Intel Core i3-3130M Review

Behold the Core i3-3130M! This Laptop processor is a gem in Intel's entry-level collection. Debuted in 2013, it's equipped with 2 cores and 4 threads. With a base clock speed of 2.6GHz, a turbo speed of 2.6GHz, and a power consumption of 35W, it's primed to boost your gaming performance. The Core i3-3130M is engineered on the Ivy Bridge 22nm platform and belongs to the renowned Core i3 series.

Can the Intel Core i3-3130M finally dethrone the king of mainstream CPUs, the A4-4300M? It's a maybe. The Core i3-3130M doesn't quite reach the same single-core performance as its rival, but more games are starting to use all those threads, so who cares!

The Core i3-3130M is the more expensive version of the Core i3-3120M, and it shows with its higher base and boost clock speeds: 2.6 GHz and 2.6 GHz, respectively. That's a nice boost in speed, but the real game changer is the higher power delivery (PPT). This lets the motherboard pump more juice (up to 142W) to the Core i3-3130M compared to the Core i3-3120M's limit of 35W. This extra power allows the Core i3-3130M to crank up the boost clocks even more aggressively, on both single and multiple cores. That means the performance gap between these two CPUs might be bigger than what the specs on paper suggest.

But for most gamers who also do other stuff on their PC besides gaming, the Core i3-3130M is a better overall choice. It offers double the threads compared to the similarly priced A4-4300M, and those extra threads come in handy for tasks like editing and encoding videos. The Core i3 chips have always been great for these workloads, and Intel's recent improvements to AVX performance are super impressive.

One of the best things about the Intel Core i3-3130M is that it comes with a free CPU cooler! You can grab the Core i3-3130M for $225 without having to spend extra on cooling.

The Intel Core i3-3130M comes with a basic heatsink cooler, nothing fancy. But it gets the job done for this low-power CPU (TDP of 35W). You won't need a fancy aftermarket cooler unless you want to overclock it.

The Intel Core i3-3130M might not get a lot of hype, but it's a solid entry-level option that delivers a good experience for casual users.

If you don't care too much about overclocking and max boost speeds, then the Intel Core i3-3120M is a good option for $160. It also has 2 cores and 4 threads, but with slightly lower clock speeds (2.5GHz base and 2.5GHz boost).

Building on the success of mainstream Core i3 CPUs, Intel is now attacking the entry-level market with the Core i3-3130M processors, available since on January 2013.