-purpose applications are used for restoration of low-quality photos. Whether it is high noise (caused by higher ISO), raster level (typically after cropping) or when something needs extra focus. The AI performance is always used.

Test environment: As part of batch editing, 42 photos with a lower resolution of 1920 × 1280 px are processed, with the settings from the images above. DeNoise AI is in version 3.1.2, Gigapixel in 5.5.2 and Sharpen AI in 3.1.2.

XnViewMP

Test environment: XnViewMP is finally a photo-editor for which you don’t have to pay. At the same time, it uses hardware very efficiently. In order to achieve more reasonable comparison times, we had to create an archive of up to 1024 photos, where we reduce the original resolution of 5472 × 3648 px to 1980 × 1280 px and filters with automatic contrast enhancement and noise reduction are also being applied during this process. We use 64-bit portable version 0.98.4.

Zoner Photo Studio X

Test environment: In Zoner Photo Studio X we convert 42 .CR2 (RAW Canon) photos to JPEGwhile keeping the original resolution (5472 × 3648 px) at the lowest possible compression, with the ZPS X profile ”high quality for archival”..

The choice of CPUs for low budget builds is getting weaker and less economical – the current prices of Pentiums are reminiscent of a bad joke. Core i3-1010x(F) are the only ones in sufficient numbers at the moment, and still for reasonable money. It’s just a shame that AMD has no competition here. But the comparison of Core i3 Comet Lake with Core i5-10400(F) is also attractive. You might find that it’s worth the savings.

WinRAR 6.01

7-Zip 19.00

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The choice of CPUs for low budget builds is getting weaker and less economical – the current prices of Pentiums are reminiscent of a bad joke. Core i3-1010x(F) are the only ones in sufficient numbers at the moment, and still for reasonable money. It’s just a shame that AMD has no competition here. But the comparison of Core i3 Comet Lake with Core i5-10400(F) is also attractive. You might find that it’s worth the savings.

TrueCrypt 7.1a

Aida64 (AES, SHA3)

The choice of CPUs for low budget builds is getting weaker and less economical – the current prices of Pentiums are reminiscent of a bad joke. Core i3-1010x(F) are the only ones in sufficient numbers at the moment, and still for reasonable money. It’s just a shame that AMD has no competition here. But the comparison of Core i3 Comet Lake with Core i5-10400(F) is also attractive. You might find that it’s worth the savings.

Y-cruncher

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Stockfish 13

Test environment: Hostiteľ pre engine Stockfish 13 je šachová aplikácia Arena 2.0.1, zostavenie 2399.

Aida64, testy FPU

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FSI (SPECworkstation 3.1)

Kirchhoff migration (SPECworkstation 3.1)

Python36 (SPECworkstation 3.1)

SRMP (SPECworkstation 3.1)

Octave (SPECworkstation 3.1)

FFTW (SPECworkstation 3.1)

Convolution (SPECworkstation 3.1)

CalculiX (SPECworkstation 3.1)

The choice of CPUs for low budget builds is getting weaker and less economical – the current prices of Pentiums are reminiscent of a bad joke. Core i3-1010x(F) are the only ones in sufficient numbers at the moment, and still for reasonable money. It’s just a shame that AMD has no competition here. But the comparison of Core i3 Comet Lake with Core i5-10400(F) is also attractive. You might find that it’s worth the savings.

RodiniaLifeSci (SPECworkstation 3.1)

WPCcfd (SPECworkstation 3.1)

Poisson (SPECworkstation 3.1)

LAMMPS (SPECworkstation 3.1)

NAMD (SPECworkstation 3.1)

The choice of CPUs for low budget builds is getting weaker and less economical – the current prices of Pentiums are reminiscent of a bad joke. Core i3-1010x(F) are the only ones in sufficient numbers at the moment, and still for reasonable money. It’s just a shame that AMD has no competition here. But the comparison of Core i3 Comet Lake with Core i5-10400(F) is also attractive. You might find that it’s worth the savings.

Memory tests…

… and cache (L1, L2, L3)

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The choice of CPUs for low budget builds is getting weaker and less economical – the current prices of Pentiums are reminiscent of a bad joke. Core i3-1010x(F) are the only ones in sufficient numbers at the moment, and still for reasonable money. It’s just a shame that AMD has no competition here. But the comparison of Core i3 Comet Lake with Core i5-10400(F) is also attractive. You might find that it’s worth the savings.

Vývoj spotreby procesorov

The choice of CPUs for low budget builds is getting weaker and less economical – the current prices of Pentiums are reminiscent of a bad joke. Core i3-1010x(F) are the only ones in sufficient numbers at the moment, and still for reasonable money. It’s just a shame that AMD has no competition here. But the comparison of Core i3 Comet Lake with Core i5-10400(F) is also attractive. You might find that it’s worth the savings.

Average processor power draw

The choice of CPUs for low budget builds is getting weaker and less economical – the current prices of Pentiums are reminiscent of a bad joke. Core i3-1010x(F) are the only ones in sufficient numbers at the moment, and still for reasonable money. It’s just a shame that AMD has no competition here. But the comparison of Core i3 Comet Lake with Core i5-10400(F) is also attractive. You might find that it’s worth the savings.

Performance per watt

The choice of CPUs for low budget builds is getting weaker and less economical – the current prices of Pentiums are reminiscent of a bad joke. Core i3-1010x(F) are the only ones in sufficient numbers at the moment, and still for reasonable money. It’s just a shame that AMD has no competition here. But the comparison of Core i3 Comet Lake with Core i5-10400(F) is also attractive. You might find that it’s worth the savings.

Achieved CPU clock speed

The choice of CPUs for low budget builds is getting weaker and less economical – the current prices of Pentiums are reminiscent of a bad joke. Core i3-1010x(F) are the only ones in sufficient numbers at the moment, and still for reasonable money. It’s just a shame that AMD has no competition here. But the comparison of Core i3 Comet Lake with Core i5-10400(F) is also attractive. You might find that it’s worth the savings.

Zahrievanie CPU

The choice of CPUs for low budget builds is getting weaker and less economical – the current prices of Pentiums are reminiscent of a bad joke. Core i3-1010x(F) are the only ones in sufficient numbers at the moment, and still for reasonable money. It’s just a shame that AMD has no competition here. But the comparison of Core i3 Comet Lake with Core i5-10400(F) is also attractive. You might find that it’s worth the savings.

Conclusion

The Core i3-10105F is the cheapest processor we’ve tested so far. It’s also more than 40% cheaper compared to the Core i5-10400F (which is the second cheapest processor in our tests). Therefore, the last places are also successful for the Core i3-10105F, where it doesn’t fall dramatically behind the second-to-last processor. This doesn’t happen in PCMark, for example, which tests performance for real-world word processing, spreadsheet editing or video calling, light photo editing, or launching applications, including web browsers. These are all tasks that a computer to which the Core i3 aspires will encounter. The Core i3-10105F is usually only marginally behind the Core i5-10400F here, and even has a bit of an edge thanks to the higher frequencies, for example when working with Libre Office spreadsheets, or the Core i3 is a hair more nimble at loading and saving documents as well.

The Ci3-10105F is faster in some situations in a web environment as well. For hard multi-threaded workloads such as 3D rendering or video encoding, this processor is no longer suitable – it’s slow. Four cores are simply not enough. However, if the application only utilizes one, the Ci3-10105F beats not only the Ci5-10400F, but when encoding audio with the Qpus encoder, the tested Core i3 Comet Lake outperforms even the Ryzen 5 5600X.

The Ci3-10105F also has excellent performance per euro for games. The monitor in the Core i3 class of PCs is typically Full HD and 60Hz resolution, and we’ll be looking at this processor accordingly. The most common scenario is that the Ci3-10105F is completely at the bottom. In CS:GO, it loses to the Core i5-10400F by 16%, in Total War Saga: Troy it’s minus 13% to the Ryzen 5 3600, in Cyberpunk 2077 the loss to the same AMD processor is 12%, in DOOM Eternal it’s 4%, in Metro Exodus it’s only 1%, and gradually, the situation is turning in favor of the Core i3.

In Borderlands 3, the Ci3-10105F results are already even, also in F1 2020, where the Core i3 is already starting to go into the lead though. For example, in Shadow of the Tomb Raider the Ryzen 5 3600 processor is already 4% behind, in Microsoft Flight Simulator the lead is even more visible – 6%. In this game, thanks to achieving higher frequencies, the Ci3-10105F also outperforms the Ci5-10400F. But the Core i3 performs best in Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, which suits Intel’s processors and the Comet Lake generation specifically due to low L3 cache latencies.
In summary, taking all games into account, the Core i3-10105F falls behind Ryzen 5 3600 in Full HD by 5% , and behind the Core i5-10400F by 6%. At 4K resolution, the difference is only 1-3% to the disfavour of the Core i3. This comparison is admittedly purely theoretical, as few people are likely to use a cheap processor with an expensive monitor. But it turns out that we’re still in a class where CPU performance is practically irrelevant at high resolutions (and we’re using a powerful GeForce RTX 3080 graphics card in our test setup…).

It is also important to note that the power draw of this processor does not exceed 55 W. The performance per watt is always a hair better with the Core i5-10400F processor. However, the Core i3 is close behind, especially in gaming, and it also leaves the Ryzen 5 5600X and 3600 behind.

Thanks to its low power draw, the Core i3-10105F is undemanding on cooling, and in relative silence, this processor can handle even the box cooler. However, the TIM quality of the Core i3 will probably be weaker than that of the Core i5 (and we’re talking about models with paste under the IHS now). Despite the fact that the 10105F processor is 15W more power-efficient than the 10400F, the Core i3 heats up more. It’s only tenths of a degree higher, but considering the Core i5 has more than 20% higher power draw, it’s clear this processor should also reach higher temperatures. So it’s a similar situation (albeit with minor differences) as between the Ryzen 7 3700X and the Ryzen 5 3600, where the weaker model got hotter at lower power draw. This may also be due to the inaccuracy of the internal sensor. But they were definitely skimping on something. Either way, we’re rooting for Core i3 Comet Lake. It cannot be ruled out that these are the last processors that will have a really good price-performance ratio even after taking motherboard prices into account. So don’t miss out while they’re here. There’s no waiting around with upgrading the machinery of larger workplaces.

TL;DR: Core i3-10105F is a cheap processor with performance suitable for typical office work and you won’t make a mistake even if you build a gaming computer for your daughter or son with it – it won’t bottleneck graphics cards too much, from the lower classes (GeForce GTX 16×0 or Radeon RX 500) at all.

Games for testing are from Jama levova

Special thanks to Blackmagic Design (for a DaVinci Resolve Studio license), Topaz Labs (for licenses for DeNoise AI, Gigapixel AI and Sharpen AI) and Zoner (for Photo Studio X license)

English translation and edit by Jozef Dudáš

• Contents
• Intel Core i3-10105F in detail
• Methodology: performance tests
• Methodology: how we measure power draw
• Methodology: temperature and clock speed tests
• Test setup
• 3DMark
• Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla
• Borderlands 3
• Counter-Strike: GO
• Cyberpunk 2077
• DOOM Eternal
• F1 2020
• Metro Exodus
• Microsoft Flight Simulator
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider
• Total War Saga: Troy
• Overall gaming performance
• Gaming performance per euro
• PCMark and Geekbench
• Web performance
• 3D rendering: Cinebench, Blender, ...
• Video 1/2: Adobe Premiere Pro
• Video 1/2: DaVinci Resolve Studio
• Graphic effects: Adobe After Effects
• Video encoding
• Audio encoding
• Broadcasting (OBS a Xsplit)
• Photos 1/2: Adobe Photoshop a Lightroom
• Photos 2/2: Affinity Photo, Topaz Labs AI apps, ZPS X, …
• (De)compression
• (De)cryption
• Numerical computing
• Simulations
• Memory and cache tests
• Processor power draw curve
• Average processor power draw
• Performance per watt
• Achieved CPU clock speed
• CPU temperature
• Conclusion