i3-12100E vs Pentium B940

Place in the ranking	2835	854
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Market segment	Laptop	Desktop processor
Series	Intel Pentium	no data
Power efficiency	1.46	14.15
Architecture codename	Sandy Bridge (2011−2013)	Alder Lake-S (2022)
Release date	19 June 2011 (13 years ago)	4 January 2022 (2 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$134	no data

Detailed specifications

Pentium B940 and Core i3-12100E basic parameters such as number of cores, number of threads, base frequency and turbo boost clock, lithography, cache size and multiplier lock state. These parameters indirectly say of CPU speed, though for more precise assessment you have to consider their test results.

Physical cores	2 (Dual-core)	4 (Quad-Core)
Threads	2	8
Base clock speed	2 GHz	3.2 GHz
Boost clock speed	2 GHz	4.2 GHz
Bus type	DMI 2.0	no data
Bus rate	4 × 5 GT/s	no data
Multiplier	20	no data
L1 cache	64K (per core)	80K (per core)
L2 cache	256K (per core)	1.25 MB (per core)
L3 cache	2 MB (shared)	12 MB (shared)
Chip lithography	32 nm	10 nm
Die size	131 mm²	163 mm²
Maximum core temperature	85 °C	no data
Number of transistors	504 million	no data
64 bit support	+	+
Windows 11 compatibility	-	+

Compatibility

Information on Pentium B940 and Core i3-12100E compatibility with other computer components: 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 configuration	1 (Uniprocessor)	1
Socket	PGA988	1700
Power consumption (TDP)	35 Watt	60 Watt

Technologies and extensions

Technological solutions and additional instructions supported by Pentium B940 and Core i3-12100E. You'll probably need this information if you require some particular technology.

Instruction set extensions	Intel® SSE4.1, Intel® SSE4.2	no data
AES-NI	-	+
FMA	+	-
AVX	-	+
Enhanced SpeedStep (EIST)	+	+
My WiFi	-	no data
Turbo Boost Technology	-	no data
Hyper-Threading Technology	-	no data
TSX	-	+
Idle States	+	no data
Thermal Monitoring	+	-
Flex Memory Access	+	no data
Demand Based Switching	-	no data
FDI	+	no data
Fast Memory Access	+	no data

Security technologies

Pentium B940 and Core i3-12100E technologies aimed at improving security, for example, by protecting against hacks.

TXT	-	+
EDB	+	no data
Anti-Theft	-	no data

Virtualization technologies

Virtual machine speed-up technologies supported by Pentium B940 and Core i3-12100E are enumerated here.

VT-d	-	+
VT-x	-	+

Memory specs

Types, maximum amount and channel quantity of RAM supported by Pentium B940 and Core i3-12100E. Depending on the motherboard, higher memory frequencies may be supported.

Supported memory types	DDR3	DDR4, DDR5 Dual-channel
Maximum memory size	16 GB	no data
Max memory channels	2	no data
Maximum memory bandwidth	21.335 GB/s	no data

Graphics specifications

General parameters of integrated GPUs, if any.

Integrated graphics card	Intel® HD Graphics for 2nd Generation Intel® Processors	Intel UHD Graphics 730
Graphics max frequency	1.1 GHz	no data

Graphics interfaces

Available interfaces and connections of Pentium B940 and Core i3-12100E integrated GPUs.

Number of displays supported	2	no data
eDP	+	no data
DisplayPort	+	-
HDMI	+	-
SDVO	+	no data
CRT	+	no data

Peripherals

Specifications and connection of peripherals supported by Pentium B940 and Core i3-12100E.

PCIe version	2.0	5.0
PCI Express lanes	16	20

Synthetic benchmark performance

Various benchmark results of the processors in comparison. Overall score 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.

Pentium B940 0.54

i3-12100E 8.97
+1561%

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.

Pentium B940 861

i3-12100E 14250
+1555%

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.

Pentium B940 317

i3-12100E 2205
+596%

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.

Pentium B940 544

i3-12100E 7680
+1312%

Gaming performance

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	0.54	8.97
Recency	19 June 2011	4 January 2022
Physical cores	2	4
Threads	2	8
Chip lithography	32 nm	10 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	35 Watt	60 Watt

Pentium B940 has 71.4% lower power consumption.

i3-12100E, on the other hand, has a 1561.1% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 10 years, 100% more physical cores and 300% more threads, and a 220% more advanced lithography process.

The Core i3-12100E is our recommended choice as it beats the Pentium B940 in performance tests.

Be aware that Pentium B940 is a notebook processor while Core i3-12100E is a desktop one.

Should you still have questions on choice between Pentium B940 and Core i3-12100E, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.