Intel 12th Generation Core is really tough, not only the top i9-12900K/KF, not only the mainstream i5-12400/F, but even the low-end entry-level i3-12100/F are amazing.
The i3-12100/F is the lowest-end model in the 12th generation i3 series, and further down is the Pentium Celeron. It has only 4 large cores, 12MB of L3 cache, 3.3-4.3GHz of frequency, benchmark power consumption of 58W, maximum 89W, price is only $97, and comes with RM1 original heatsink.
Overclocking master Aav Jonatha (LUCKY-NOOB) got an i3-12100F in advance, using the original heatsink, at the default frequency, with a Z690 motherboard, 32GB DDR5-6200 memory, for a simple test.
The Y-Cruncher (PI-1B) finished at 44.201 seconds, making it the fastest quad-core processor in history, only about 1.7 seconds slower than the water-cooled radiator's i3-12100, and even surpassing the liquid nitrogen overclocking to 5.6GHz Ryzen 3 5600G, and almost 8 seconds faster, with an amplitude of 18%.
On the CineBench R20 quad-core rankings, it is still outstanding, only 1 point lower than the Ryzen 3 3100, which is overclocked to 5.6GHz with liquid nitrogen.
In the GPUPI for CPU quad-core test, it was still the fastest in the silent frequency air cooling, even surpassing the Core i7-7740X with liquid nitrogen exceeding 7GHz.