Intel Core i3-7100H Review

The Core i3-7100H is one of Intel's entry-level Laptop processors. It was released in 2017 with 2 cores and 4 threads. With base clock at 3GHz, max speed at 3GHz, and a 35W power rating. The Core i3-7100H is based on the Kaby Lake M 14nm family and is part of the Core i3 series.

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

Bear in mind, however, that if you already have something like the Core i3-6100H, 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.

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 i3-7100H can be achieved with $90 memory, while the Ryzen 3 2200U 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 i3-7100H processors is that the retail boxed models come with a CPU cooler. So, you can pick something like the Intel Core i3-7100H up for $393 and don’t need to spend any extra money on CPU cooling.

The Intel Core i3-7100H 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 35W TDP. You do not need to have an aftermarket cooling solution unless you want to.

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