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VRMark & 3DMark
Intel architectures tend to perform best in the VRMark tests, and that trend continues with Core i3-8100. The pricier -8350K leverages its higher clock rate to beat Intel's Core i3-8100. Meanwhile, it's noteworthy that the Core i3-7100 lands at the bottom of our chart. This is a trend we'll see continue through several of our tests.
Core i3-8100 competes readily against AMD's Ryzen 3 1300X and 1200 during the 3DMark physics and CPU tests. The Ryzen 5 1500X and 1400 enjoy a significant advantage from their eight threads. But then again, they're also more expensive.
Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation
Ashes of the Singularity is a heavily-threaded game that performs best on CPUs with lots of cores. Even still, Core i3-8100 scores impressively well compared to its quad-threaded competitors. It even outstrips the 4C/8T Ryzen 5 1400 at stock settings.
Ryzen 3 1200 features a 3.1 GHz base and 3.4 GHz boost frequency, which hampers performance during this CPU-intensive benchmark. Even the dual-core Core i3-7350K is allowed to squeak past. Then again, an overclocked Core i3-8350K surprisingly leads the six-core Core i5-8400, so high clock rates clearly pay off, too.
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