A8-3850 vs. Core i3-2100 CPU Review
The Reviewed CPUs
Contents
In the tables below, we compare the main features of the A8-3850 with those of its main competitor, the Core i3-2100. The Core i3-2100 supports the SSE4 instruction set (both SSE4.1 and SSE4.2), which is not available on the A8-3850. The Core i3-2100 is a dual-core CPU, but since it supports Hyper-Threading (HT) technology, which simulates one additional core per CPU physical core, the operating system “sees” this CPU as having four cores.
| CPU | Cores | HT | SSE4 | IGP | Internal Clock | Turbo Clock | Base Clock | Core | Technology | TDP | Socket | Price |
| Core i3-2100 | 2 | Yes | Yes | Yes | 3.1 GHz | No | 100 MHz | Sandy Bridge | 32 nm | 65 W | 1155 | USD 125 |
| A8-3850 | 4 | No | No | Yes | 2.9 GHz | No | 100 MHz | Stars | 32 nm | 100 W | FM1 | USD 135 |
TDP stands for Thermal Design Power which advises the user of the maximum amount of heat the CPU can dissipate. The CPU cooler must be capable of dissipating at least this amount of heat. The A-Series CPUs ending at “00” have a lower TDP (65 W).
| CPU | L1 Cache | L2 Cache | L3 Cache | Memory Support | Memory Channels |
| Core i3-2100 | 32 KB + 32 KB per core | 256 kB per core | 3 MB total | Up to DDR3-1333 | Two |
| A8-3850 | 64 KB + 64 KB per core | 1 MB per core | No | Up to DDR3-1866 | Two |
Below we have a quick comparison of the video engine of the two CPUs.
| CPU | DirectX | Clock | Cores |
| Core i3-2100 | 10.1 | 850 MHz | 6 |
| A8-3850 | 11 | 600 MHz | 400 |
Below, you can see the two reviewed CPUs.
Figure 7: Reviewed CPUs
Figure 8: Reviewed CPUs