Intel Core i3 2120

First up is the graphics performance of the Sandy Bridge systems on Linux 3.1 followed by the compute performance and then a brief look at the CPU thermal performance and power consumption.

Running the OpenArena game on the recent Intel Linux graphics stack shows the Core i3 2120 gaming performance isn't that different from the Core i3 2100. However, the HD 2000 Graphics as opposed to the HD 3000 graphics with the Core i5 2500K shows there is quite a big difference in performance between the two types of processor graphics.

World of Padman and Nexuiz both show that there is no advantage to the Core i3 2120 over the Core i3 2100 for these light OpenGL games with the Linux driver, there's no difference in the extra 200MHz out of the CPU, but the HD 3000 graphics on the Core i5 2500K are much better than the HD 2000 capabilities.