Recommended System Requirements | ||
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Game | Core i3-9100F 4-Core 3.6GHz | Celeron G555 2.7GHz |
Halo: Reach | 42% | 96% |
Red Dead Redemption 2 | 41% | 373% |
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare | 4% | 251% |
Borderlands 3 | 41% | 373% |
Star Wars: Jedi - Fallen Order | 55% | 423% |
Cyberpunk 2077 | 19% | 302% |
FIFA 20 | 1% | 239% |
Halo: The Master Chief Collection | 41% | 373% |
eFootball PES 2020 | 16% | 289% |
Fortnite: Chapter 2 | 23% | 160% |
In terms of overall gaming performance, the Intel Core i3-9100F 4-Core 3.6GHz is massively better than the Intel Celeron G555 2.7GHz when it comes to running the latest games. This also means it will be less likely to bottleneck more powerful GPUs, allowing them to achieve more of their gaming performance potential.
The Core i3-9100F 4-Core was released over three years more recently than the Celeron G555 2.7GHz, and so the Core i3-9100F 4-Core is likely to have far better levels of support, and will be much more optimized and ultimately superior to the Celeron G555 2.7GHz when running the latest games.
The Core i3-9100F 4-Core has 2 more cores than the Celeron G555 2.7GHz. With 4 cores, the Core i3-9100F 4-Core is much less likely to struggle with the latest games, or bottleneck high-end graphics cards when running them.
More important for gaming than the number of cores and threads is the clock rate. Problematically, unless the two CPUs are from the same family, this can only serve as a general guide and nothing like an exact comparison, because the clock cycles per instruction (CPI) will vary so much.
The Core i3-9100F 4-Core and Celeron G555 2.7GHz are not from the same family of CPUs, so their clock speeds are by no means directly comparable. Bear in mind, then, that while the Core i3-9100F 4-Core has a 0.9 GHz faster frequency, this is not always an indicator that it will be superior in performance, despite frequency being crucial when trying to avoid GPU bottlenecking. In this case, however, the difference is probably a good indicator that the Core i3-9100F 4-Core is superior.
Aside from the clock rate, the next-most important CPU features for PC game performance are L2 and L3 cache size. Faster than RAM, the more cache available, the more data that can be stored for lightning-fast retrieval. L1 Cache is not usually an issue anymore for gaming, with most high-end CPUs eking out about the same L1 performance, and L2 is more important than L3 - but L3 is still important if you want to reach the highest levels of performance. Bear in mind that although it is better to have a larger cache, the larger it is, the higher the latency, so a balance has to be struck.
The Core i3-9100F 4-Core has a 512 KB bigger L2 cache than the Celeron G555 2.7GHz, which means that it, at worst, wins out in this area, and at best, will provide superior gaming performance and will work much better with high-end graphics cards.
The maximum Thermal Design Power is the power in Watts that the CPU will consume in the worst case scenario. The lithography is the semiconductor manufacturing technology being used to create the CPU - the smaller this is, the more transistors that can be fit into the CPU, and the closer the connections. For both the lithography and the TDP, it is the lower the better, because a lower number means a lower amount of power is necessary to run the CPU, and consequently a lower amount of heat is produced.
Both the Core i3-9100F 4-Core and the Celeron G555 2.7GHz have the same TDP of 65 Watts, but the Core i3-9100F 4-Core has a lower lithography size, and so will affect your yearly electricity bills less adversely.
CPU Codename | Coffee Lake R | Sandy Bridge | |||
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MoBo Socket | LGA 1151 | LGA 1155/Socket H2 | |||
Notebook CPU | no | no | |||
Release Date | 23 Apr 2019 | 02 Sep 2012 | |||
CPU Link | GD Link | GD Link | |||
Approved | ![]() | ![]() |
CPU Cores | 4 | ![]() | vs | 2 | |
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CPU Threads | 4 | ![]() | vs | - | |
Clock Speed | 3.6 GHz | ![]() | vs | 2.7 GHz | |
Turbo Frequency | 4.2 GHz | ![]() | vs | - | |
Max TDP | 65 W | ![]() | vs | ![]() | 65 W |
Lithography | 14 nm | ![]() | vs | 32 nm | |
Bit Width | 64 Bit | ![]() | vs | - | |
Max Temperature | 100°C | ![]() | vs | - | |
Virtualization Technology | no | vs | no | ||
Comparison |
L1 Cache Size | 256 KB | ![]() | vs | 128 KB | |
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L2 Cache Size | 1024 KB | ![]() | vs | 512 KB | |
L2 Cache Speed | - | vs | - | ||
L3 Cache Size | 6144 MB | ![]() | vs | 2 MB | |
Max Memory Size | - | ![]() | vs | - | |
Memory Channels | - | ![]() | vs | - | |
ECC Memory Support | no | vs | no | ||
Comparison |
Graphics | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Base GPU Frequency | - | vs | - | ||
Max GPU Frequency | - | vs | - | ||
DirectX | - | vs | - | ||
Displays Supported | - | vs | - | ||
Comparison |
Package Size | 37.5mm x 37.5mm | vs | - | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Revision | - | vs | - | ||
PCIe Revision | - | vs | - | ||
PCIe Configurations | - | vs | - |
Performance Value | ![]() |
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Mini Review | The Core i3-9100F 4-Core 3.6GHz is a low-end desktop CPU based on a refinement of the 14nm++ Coffee Lake microarchitecture. It is identical to the Core i3-9100 except it does not feature integrated graphics. It offers 4 physical cores (4 logical), initially clocked at 3.6GHz, which may go up to 4.2GHz using 4 cores with Turbo Boost. The i3-9100F has 6MB of L3 Cache. This chip supports up to 64GB DDR-2666 MHz memory. Among its many features, Turbo Boost 2.0, Optane Memory Support, and Virtualization are activated. It does not feature an unlocked multiplier and therefore cannot be overclocked using traditional methods. This Core i3-9100F CPU offers average gaming performance in 2019 and may be a minor bottleneck in a modern gaming PC. It should be able to play most modern games at 60fps on High graphics performance at any supported resolution without being a hindrance to the accompanying GPU, although may struggle with the most demanding AAA titles. Performance may become bottlenecked if playing at 144Hz and 1080p or lower screen resolution. | Sandy Bridge is the codename for a microarchitecture developed by Intel beginning in 2005 for central processing units in computers to replace the Nehalem microarchitecture. Intel demonstrated a Sandy Bridge processor in 2009, and released first products based on the architecture in January 2011 under the Core brand. |
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