Intel Core i3-2120 Benchmark, Test and specs

Last updated: 2023-04-19

The Intel Core i3-2120 has 2 cores with 4 threads and is based on the 2. gen of the Intel Core i3 series. The processor uses a mainboard with the LGA 1155 socket and was released in Q1/2011. The Intel Core i3-2120 scores 668 points in the Geekbench 5 single-core benchmark. In the Geekbench 5 multi-core benchmark, the result is 1,478 points.

CPU lineage
The segment in which we have classified the Intel Core i3-2120. Here you can see if it is a desktop processor or a mobile processor or which processor may be the successor of the Intel Core i3-2120.
Name:	Intel Core i3-2120
Family:	Intel Core i3
CPU group:	Intel Core i 2000
Architecture:	Sandy Bridge S
Segment:	Desktop / Server
Generation:	2
Predecessor:	--
Successor:	--

CPU Cores and Base Frequency

The Intel Core i3-2120 has 2 CPU cores and can calculate 4 threads in parallel. The clock frequency of the Intel Core i3-2120 is 3.30 GHz. The number of CPU cores greatly affects the speed of the processor and is an important performance indicator.

CPU Cores / Threads:	2 / 4
Core architecture:	normal
Cores:	2x

Hyperthreading / SMT:	Yes
Overclocking:	No
Frequency:	3.30 GHz
Turbo Frequency (1 Core):	--
Turbo Frequency (2 Cores):	--

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Processors with the support of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) can process many calculations, especially audio, image and video processing, much faster than classic processors. Algorithms for ML improve their performance the more data they have collected via software. ML tasks can be processed up to 10,000 times faster than with a classic processor.

AI hardware:	--
AI specifications:	--

Internal Graphics

The Intel Core i3-2120 has integrated graphics, called iGPU for short. Specifically, the Intel Core i3-2120 uses the Intel HD Graphics 2000, which has 48 texture shaders and 6 execution units. The iGPU uses the system's main memory as graphics memory and sits on the processor's die.

GPU name:	Intel HD Graphics 2000
GPU frequency:	0.85 GHz
GPU (Turbo):	1.10 GHz
Compute units:	6
Shader:	48
Max. GPU Memory:	2 GB

Max. displays:	2
Generation:	6
Direct X:	10.1
Technology:	32 nm
Release date:	Q1/2011

Hardware codec support

A photo or video codec that is accelerated in hardware can greatly accelerate the working speed of a processor and extend the battery life of notebooks or smartphones when playing videos.

h265 / HEVC (8 bit):	No
h265 / HEVC (10 bit):	No
h264:	Decode / Encode
VP8:	No
VP9:	No

AV1:	No
AVC:	Decode / Encode
VC-1:	Decode
JPEG:	No

Memory type:	Memory bandwidth:
Memory & PCIe The processor can use up to 32 GB memory in 2 (Dual Channel) memory channels. The maximum memory bandwidth is 21.3 GB/s. The memory type as well as the amount of memory can greatly affect the speed of the system.

DDR3-1333	21.3 GB/s
Max. Memory:	32 GB
Memory channels:	2 (Dual Channel)
ECC:	No
PCIe:	2.0 x 16
PCIe Bandwidth:	8.0 GB/s

Thermal Management The thermal design power (TDP for short) of the processor is 65 W. The TDP specifies the necessary cooling solution that is required to cool the processor sufficiently. The TDP usually gives a rough idea of the actual power consumption of the CPU.

TDP (PL1 / PBP):	65 W
TDP (PL2):	--
TDP up:	--
TDP down:	--
Tjunction max.:	--

Technical details

The Intel Core i3-2120 is made in 32 nm. The smaller the manufacturing process of a CPU, the more modern and energy-efficient it is. Overall, the processor has 3.00 MB cache. A large cache can greatly speed up the processor's speed in some cases such as games.

Technology:	32 nm
Chip design:	Monolithic
Socket:	LGA 1155
L2-Cache:	--
L3-Cache:	3.00 MB
AES-NI:	Yes
Operating systems:	Windows 10, Linux

Virtualization:	VT-x, VT-x EPT
Instruction set (ISA):	x86-64 (64 bit)
ISA extensions:	SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AVX
Release date:	Q1/2011
Release price:	120 $
Part Number:	--
Documents:	Technical data sheet

Intel Core i3-2120
2C 4T @ 3.30 GHz

buy now on Amazon and save!

Benchmark results

The benchmark results for the Intel Core i3-2120 have been carefully checked by us. We only publish benchmark results that have been created by us or that have been submitted by a visitor and then checked by a team member. All results are based on and fullfill our benchmark guidelines.

Geekbench 5, 64bit (Single-Core)

Geekbench 5 is a cross plattform benchmark that heavily uses the systems memory. A fast memory will push the result a lot. The single-core test only uses one CPU core, the amount of cores or hyperthreading ability doesn't count.


	Intel Celeron N5095 4C 4T @ 2.90 GHz	669
	Intel Core M-5Y51 2C 4T @ 2.60 GHz	669
	Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 5G 8C 8T @ 2.20 GHz	669
	Intel Core i3-2120 2C 4T @ 3.30 GHz	668
	Intel Xeon X3440 4C 8T @ 2.93 GHz	668
	Intel Core i7-2720QM 4C 8T @ 3.30 GHz	668
	Intel Core i3-2125 2C 4T @ 3.30 GHz	668

Geekbench 5, 64bit (Multi-Core)

Geekbench 5 is a cross plattform benchmark that heavily uses the systems memory. A fast memory will push the result a lot. The multi-core test involves all CPU cores and taks a big advantage of hyperthreading.


	AMD A10-5800K 4C 4T @ 4.20 GHz	1483
	AMD FX-4320 4C 4T @ 4.20 GHz	1481
	Intel Core i5-4258U 2C 4T @ 2.90 GHz	1479
	Intel Core i3-2120 2C 4T @ 3.30 GHz	1478
	Intel Core i5-4278U 2C 4T @ 2.60 GHz	1478
	Intel Celeron N4120 4C 4T @ 2.50 GHz	1478
	Intel Core i3-7130U 2C 4T @ 2.70 GHz	1477

Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)

Geekbench 6 is a benchmark for modern computers, notebooks and smartphones. What is new is an optimized utilization of newer CPU architectures, e.g. based on the big.LITTLE concept and combining CPU cores of different sizes. The single-core benchmark only evaluates the performance of the fastest CPU core, the number of CPU cores in a processor is irrelevant here.


	Intel Core i5-3210M 2C 4T @ 3.10 GHz	540
	Intel Atom x6425E 4C 4T @ 3.00 GHz	539
	Intel Core i7-3537U 2C 4T @ 3.10 GHz	539
	Intel Core i3-2120 2C 4T @ 3.30 GHz	534
	Intel Core i3-2125 2C 4T @ 3.30 GHz	534
	AMD FX-6300 6C 6T @ 4.10 GHz	534
	Intel Core i5-2450M 2C 4T @ 3.10 GHz	533

Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)

Geekbench 6 is a benchmark for modern computers, notebooks and smartphones. What is new is an optimized utilization of newer CPU architectures, e.g. based on the big.LITTLE concept and combining CPU cores of different sizes. The multi-core benchmark evaluates the performance of all of the processor's CPU cores. Virtual thread improvements such as AMD SMT or Intel's Hyper-Threading have a positive impact on the benchmark result.


	HiSilicon Kirin 710A 8C 8T @ 2.00 GHz	1147
	Intel Core i5-3610ME 2C 4T @ 2.70 GHz	1144
	MediaTek Helio X30 10C 10T @ 2.60 GHz	1143
	Intel Core i3-2120 2C 4T @ 3.30 GHz	1140
	Intel Core i3-3250T 2C 4T @ 3.00 GHz	1140
	Intel Core i3-560 2C 4T @ 3.33 GHz	1136
	Intel Celeron G3930 2C 2T @ 2.90 GHz	1136

iGPU - FP32 Performance (Single-precision GFLOPS)

The theoretical computing performance of the internal graphics unit of the processor with simple accuracy (32 bit) in GFLOPS. GFLOPS indicates how many billion floating point operations the iGPU can perform per second.


	MediaTek Helio X20 ARM Mali-T880 MP4 @ 0.78 GHz	106
	Intel Atom x6214RE Intel UHD Graphics 10th Gen (16 EU) @ 0.40 GHz	106
	Intel Atom x6414RE Intel UHD Graphics 10th Gen (16 EU) @ 0.40 GHz	106
	Intel Core i3-2120 Intel HD Graphics 2000 @ 1.10 GHz	106
	Intel Core i3-2115C Intel HD Graphics 2000 @ 1.10 GHz	106
	Intel Core i3-2130 Intel HD Graphics 2000 @ 1.10 GHz	106
	Intel Core i3-2120T Intel HD Graphics 2000 @ 1.10 GHz	106

Estimated results for PassMark CPU Mark

Some of the CPUs listed below have been benchmarked by CPU-monkey. However the majority of CPUs have not been tested and the results have been estimated by a CPU-monkey’s secret proprietary formula. As such they do not accurately reflect the actual Passmark CPU mark values and are not endorsed by PassMark Software Pty Ltd.


	Intel Core M-5Y31 2C 4T @ 1.80 GHz	1959
	Intel Core i5-2410M 2C 4T @ 2.30 GHz	1954
	Intel Pentium G3250 2C 2T @ 3.20 GHz	1954
	Intel Core i3-2120 2C 4T @ 3.30 GHz	1945
	Intel Core i5-4302Y 2C 4T @ 2.00 GHz	1942
	Intel Core i3-4025U 2C 4T @ 1.90 GHz	1940
	Intel Core i3-4030U 2C 4T @ 1.90 GHz	1940

CPU-Z Benchmark 17 (Single-Core)

The CPU-Z benchmark measures a processor's performance by measuring the time it takes the system to complete all benchmark calculations. The faster the benchmark is completed, the higher the score.


	Intel Core i3-3220 2C 4T @ 3.30 GHz	279
	Intel Core i5-6300U 2C 4T @ 2.60 GHz	272
	Intel Xeon E5450 4C 4T @ 3.00 GHz	271
	Intel Core i3-2120 2C 4T @ 3.30 GHz	268
	Intel Core i5-3230M 2C 4T @ 2.60 GHz	254
	Intel Core i3-2100 2C 4T @ 3.10 GHz	253
	Intel Core2 Duo E8400 2C 2T @ 3.00 GHz	252

CPU-Z Benchmark 17 (Multi-Core)

The CPU-Z benchmark measures a processor's performance by measuring the time it takes the system to complete all benchmark calculations. The faster the benchmark is completed, the higher the score.


	Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 4C 4T @ 2.33 GHz	786
	Intel Core i3-3210 2C 4T @ 3.20 GHz	785
	Intel Core i5-3340M 2C 4T @ 2.70 GHz	785
	Intel Core i3-2120 2C 4T @ 3.30 GHz	783
	AMD Phenom II X6 1055T 6C 6T @ 2.80 GHz	782
	Intel Core i7-2640M 2C 4T @ 2.80 GHz	779
	AMD A8-6600K 4C 4T @ 3.90 GHz	771

Benchmarks

Geekbench 5 (SC)
2,399 entries

Geekbench 5 (MC)
2,372 entries

Geekbench 6 (SC)
1,648 entries

Geekbench 6 (MC)
1,599 entries

FP32 SP (iGPU)
1,925 entries

PassMark CPU-Mark
2,319 entries

CPU-Z Benchmark 17 (SC)
222 entries

CPU-Z Benchmark 17 (MC)
725 entries

Popular comparisons


1.		Intel Core i3-2120 vs Intel Pentium G2030
2.		Intel Core i3-2120 vs Intel Core i3-3220
3.		Intel Pentium G2020 vs Intel Core i3-2120
4.		Intel Core i5-2400 vs Intel Core i3-2120
5.		Intel Core i3-2120 vs Intel Core i5-3470
6.		Intel Core i3-2120 vs AMD Athlon 3000G
7.		Intel Core i3-2120 vs AMD 3020e
8.		Intel Core i5-3570 vs Intel Core i3-2120
9.		Intel Core i5-2320 vs Intel Core i3-2120
10.		Intel Core i3-4170 vs Intel Core i3-2120