Intel Core i3-2100T Pro Reviews

Sandy Bridge microarchitecture is amazingly diverse. We have already admired the high performance of processors based on it many time, and today we saw clearly that it is also a perfect fit for products to be used in quiet, compact and energy-efficient systems. However, the T-series processors discussed in our today’s article revealed a number of unique peculiarities, which aren’t mentioned anywhere in the official specs but can change your perception of these products. Take a look at their power consumption. Although I-series processors have half the TDP of the regular CPUs, it doesn’t at all mean that in reality they only consume half the power. Firstly, energy-efficient processors get very close to their TDP threshold, while regular CPUs can often consume less power and dissipate less heat than their TDP implies. Therefore, the actual difference in practical power consumption between T and non-T processors of the same class is never that significant. Secondly, we can really see a serious difference in practical power consumption between energy-efficient and regular processors only in a limited number of usage scenarios, while most of the time their power appetites are very close. In fact, T-series processors show their true energy-efficiency only under heavy multi-threaded load. In idle mode, under single-threaded load or during high GPU utilization, T-series processors do not offer any noticeable advantages in the power aspect. All this means that it doesn’t make sense to use energy-efficient Sandy Bridge modifications just for the sake of saving some power. Since in real life the processors are usually loaded sporadically, T-series won’t bring you power bill down a lot.

New Sandy Bridge microarchitecture not only transformed the perception of high-performance processors. It also conquered new heights in energy efficiency by delivering unique desktop processors with 35 W TDP and great performance. One of processors like that is the Core i3-2100T, which we have just reviewed. While its practical power consumption is comparable to that of Intel Atom D525 and AMD E-350 (with a few allowances), it is 3-4 times faster than them. The new Intel HD Graphics 1000 core built into Core i3-2100T processor also did very well. It is powerful enough for the processor, and when it comes to HD video playback or transcoding, Intel Quick Sync technology simply destroys all the competitors.