Core i3-3240: specs and benchmarks

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Aggregate performance score

Core i3-3240
2012
2 cores / 4 threads, 55 Watt
1.46

Core i3-3240 provides poor benchmark performance at 1.46% of a leader's which is a 96-core EPYC 9655P.

Summary

Intel started Core i3-3240 sales 3 September 2012 at a recommended price of $75. This is an Ivy Bridge architecture desktop processor primarily aimed at office systems. It has 2 cores and 4 threads, and is based on 22 nm manufacturing technology, with a maximum frequency of 3.4 and a locked multiplier.

Compatibility-wise, this is FCLGA1155 processor with a TDP of 55 Watt and a maximum temperature of 65 °C. It supports DDR3 memory.

Primary details

Core i3-3240 processor market type (desktop or notebook), architecture, sales start time and pricing.

Place in the ranking2176
Place by popularitynot in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation2.62
Market segmentDesktop processor
Power efficiency2.51of 100.00 (Ryzen Z1 Extreme)
Architecture codenameIvy Bridge (2012−2013)
Release date3 September 2012 (12 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)$75of 17,906 (Xeon Platinum 8280L)

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance per price, higher is better.

Detailed specifications

Basic microprocessor parameters such as number of cores, number of threads, base frequency and turbo boost clock, lithography, cache size and multiplier lock state. These parameters can generally indicate CPU performance, but to be more precise you have to review its test results.

Physical cores2 (Dual-core)
Threads4
Base clock speed3.4 GHzof 4.7 GHz (FX-9590)
Boost clock speed3.4 GHzof 6.2 GHz (Core i9-14900KS)
Bus rate5 GT/s
L1 cache64 KB (per core)of 80 KB (EPYC 9965)
L2 cache256 KB (per core)
L3 cache3 MB (shared)of 1152 MB (EPYC 9684X)
Chip lithography22 nmof 3 nm (Apple M3 Max 16-Core)
Die size94 mm2
Maximum case temperature (TCase)65 °Cof 105 °C (Core i7-5950HQ)
64 bit support+
Windows 11 compatibility-

Compatibility

Information on Core i3-3240 compatibility with other computer components and devices: motherboard (look for socket type), power supply unit (look for power consumption) etc. Useful when planning a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. Note that power consumption of some processors can well exceed their nominal TDP, even without overclocking. Some can even double their declared thermals given that the motherboard allows to tune the CPU power parameters.

Number of CPUs in a configuration1of 8 (Opteron 842)
SocketFCLGA1155
Power consumption (TDP)55 Wattof 500 Watt (Xeon 6960P)

Technologies and extensions

Technological capabilities and additional instructions supported by Core i3-3240. You'll probably need this information if you require some particular technology.

Instruction set extensionsIntel® SSE4.1, Intel® SSE4.2, Intel® AVX
AVX+
Enhanced SpeedStep (EIST)+
My WiFi+
Turbo Boost Technology-
Hyper-Threading Technology+
Idle States+
Thermal Monitoring+
FDI+

Security technologies

Processor technologies aimed at improving security, for example, by protecting against hacks.

TXT+
EDB+
Secure Key-
Identity Protection+
Anti-Theft+

Virtualization technologies

Supported virtual machine optimization technologies. Some are specific to Intel only, some to AMD.

VT-d-
VT-x+
EPT+

Memory specs

Types, maximum amount and channel number of RAM supported by Core i3-3240's memory controller. Depending on the motherboard, higher memory frequency may be supported.

Supported memory typesDDR3
Maximum memory size32 GBof 6 TiB (EPYC 9124)
Max memory channels2of 12 (Xeon Platinum 9221)
Maximum memory bandwidth25.6 GB/sof 460.8 GB/s (EPYC 9124)

Graphics specifications

General parameters of a GPU integrated into Core i3-3240.

Integrated graphics cardIntel HD Graphics 2500
Quick Sync Video+
Clear Video HD+
Graphics max frequency1.05 GHz
InTru 3D+

Graphics interfaces

Available interfaces and connections of Core i3-3240's integrated GPU.

Number of displays supported3

Peripherals

Specifications and connection types of supported peripherals.

PCIe version2.0of 5.0 (Core i9-12900K)

Benchmark performance

Single-core and multi-core benchmark results of Core i3-3240. Overall benchmark performance is measured in points in 0-100 range, higher is better.


Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark performance rating. We are regularly improving our combining algorithms, but if you find some perceived inconsistencies, feel free to speak up in comments section, we usually fix problems quickly.

i3-3240 1.46

Passmark

Passmark CPU Mark is a widespread benchmark, consisting of 8 different types of workload, including integer and floating point math, extended instructions, compression, encryption and physics calculation. There is also one separate single-threaded scenario measuring single-core performance.

i3-3240 2327

GeekBench 5 Single-Core

GeekBench 5 Single-Core is a cross-platform application developed in the form of CPU tests that independently recreate certain real-world tasks with which to accurately measure performance. This version uses only a single CPU core.

i3-3240 545

GeekBench 5 Multi-Core

GeekBench 5 Multi-Core is a cross-platform application developed in the form of CPU tests that independently recreate certain real-world tasks with which to accurately measure performance. This version uses all available CPU cores.

i3-3240 1115

3DMark Fire Strike Physics

i3-3240 2630

Gaming performance

Closest competitors

Core i3-3240's performance relative to its closest rivals among desktop CPUs.


Core i3-3240 100
A10-6700T 99.32
Core i7-860S 98.63

AMD equivalent

According to our data, the closest AMD alternative to Core i3-3240 is Athlon II X4 641, which is nearly equal in speed and lower by 4 positions in our ranking.

Here are some closest AMD rivals to Core i3-3240:

A8-3870K 100.68
Core i3-3240 100
A10-6700T 99.32

Similar processors

Here is our recommendation of several processors that are more or less close in performance to the one reviewed.

Recommended GPUs

People consider these graphics cards to be good for Core i3-3240, according to our PC configuration statistics.

These are the fastest graphics cards for Core i3-3240 in our user configuration statistics. There is a total of 14315 configurations using Core i3-3240 in our database.

RTX 4090 GeForce RTX 4090
0.6% (81/14315)
RTX 4080 GeForce RTX 4080
0.007% (1/14315)
RTX 4080 SUPER GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER
0.02% (3/14315)
RTX 4070 Ti GeForce RTX 4070 Ti
0.04% (6/14315)
RX 7900 XTX Radeon RX 7900 XTX
0.007% (1/14315)
RTX 4070 SUPER GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER
0.03% (4/14315)
RTX 3090 Ti GeForce RTX 3090 Ti
0.1% (17/14315)
RTX 3080 Ti GeForce RTX 3080 Ti
0.07% (10/14315)
RTX 4070 GeForce RTX 4070
0.007% (1/14315)
RX 6900 XT Radeon RX 6900 XT
0.007% (1/14315)

All comparisons with Core i3-3240

Community ratings

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3.7 1229 votes

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Questions & comments

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