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Intel Core i3-10100T

Intel Core i3-10100T: Budget Processor for Everyday Tasks

April 2025

Key Specifications: Architecture, Process Technology, and Key Features

The Intel Core i3-10100T processor, released in 2020, belongs to the Comet Lake generation and is built on a 14nm process technology. Although by 2025, 14nm is considered outdated (compared to the 5-7nm technologies used by AMD and Intel Alder Lake), this chip remains relevant in the budget segment due to its low power consumption and stable performance.

Specifications:

- Cores/Threads: 4/8 (Hyper-Threading).

- Base/Max Frequency: 3.0 GHz / 3.8 GHz.

- TDP: 35 W.

- Integrated Graphics: Intel UHD Graphics 630 (base frequency 350 MHz, max — 1.1 GHz).

- Cache: 6 MB SmartCache.

- Performance Tests: Geekbench 6 — 1274 (Single-Core), 3841 (Multi-Core).

Key Features:

- Supports DDR4-2666 and PCIe 3.0.

- Low thermal output — suitable for compact PCs.

- Built-in graphics for basic tasks.

Compatible Motherboards: Sockets and Chipsets

The processor uses the LGA 1200 socket, which limits the choice of motherboards to 400-series chipsets:

- H410 / B460 / H470 / Z490.

Recommendations:

- For Office PCs: H410 ($60-80) — minimal ports but reliable performance.

- For Home Use: B460 ($80-120) — supports USB 3.2 Gen 2 and more M.2 slots.

- Z490 ($130-200) — excessive for the i3-10100T but relevant if planning an upgrade to i7-10700K.

Important: Before purchasing, check for processor support via BIOS update. For example, 2020 motherboards may require a firmware update for proper operation.

Supported Memory Types

The i3-10100T officially works only with DDR4-2666. The maximum capacity is 128 GB, but in practice, most LGA 1200 motherboards support up to 64 GB.

Tips:

- For office tasks, 8 GB is sufficient, but 16 GB of DDR4-2666 ($35-50) will provide a comfortable experience with browsers and applications.

- Don't overpay for high-frequency memory — the processor limits the frequency to 2666 MHz.

Power Supply Recommendations

With a TDP of 35 W, the i3-10100T is one of the most energy-efficient processors. However, the power supply (PSU) should be selected considering other components:

- System without a discrete graphics card: A 300 W PSU is sufficient (e.g., EVGA 300 GD, $35).

- With a graphics card like NVIDIA GTX 1650: A 450 W PSU (Corsair CX450, $55).

- Certification: 80 Plus Bronze or higher.

Example Build:

- i3-10100T + 16 GB DDR4 + 512 GB SSD + 1 TB HDD + integrated graphics = 300 W PSU.

Pros and Cons of the Intel Core i3-10100T

Pros:

- Low power consumption — ideal for low-power systems.

- Integrated UHD 630 graphics handle 4K video and light gaming.

- Affordable price ($80-100 for a new processor in 2025).

Cons:

- Outdated 14nm process technology.

- No support for PCIe 4.0 and DDR5.

- Weak multi-threaded performance for rendering or streaming.

Usage Scenarios

1. Office Tasks and Web Surfing:

- Document work, video conferencing, 10+ browser tabs — the processor does not cause slowdowns.

2. Multimedia:

- Streaming 4K video (Netflix, YouTube), editing simple videos in Shotcut or DaVinci Resolve (with limitations).

3. Gaming:

- Light titles: Minecraft, Dota 2, CS:GO — up to 60 FPS on low settings.

- Modern AAA titles (e.g., Cyberpunk 2077) — only with a discrete graphics card and on minimal settings.

4. Home Server/NAS:

- Low power consumption makes it cost-effective for 24/7 operation.

Comparison with Competitors

AMD Ryzen 3 4300G (4 cores/8 threads, 7nm, Vega 6):

- Better graphics and support for PCIe 4.0.

- Price: $120-140.

- Conclusion: Ryzen 3 4300G is preferable if future-proofing is a priority.

Intel Pentium Gold G6400 (2 cores/4 threads, 14nm):

- Cheaper ($50-60), but weaker in multitasking.

Final verdict: The i3-10100T outperforms the Pentium but falls short against the Ryzen in performance per watt.

Practical Build Tips

1. Case Selection: A compact Mini-ITX case (e.g., Cooler Master Elite 110) is suitable for a media center.

2. Cooling: The stock cooler is sufficient — noise levels are low even under load.

3. Storage: Always use an SSD (e.g., Kingston A400 480 GB, $30) for quick OS boot times.

4. Upgrade: If planning to install a graphics card, choose a PSU with extra capacity.

Example Budget Build ($300-400):

- Processor: i3-10100T ($90).

- Motherboard: ASRock H410M-HDV ($70).

- Memory: 16 GB DDR4-2666 ($40).

- Storage: 512 GB SSD ($35).

- PSU: EVGA 450 BR ($55).

Final Conclusion: Who is the i3-10100T Suitable For?

This processor is a choice for those who:

- Are building a budget PC for office work, study, or home use.

- Seek an energy-efficient solution for a media center or mini-PC.

- Plan to upgrade an older system to LGA 1200.

Why is it still relevant in 2025? Its low price, availability of components, and sufficient performance for basic tasks make it a sensible compromise in a limited budget scenario. However, for gaming or professional tasks, it is better to consider more modern models.

Basic

Label Name

Intel

Platform

Desktop

Launch Date

April 2020

Model Name

The Intel processor number is just one of several factors - along with processor brand, system configurations, and system-level benchmarks - to be considered when choosing the right processor for your computing needs.

i3-10100T

Code Name

Comet Lake

CPU Specifications

Total Cores

Cores is a hardware term that describes the number of independent central processing units in a single computing component (die or chip).

Total Threads

Where applicable, Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology is only available on Performance-cores.

Basic Frequency

3.00 GHz

Max Turbo Frequency

Max Turbo Frequency is the maximum single-core frequency at which the processor is capable of operating using Intel® Turbo Boost Technology and, if present, Intel® Turbo Boost Max Technology 3.0 and Intel® Thermal Velocity Boost. Frequency is typically measured in gigahertz (GHz), or billion cycles per second.

3.80 GHz

Intel Turbo Boost Technology 2.0 Frequency

3.80 GHz

Intel Turbo Boost Technology

Intel® Turbo Boost Technology dynamically increases the processor's frequency as needed by taking advantage of thermal and power headroom to give you a burst of speed when you need it, and increased energy efficiency when you don’t.

2.0

Intel Hyper-Threading Technology

Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology (Intel® HT Technology) delivers two processing threads per physical core. Highly threaded applications can get more work done in parallel, completing tasks sooner.

Yes

Intel Turbo Boost Max Technology 3.0

Intel® Turbo Boost Max Technology 3.0 identifies the best performing core(s) on a processor and provides increased performance on those cores through increasing frequency as needed by taking advantage of power and thermal headroom.

CPU Socket

The socket is the component that provides the mechanical and electrical connections between the processor and motherboard.

FCLGA1200

Technology

Lithography refers to the semiconductor technology used to manufacture an integrated circuit, and is reported in nanometer (nm), indicative of the size of features built on the semiconductor.

14 nm

TDP

35 W

Max. Operating Temperature

Junction Temperature is the maximum temperature allowed at the processor die.

100°C

PCI Express Version

PCI Express Revision is the supported version of the PCI Express standard. Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (or PCIe) is a high-speed serial computer expansion bus standard for attaching hardware devices to a computer. The different PCI Express versions support different data rates.

3.0

Number of PCI Express Lanes

A PCI Express (PCIe) lane consists of two differential signaling pairs, one for receiving data, one for transmitting data, and is the basic unit of the PCIe bus. Max # of PCI Express Lanes is the total number of supported lanes.

Intel 64

Intel® 64 architecture delivers 64-bit computing on server, workstation, desktop and mobile platforms when combined with supporting software.¹ Intel 64 architecture improves performance by allowing systems to address more than 4 GB of both virtual and physical memory.

Yes

Instruction Set

The instruction set is a hard program stored inside the CPU that guides and optimizes CPU operations. With these instruction sets, the CPU can run more efficiently. There are many manufacturers that design CPUs, which results in different instruction sets, such as the 8086 instruction set for the Intel camp and the RISC instruction set for the ARM camp. x86, ARM v8, and MIPS are all codes for instruction sets. Instruction sets can be extended; for example, x86 added 64-bit support to create x86-64. Manufacturers developing CPUs that are compatible with a certain instruction set need authorization from the instruction set patent holder. A typical example is Intel authorizing AMD, enabling the latter to develop CPUs compatible with the x86 instruction set.

64-bit

PCI Express Configurations

PCI Express (PCIe) Configurations describe the available PCIe lane configurations that can be used to link to PCIe devices.

Up to 1x16 | 2x8 | 1x8+2x4

Memory Specifications

Memory Type

Intel® processors come in four different types: Single Channel, Dual Channel, Triple Channel, and Flex Mode. Maximum supported memory speed may be lower when populating multiple DIMMs per channel on products that support multiple memory channels.

DDR4-2666

Max Memory Size

Max memory size refers to the maximum memory capacity supported by the processor.

128 GB

Memory Channels

The number of memory channels refers to the bandwidth operation for real world application.

Bus Speed

8 GT/s

Max Memory Bandwidth

Max Memory bandwidth is the maximum rate at which data can be read from or stored into a semiconductor memory by the processor (in GB/s).

41.6 GB/s

ECC Memory Supported

ECC Memory Supported indicates processor support for Error-Correcting Code memory. ECC memory is a type of system memory that can detect and correct common kinds of internal data corruption. Note that ECC memory support requires both processor and chipset support.

GPU Specifications

Integrated Graphics Model

An integrated GPU refers to the graphics core that is integrated into the CPU processor. Leveraging the processor's powerful computational capabilities and intelligent power efficiency management, it delivers outstanding graphics performance and a smooth application experience at a lower power consumption.

Intel® UHD Graphics 630

Graphics Base Frequency

Graphics Base frequency refers to the rated/guaranteed graphics render clock frequency in MHz.

350 MHz

Graphics Frequency

Graphics max dynamic frequency refers to the maximum opportunistic graphics render clock frequency (in MHz) that can be supported using Intel® HD Graphics with Dynamic Frequency feature.

1.10 GHz

Graphics Video Max Memory

64 GB

4K Support

Yes | at 60Hz

DirectX Support

DirectX* Support indicates support for a specific version of Microsoft’s collection of APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) for handling multimedia compute tasks.

Max Resolution (HDMI)

Max Resolution (HDMI) is the maximum resolution supported by the processor via the HDMI interface (24bits per pixel & 60Hz). System or device display resolution is dependent on multiple system design factors; actual resolution may be lower on your system.

4096 x 2160@30Hz

Max Resolution (DP)

Max Resolution (DP) is the maximum resolution supported by the processor via the DP interface (24bits per pixel & 60Hz). System or device display resolution is dependent on multiple system design factors; actual resolution may be lower on your system.

4096 x 2304@60Hz

Max Resolution (eDP - Integrated Flat Panel)

Max Resolution (Integrated Flat Panel) is the maximum resolution supported by the processor for a device with an integrated flat panel (24bits per pixel & 60Hz). System or device display resolution is dependent on multiple system design factors; actual resolution may be lower on your device.

4096 x 2304@60Hz

Number of Displays Supported

Miscellaneous

Intel Virtualization Technology (VT-x)

Intel® Virtualization Technology (VT-x) allows one hardware platform to function as multiple “virtual” platforms. It offers improved manageability by limiting downtime and maintaining productivity by isolating computing activities into separate partitions.

Yes

Intel Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (VT-d)

Intel® Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (VT-d) continues from the existing support for IA-32 (VT-x) and Itanium® processor (VT-i) virtualization adding new support for I/O-device virtualization. Intel VT-d can help end users improve security and reliability of the systems and also improve performance of I/O devices in virtualized environments.

Yes

Intel Standard Manageability (ISM)

Intel® Standard Manageability is the manageability solution for Intel vPro® Essentials platforms and is a subset of Intel® AMT with out-of-band management over Ethernet and Wi-Fi, but no KVM or new life cycle management features.

Intel® SSE4.1 | Intel® SSE4.2 | Intel® AVX2

Enhanced Intel SpeedStep Technology

Enhanced Intel SpeedStep® Technology is an advanced means of enabling high performance while meeting the power-conservation needs of mobile systems. Conventional Intel SpeedStep® Technology switches both voltage and frequency in tandem between high and low levels in response to processor load. Enhanced Intel SpeedStep® Technology builds upon that architecture using design strategies such as Separation between Voltage and Frequency Changes, and Clock Partitioning and Recovery.

Yes

Execute Disable Bit

Execute Disable Bit is a hardware-based security feature that can reduce exposure to viruses and malicious-code attacks and prevent harmful software from executing and propagating on the server or network.

Yes

Cache

CPU Cache is an area of fast memory located on the processor. Intel® Smart Cache refers to the architecture that allows all cores to dynamically share access to the last level cache.

6 MB Intel® Smart Cache

Intel AES New Instructions

Intel® AES New Instructions (Intel® AES-NI) are a set of instructions that enable fast and secure data encryption and decryption. AES-NI are valuable for a wide range of cryptographic applications, for example: applications that perform bulk encryption/decryption, authentication, random number generation, and authenticated encryption.

Yes

Intel Boot Guard

Intel® Device Protection Technology with Boot Guard helps protect the system’s pre-OS environment from viruses and malicious software attacks.

Yes

Intel Clear Video HD Technology

Intel® Clear Video HD Technology, like its predecessor, Intel® Clear Video Technology, is a suite of image decode and processing technologies built into the integrated processor graphics that improve video playback, delivering cleaner, sharper images, more natural, accurate, and vivid colors, and a clear and stable video picture. Intel® Clear Video HD Technology adds video quality enhancements for richer color and more realistic skin tones.

Yes

Intel Clear Video Technology

Yes

Intel VT-x with Extended Page Tables (EPT)

Intel® VT-x with Extended Page Tables (EPT), also known as Second Level Address Translation (SLAT), provides acceleration for memory intensive virtualized applications. Extended Page Tables in Intel® Virtualization Technology platforms reduces the memory and power overhead costs and increases battery life through hardware optimization of page table management.

Yes

Intel InTru 3D Technology

Yes

Intel OS Guard

Yes

OpenGL Support

OpenGL (Open Graphics Library) is a cross-language, multi-platform API (Application Programming Interface) for rendering 2D and 3D vector graphics.

4.5

Intel Quick Sync Video

Intel® Quick Sync Video delivers fast conversion of video for portable media players, online sharing, and video editing and authoring.

Yes

Benchmarks

Geekbench 6

Single Core Score

1274

Geekbench 6

Multi Core Score

3841

Geekbench 5

Single Core Score

947

Geekbench 5

Multi Core Score

3452

Passmark CPU

Single Core Score

2279

Passmark CPU

Multi Core Score

7307

Compared to Other CPU

Geekbench 6 Single Core

Core i7-9800X X-series

1359 +6.7%

Core i5-10200H

1316 +3.3%

Core i3-10100T

1274

Core i5-8279U

1232 -3.3%

Core i5-8305G

1193 -6.4%

Geekbench 6 Multi Core

Xeon W-2123

4261 +10.9%

Core i5-8259U

4044 +5.3%

Core i3-10100T

3841

Xeon D-1537

3588 -6.6%

Core i3-N300

3364 -12.4%

Geekbench 5 Single Core

Xeon Gold 6338N

994 +5%

Core i5-9300H

968 +2.2%

Core i3-10100T

947

Ryzen 7 3780U

930 -1.8%

Xeon E5-1630 v3

917 -3.2%

Geekbench 5 Multi Core

Xeon E5-2603 v3

3740 +8.3%

Xeon W3680

3594 +4.1%

Core i3-10100T

3452

Xeon E-2254ML

3336 -3.4%

Core i3-8100B

3214 -6.9%

Passmark CPU Single Core

Core i3-8100B

2341 +2.7%

Xeon E3-1280 v5

2309 +1.3%

Core i3-10100T

2279

Xeon E3-1245 v5

2249 -1.3%

Xeon Gold 5218

2221 -2.5%

Passmark CPU Multi Core

Xeon E3-1545M v5

7804 +6.8%

Xeon E3-1535M v5

7503 +2.7%

Core i3-10100T

7307

Core i7-6820HK

7038 -3.7%

Xeon X5680

6838 -6.4%