Intel Core i3-8121U vs AMD Athlon Gold 3150U

Processor comparisons   20-01-2022
   If you have difficulties with the choice of a processor, you will solve them by reading the detailed tests Intel Core i3-8121U vs AMD Athlon Gold 3150U and decide which is better for games or normal use for video editing, programming, streaming, rendering, machine learning. Here is all information from several benchmarks or real video editing and streaming tests. A thorough review of all the technical characteristics, to make it easier to read, is presented in the form of the table.
   From the video comparison, you can get the results of joint testing in synthetic type tests such as 3DMark, Cinebench 23 (20, 15), Handbrake, WPrime, 7zip, Furmark, Gears 5, Prime95, DaVinci Resolve Studio, PassMark, UserBenchmark, Blender, AIDA64, Blender, PCMark 10, MATLAB, RealBench, SuperPi, VeraCrypt, World of Tanks enCore Benchmark, GeekBench 6, 5.2, Dolphin Emulator.
   And how good the CPUs are in games:

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Warzone
Borderlands 3
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands
Valheim
Last Man Standing
Rainbow Six Siege
Death Stranding
DOOM: Eternal
Fallout 76
Cyberpunk 2077
Fortnite
Apex Legends
Assassin's Creed Valhalla
Grand Theft Auto V
Overwatch
Valorant
Red Dead Redemption 2
Halo Infinite
Watch Dogs Legion

After reading the results of parallel benchmarks and videos, you can already make an informed decision about which CPU is better to buy for gaming AMD Athlon Gold 3150U or Intel Core i3-8121U.

Summary benchmark results

As a percentage of the maximum value based on a sample from the entire base of all processors
Processor Benchmark

Core i3-8121U

51%

Athlon Gold 3150U

51%

Gaming performance
Summary result of all game benchmarks.

Core i3-8121U

51%

Athlon Gold 3150U

51%

For the maximum in this test, the results of the most powerful processor in the site database are taken. And it is clear that this is a server processor, on which no one will play games. Because this processor costs several tens of thousands of dollars. Therefore, if you think that the selected CPU has a low game result, just look at the FPS that it produces in real games in the summary table below.
List of less popular games in which processors were compared: Resident Evil 7 Biohazard, Hitman 3, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG), Forza Horizon 4, Metro Exodus, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS GO), Microsoft Flight Simulator, Horizon Zero Dawn, NBA 2K20, Half-Life: Alyx, Ghostrunner, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, League of Legends (LOL), Control, Monster Hunter World, DOTA 2A, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Battlefield V.

Gaming benchmark

Fortnite	90.1	90.0
Valorant	102.4	102.3
Cyberpunk 2077	57.3	57.3
Apex Legends	96.2	96.1
Call of Duty Warzone	76.8	76.7
Overwatch	82.9	82.8
Red Dead Redemption 2	70.6	70.6
DOOM Eternal	51.2	51.1
Warzone	79.9	79.8
Assassin's Creed	86.0	85.9
Valheim	85.0	84.9

The numbers in this table indicate the maximum FPS that was received on the device with the corresponding processor. Depending on the configuration of the computer (RAM size and Video Card) and graphics quality settings (Ultra, Medium, Normal), the results may differ quite significantly. We recommend that you better study the results of the Cinebench, GeekBench and Passmark becnmarks.
The tested computers not only did they have different video cards and different amounts of RAM. But users also tested them at different screen resolutions: 2K, FullHD or 4K. So the game benchmark data is approximate. But all video cards met the average system requirements of games. You will get more accurate information about how powerful the processor will be in games, if you get acquainted with the benchmarks that are made with the same video card that is installed in your computer.

Power consumption

Core i3-8121U

200%

Athlon Gold 3150U

181%

To make a final decision on which processor is better, you should also consider the generation of its core. It is clear that the newer the generation, the better the performance of the processor in games and benchmarks, as well as its energy efficiency. In this case the Core i3-8121U is more energy efficient than the Athlon Gold 3150U since it has less power consumption: 15W vs. 15W. Power consumption is especially important for laptops. Also, when choosing a processor cooling system, you need to know its TDP. It is necessary to count so that the TDP data specified in the cooler specification is greater than the TDP of the compared processor.

Software benchmarks

Let's say you want to use the processor not only for gaming, but also for machine learning, streaming, programming, video rendering or video editing, then first of all you need to pay attention to the performance in multi-threaded mode. In this mode, to achieve maximum efficiency, the CPU includes all cores and threads that it has. You will find out this data from the benchmark tables below. Before using the data from these tests, be sure to check whether the software you are going to use on your computer supports multi-threaded mode. Since there are still many programs that can use only one core to work, and all the advantages of multi-core mode are unused.
Cinebench 23, 20 an 15
The results of this benchmark show Single-threaded and Multi-threaded CPU performance

	Intel Core i3-8121U	AMD Athlon Gold 3150U
Cinbench 15 Single-core	139	127
Cinbench 15 Multi-core	305	310
Cinbench 20 Single-core	340	185
Cinbench 20 Multi-core	598	529
Cinbench 23 Single-core	563	503
Cinbench 23 Multi-core	2184	2419

Passmark
This popular benchmark displays Multi-threaded and Single-threaded processor performance

	Intel Core i3-8121U	AMD Athlon Gold 3150U
Single-Core	1939	1929
Multi-Core	4369	4263

GeekBench 6, 5.2
This benchmark shows Multi-threaded and Single-threaded processor performance

	Intel Core i3-8121U	AMD Athlon Gold 3150U
Single-Core	901	816
Multi-Core	2063	1945

Comparison of specifications

In the specification comparison table, the most helpful will be the the possibility of overclocking it and release date of the processor. The newer the processor, the longer it will last in your computer. And the easier it will be to upgrade the system later. The same benefits from the presence of overclocking. When the processor can be overclocked, thereby increasing its performance, then it will still be able to produce maximum FPS in the newest games. Accordingly, there is no longer a need to buy a new CPU to enjoy the games any longer. The savings are obvious!

	Intel Core i3-8121U	AMD Athlon Gold 3150U
Announcement date	July 07, 2018	January 06, 2020
Type	Laptop	Laptop
Socket	Unknown	FP5
Core name	Cannon Lake	Raven Ridge
Architecture	x86	Picasso
Generation	8	2
Turbo Frequency	3.2 MHz	3.3 MHz
Frequency	2.2 MHz	2.4 MHz
Cores	2	2
Threads	4	4
Bus rate	4 GT/s
Bit	64	64
Lithography	10 nm	14 nm
Transistors count	1800 millions	2200 millions
Power consumption (TDP)	15 W	15 W
Memory type	DDR4-2400, LPDDR4/x-2400	DDR4
Max. Memory	32 Gb
Memory Frequency		2400
Memory bandwidth	37.5 GB/s
L1 cache		192KB
L2 cache		1MB
L3 cache	4 MB	4MB
Overclocking	No	yes
Supports ECC	No	No
Part number		YM3150C4T2OFG

In this comparison block, you should pay attention to the differences in clock speed and the number of cores. Here Athlon Gold 3150U is 8% better than Core i3-8121U in terms of CPU frequency. Also keep in mind that high CPU frequency affects battery life through power consumption (relevant for laptops).

Result:
The number of parameters for which Intel Core i3-8121U is better: 22
The number of parameters for which AMD Athlon Gold 3150U is better: 10
All the data that you have looked at here do not mean that taking them into account you should completely trust a simple comparison of these figures. Better to watch benchmarks video and read the opinion of real owners of Intel Core i3-8121U and AMD Athlon Gold 3150U before deciding which processor to buy for gaming and which not.

Intel Core i3-8121U - all data

• Cinebench r15 score
• Cinebench r20 score
• Cinebench r23 score
• GeekBench 6, 5.2 score

• Intel Core i3-8121U specs and review.

AMD Athlon Gold 3150U - all data

• Cinebench r15 score
• Cinebench r20 score
• Cinebench r23 score
• GeekBench 6, 5.2 score

• AMD Athlon Gold 3150U specs and review.