Intel Core i3-13100F

Intel remains the budget gaming king, even if it struggles to beat its previous gen chip

- PAUL ALCORN

THE INTEL Core i3-13100F comes to market with big shoes to fill; its predecessor, the Core i3-12100F, built a reputation as the best budget CPU for gaming. Intel is looking to repeat that success, but perhaps the Core i3-13100F follows in the footsteps of its predecessor too closely—the company repurposed the previous-gen design for the Core i313100, so it has the same four p-cores paired with an ever-so-slightly-improved 200 MHz higher boost clock of 4.5 GHz.

The 13100F addresses the sub-$150 budget segment, so pricing is critical. However, while Intel launched the previous-gen graphics-less Core i312100F at $104, it quietly raised pricing. Naturally, that leads to higher prices for the new Core i3 models. As such, Intel’s recommended pricing has jumped to $144 for the Core i3-13100 model and $119 for the graphics-less 13100F model. That’s a 12 percent and 15 percent genon-gen price increase, respectively.

The $119 Core i3-13100F squares off with the $99 Ryzen 5 5500. The AMD chip drops into the inexpensive and plentiful AM4 chipset ecosystem, giving builders plenty of affordable options for budget builds, thus creating a fierce contest for a spot on the list of best CPUs for gaming.