Intel Core i3-2120: specs and benchmarks
Aggregated performance score
Summary
Intel started Core i3-2120 sales 20 February 2011 at a recommended price of $95. This is a Sandy Bridge architecture desktop processor primarily aimed at office systems. It has 2 cores and 4 threads, and is based on 32 nm manufacturing technology, with a maximum frequency of 3.3 and a locked multiplier.
Compatibility-wise, this is FCLGA1155 processor with a TDP of 65 Watt. It supports DDR3 memory.
It provides poor benchmark performance at 1.27% of a leader's which is AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 7995WX.
General info
Core i3-2120 processor market type (desktop or notebook), architecture, sales start time and pricing.
| Place in performance ranking | 2165 | |
| Place by popularity | 85 | |
| Value for money | 0.14 | |
| Market segment | Desktop processor | |
| Architecture codename | Sandy Bridge (2011−2013) | |
| Release date | 20 February 2011 (13 years old) | |
| Launch price (MSRP) | $95 | of 305 (Core i7-870) |
| Current price | $47 (0.5x MSRP) | of 17802 (Threadripper PRO 7995WX) |
Value for money
Performance per price, higher is better.
Technical specs
Basic microprocessor parameters such as number of cores, number of threads, base frequency and turbo boost clock, lithography, cache size and multiplier lock state. These parameters can generally indicate CPU performance, but to be more precise you have to review its test results.
| Physical cores | 2 (Dual-core) | |
| Threads | 4 | |
| Base clock speed | 3.3 GHz | of 4.7 (FX-9590) |
| Boost clock speed | 3.3 GHz | of 6.2 (Core i9-14900KS) |
| L1 cache | 64 KB (per core) | of 7475.2 (Apple M2 Pro 10-Core) |
| L2 cache | 256 KB (per core) | of 98304 (Ryzen Threadripper PRO 7995WX) |
| L3 cache | 3 MB (shared) | of 768 (EPYC 7373X) |
| Chip lithography | 32 nm | of 3 (Apple M3 Max 16-Core) |
| Die size | 131 mm2 | |
| Maximum core temperature | 69 °C | of 110 (Atom x7-E3950) |
| Number of transistors | 504 million | of 9900000 (Ryzen 5 7645HX) |
| 64 bit support | + | |
| Windows 11 compatibility | - | |
| Unlocked multiplier | No |
Compatibility
Information on Core i3-2120 compatibility with other computer components and devices: motherboard (look for socket type), power supply unit (look for power consumption) etc. Useful when planning a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. Note that power consumption of some processors can well exceed their nominal TDP, even without overclocking. Some can even double their declared thermals given that the motherboard allows to tune the CPU power parameters.
| Number of CPUs in a configuration | 1 | of 8 (Opteron 842) |
| Socket | FCLGA1155 | |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 65 Watt | of 400 (Xeon Platinum 9282) |
Technologies and extensions
Technological capabilities and additional instructions supported by Core i3-2120. You'll probably need this information if you require some particular technology.
| Instruction set extensions | Intel® SSE4.1, Intel® SSE4.2, Intel® AVX | |
| AES-NI | - | |
| Enhanced SpeedStep (EIST) | + | |
| Turbo Boost Technology | - | |
| Hyper-Threading Technology | + | |
| Idle States | + | |
| Thermal Monitoring | + | |
| Flex Memory Access | + | |
| FDI | + | |
| Fast Memory Access | + | |
| Status | Discontinued |
Security technologies
Processor technologies aimed at improving security, for example, by protecting against hacks.
| TXT | + | |
| EDB | + | |
| Identity Protection | + |
Virtualization technologies
Supported virtual machine optimization technologies. Some are specific to Intel only, some to AMD.
| VT-d | - | |
| VT-x | + | |
| EPT | + |
Memory specs
Types, maximum amount and channel number of RAM supported by Core i3-2120's memory controller. Depending on the motherboard, higher memory frequency may be supported.
| Supported memory types | DDR3 | |
| Maximum memory size | 32 GB | of 786 (Xeon E5-2670 v3) |
| Max memory channels | 2 | of 12 (Xeon Platinum 9221) |
| Maximum memory bandwidth | 21 GB/s | of 460.8 (EPYC 9124) |
Graphics specifications
General parameters of a GPU integrated into Core i3-2120.
| Integrated graphics card | Intel HD Graphics 2000 | |
| Quick Sync Video | + | |
| Clear Video HD | + | |
| Graphics max frequency | 1.1 GHz | |
| InTru 3D | + |
Graphics interfaces
Available interfaces and connections of Core i3-2120's integrated GPU.
| Number of displays supported | 2 |
Peripherals
Specifications and connection types of supported peripherals.
| PCIe version | 2.0 | of 5 (Core i9-12900K) |
| PCI Express lanes | 16 | of 128 (EPYC 7551P) |
Benchmark performance
Single-core and multi-core benchmark results of Core i3-2120. Overall benchmark performance is measured in points in 0-100 range, higher is better.
Combined synthetic benchmark score
This is our combined benchmark performance rating. We are regularly improving our combining algorithms, but if you find some perceived inconsistencies, feel free to speak up in comments section, we usually fix problems quickly.
Passmark
Passmark CPU Mark is a widespread benchmark, consisting of 8 different types of workload, including integer and floating point math, extended instructions, compression, encryption and physics calculation. There is also one separate single-threaded scenario measuring single-core performance.
Benchmark coverage: 68%
GeekBench 5 Single-Core
GeekBench 5 Single-Core is a cross-platform application developed in the form of CPU tests that independently recreate certain real-world tasks with which to accurately measure performance. This version uses only a single CPU core.
Benchmark coverage: 42%
GeekBench 5 Multi-Core
GeekBench 5 Multi-Core is a cross-platform application developed in the form of CPU tests that independently recreate certain real-world tasks with which to accurately measure performance. This version uses all available CPU cores.
Benchmark coverage: 42%
3DMark Fire Strike Physics
Benchmark coverage: 4%
Send your test results of Core i3-2120.
Relative perfomance
Overall Core i3-2120 performance compared to nearest competitors among desktop CPUs.
AMD equivalent
According to our data, the closest AMD alternative to Core i3-2120 is Phenom X4 9850B, which is nearly equal in speed and lower by 3 positions in our ranking.
Here are some closest AMD rivals to Core i3-2120:
Similar processors
Here is our recommendation of several processors that are more or less close in performance to the one reviewed.
Recommended GPUs
People consider these graphics cards to be good for Core i3-2120, according to our PC configuration statistics.
These are the fastest graphics cards for Core i3-2120 in our user configuration statistics. There is a total of 25980 configurations based on Core i3-2120 in our database.
