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Processors/Intel Core i3-3225

Intel · Core 3rd generation · Desktop

Intel Core i3-3225

The Intel Core i3-3225 is Intel’s Core 3rd generation desktop processor with 2 cores and 4 threads and 3 MB of L3 cache.

INTELCore i3-3225FCLGA1155Illustration

Drawn from this part’s own specifications. No openly-licensed photograph of the Intel Core i3-3225 exists, so this is an illustration rather than a photograph.

Overview

The Intel Core i3-3225 is Intel’s Core 3rd generation desktop processor with 2 cores and 4 threads and 3 MB of L3 cache. These are the manufacturer’s published figures. They describe what the chip is designed to do, not what your particular machine does with it, and the gap between those two is usually cooling. A boost clock is a ceiling rather than a promise, and how long a processor holds it under continuous load is the one thing no specification sheet can tell you.

Specifications

Cores
2

Physical cores. More helps sustained multi-threaded work, not single-task responsiveness.

Threads
4
Base clock
3.3 GHz

The floor the vendor guarantees under load. Often closer to reality than boost.

Boost clock
Not verified

A ceiling, not a promise. How long a chip holds it is the thing a spec sheet cannot tell you.

L3 cache
3 MB
TDP
55 W

Design power, not measured draw. Where a range is shown, the manufacturer allows the laptop maker to choose within it, and the choice materially changes sustained performance.

Socket
FCLGA1155
Process
22 nm
Integrated graphics
Intel HD Graphics 4000
Launched
Q3'12 (quarter)

Sources

Each figure, the label its source printed beside it, and the day it was read.

FigureAs printedSourceChecked
Cores2Total Coresintel.comSpecification page
Threads4Total Threadsintel.comSpecification page
Base clock3.3 GHzProcessor Base Frequencyintel.comSpecification page
L3 cache3 MBCacheintel.comSpecification page
TDP55 WTDPintel.comSpecification page
SocketFCLGA1155Sockets Supportedintel.comSpecification page
Process22 nmLithographyintel.comSpecification page
Integrated graphicsIntel HD Graphics 4000GPU Nameintel.comSpecification page
LaunchedQ3'12 (quarter)Launch Dateintel.comSpecification page

Measured on SystemCheck: not enough runs yet. Run the test to add yours.

Compare

The 6 nearest processors in the same segment, each with a published side-by-side.

Every figure on this sheet 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.