Intel Core i3-7100 Review

The Core i3-7100 is one of Intel's entry-level Desktop processors. It was released in 2017 with 2 cores and 4 threads. With base clock at 3.9GHz, max speed at 3.9GHz, and a 51W power rating. The Core i3-7100 is based on the Kaby Lake-S 14nm family and is part of the Core i3 series.

Core i3-7100 is also the successor of Intel's last gen Core i3-6100 processor that was based on the Skylake-S and 14nm process and was released in 2015.

The Intel Core i3-7100 was rolled out on Jan 2017 for $117, which puts it in the same general price range as the last-generation Core i3-6100. This means that at least we're not seeing any considerable price jumps from generation to generation.

Bear in mind, however, that if you already have something like the Core i3-6100, this generation doesn't offer the biggest boost in performance. You might want to wait another year or so before dropping a few hundred bucks, or even opt to splurge on a higher-end but pricier chip.

Intel has been having some trouble as of late which has made it even harder to compete with the incoming wave of Ryzen 3 processors. That has forced the chip maker to be a little more creative and make do with their current product lines. Today we have the Intel Core i3-7100 on hand, which in itself isn’t anything new. It’s basically a refreshed Core i3-6100 with a clock speed boost. We say basically because it’s not a straight refresh however, there’s another change.

If you're mostly playing games on your PC, you will be happy buying either processor. Both proved to be solid options and are evenly matched with a slight advantage to the AMD chip if you don't tune up the Ryzen 3 processor. The base performance we showed for the Core i3-7100 can be achieved with $90 memory, while the Ryzen 3 1200 will require $110 - $120 memory in order to enable the frame rates shown here. It’s not a big cost difference and right now with anything less than an RTX 2070 or Vega 64 you’ll more than likely become GPU limited.

One of the nice things about the Intel Core i3-7100 processors is that the retail boxed models come with a CPU cooler. So, you can pick something like the Intel Core i3-7100 up for $117 and don’t need to spend any extra money on CPU cooling.

The Intel Core i3-7100 retail boxed processor comes with the traditional ‘pancake’ CPU cooler. Nothing fancy, but it gets the job done on this processor which is rated at 51W TDP. You do not need to have an aftermarket cooling solution unless you want to.

The gaming tests with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti installed in the test system showed the Intel Core i3-7100 was more capable than many might have expected. The basic entry-level processor from Intel that can be picked up for $117 was able to out perform the Ryzen 3 1300X that runs $129 shipped in the three games we tested on. We know that you can’t test on just three games and declare something the overall victor, but it just goes to show that 2-core processors can still manage to get by today. Being able to play current game titles and stream to Twitch on the Core i3-7100 was something we give playable results, but we were pleasantly surprised. As games become more threaded the ‘value’ in a 2-core processor continues to go down, but you can still get by with something like the Core i3-7100 in a pinch.

Bottom Line, the Intel Core i3-7100 does not get much media attention since it is entry-level 7 Gen Core Kaby Lake-S processor, but it is a very capable processor that still delivers a good computing experience for entry-level users.

That said, to squeeze out all the potential of this surprisingly potent entry-level chip, you’ll want (and need) to splurge on an enthusiast-grade Z270, Z370, Z390 motherboard.

Fresh from a successful roll-out of mainstream Core i3 CPUs, Intel's attack on AMD now extends down into the entry-level with its Core i3-7100 processors, which the company is making available as of Jan 2017.