Processors/Comparison
15 specifications
Intel Core i3-9100 vs AMD Ryzen 3 3100
On paper, the Intel Core i3-9100 boosts higher, and the AMD Ryzen 3 3100 carries more L3 cache. Specifications describe what each chip is designed to do; how much of that either one holds under continuous load is a separate question.
Intel Core i3-9100
Intel · Core 9th generation · Desktop
AMD Ryzen 3 3100
AMD · Ryzen 3000 · Desktop
Cores and clocks
Cache and power
Platform
A check marks the higher figure only on rows where higher is unambiguously better. Rows without one are not ties; they are specifications where “better” has no meaning.
Reading the table
What the difference means.
Cores and threads
The Ryzen 3 3100 has 4 cores and 8 threads against 4 and 4. More threads help with work that can be split into many pieces at once: rendering, compiling, video export, running several heavy programs together. They do little for work that runs on a few threads, which includes most games and most everyday software, where the speed of one core decides the result.
Boost clock
The Core i3-9100 boosts to 4.2 GHz against 3.9 GHz, 8 percent higher. Across generations it is not a guide to speed on its own, for the reason above. Boost is also a peak: it is held for seconds to minutes, on one or two cores, while the cooling and the power limit allow. What either chip settles at under a long load is lower, and it depends on the cooler and the motherboard as much as the chip.
Cache
The Ryzen 3 3100 carries 16 MB of L3 cache against 6 MB. Cache is fast memory on the chip, and a larger one means the cores wait on main memory less often. Games, large spreadsheets and compiling respond to it; rendering and video export, which stream through data in order, respond much less.
Power and cooling
Both are rated at 65 W, so they ask the same of a cooler and a power supply. The rating is the heat to be moved for the chip to hold its speed; both draw above it in short bursts, and either one slows down rather than fails when the cooling falls short.
Platform
They use different sockets, FCLGA1151 and AM4, so moving from one to the other means a new motherboard. For an upgrade, that cost belongs in the comparison; for a new build, the newer platform is the one with later chips still to come.
Manufacturing process
The Ryzen 3 3100 is built on a 7 nm process against 14 nm. A finer process generally does the same work for less power. The names are marketing labels rather than measurements, though, and they are not comparable between manufacturers, so treat the row as a sign of how recent the design is and no more.
Which to pick, on paper
- Rendering, compiling, video export
- Ryzen 3 3100
- 8 threads against 4. Work that uses every thread scales with how many there are.
What no table says
How much of its speed a processor keeps after the first minute depends on the cooling and the power limit of the machine it is in. If you own one of these, measure it: the test is free and runs in this browser.
Questions
- Is the Core i3-9100 better than the Ryzen 3 3100?
- By need, on the specifications: rendering, compiling, video export: the Ryzen 3 3100. No specification says how much speed either one keeps under a long load; that depends on the cooling and the power limit of the machine it is in, and it is what a sustained test measures.
- Do the Core i3-9100 and the Ryzen 3 3100 use the same socket?
- No. The Core i3-9100 uses FCLGA1151 and the Ryzen 3 3100 uses AM4, so switching means a new motherboard.
More comparisons
- Intel Core i3-9100 vs Intel Core i7-6700K
- Intel Core i3-9100 vs Intel Core i3-10100
- Intel Core i3-9100 vs Intel Core i7-6700
- Intel Core i3-9100 vs AMD FX-4350
- Intel Core i3-9100 vs AMD A8-6600K with Radeon HD 8570D
- AMD Ryzen 3 3100 vs Intel Core i7-6700K
- AMD Ryzen 3 3100 vs Intel Core i3-10100
- AMD Ryzen 3 3100 vs AMD FX-4350
- AMD Ryzen 3 3100 vs Intel Core i7-6700
- AMD Ryzen 3 3100 vs AMD A8-6600K with Radeon HD 8570D
Every figure on this table is a design target. None of it is a measurement.
Nothing above describes how a processor behaves twenty minutes into a sustained workload, which is where two chips with nearly identical specifications routinely diverge. A boost clock is a ceiling the vendor permits, not a rate the chip sustains, and whether it holds depends on the cooling, the case, the power profile and the room. None of those appear on a specification sheet.
We deliberately do not reduce these figures to a single score. A composite invented from specifications would look authoritative and measure nothing, and choosing the weights would be choosing the winner.