Intel Core i3-4130 (Haswell) Review

Performance Analysis

Sadly, as Intel has only allowed K-series CPUs to access the baseclock straps that we saw with the likes of the Core i5-4670K, overclocking any other Haswell CPU means increasing the baseclock along with other system bus speeds. As such, you're very limited when it comes to overclocking, although you can usually bump the baseclock up by a couple of megahertz without too many problems. Even so, at stock speed we saw some encouraging results that cement the fact that Haswell, while not offering ground breaking performance compared to Ivy Bridge, is noticeably faster than Sandy Bridge CPUs.

For example in our image editing test, the Core i3-4130 actually bettered the venerable Core i5-2500K and was miles in front of the Sandy Bridge-based Core i3-2100 and Ivy Bridge-based Core i3-3220. While the Haswell CPU does sport Hyper-Threading, this still isn't enough to bridge the gap between it and most true quad core CPUs with the stock speed Core i5-2500K streaking away to a substantial lead in the video encoding test. Still, the Core i3-4130 enjoyed a hefty boost over its Sandy Bridge equivalent and was also faster than AMD's A10-6800K at stock speed too.

Overall, the comparatively poor video encoding test (which incidentally doesn't make use of any of the HD Graphics-based performance enhancements) leaves the Core i3-4130 a long way behind it's K-series sibling, the Core i5-4670K. Be under no illusions - the extra outlay for the latter is more than worth it if photo and video editing are things you do a lot of. However, the difference between it and the Sandy Bridge CPU was massive and it also enjoyed a near 100-point lead over the Ivy Bridge Core i3 too.


Our The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim test clearly shows what happens when you mix a powerful GPU, in this case a GeForce GTX 680 2GB, with a lowly CPU and a fairly undemanding game, hardware-wise. There's not too steep a drop off until you reach the Core i5-2500K, but from here on in the CPU is a severe bottleneck, with the Core i3-4130 some 60% slower than the Core i7-4770K. Clearly this is very game dependant but in many cases it's not always the best policy to buy the best graphics card you can afford.

The Shogun 2: Total War CPU Test loves lots of fast cores and it's no surprise, then, that we see the picture outlined above picked out in even finer detail here. The Core i3-4130 really struggled, coming second from last, albeit we don't have older Core i3 numbers here for comparison - they'd clearly do worse. Moving on to Cinebench, and again the lack of four physical cores hurt the Intel CPU, although it still managed to pip the AMD A10-6800K at its stock speed, while bettering its Ivy Bridge and Sandy Bridge siblings by large margins.


Conclusion

As much as we'd like to avoid a repeat conclusion of our other Haswell CPU reviews, it's the same old story - the Core i3-4130 is certainly faster than it's Ivy Bridge predecessors, but not enough to warrant an upgrade. However, the same can't be said if you've got a Sandy Bridge Pentium or Core i3 such as the Core i3-2100 - here you'll notice a substantial improvement, but then you'd hope so too given they're two CPU generations apart. It's also true that the Core i3-4130 out-does the AMD A10-6800K in most 2D tests with a huge lead in the image editing test and even pipping it in the video encoding test despite the AMD APU's two core advantage.

As such, the tide has turned somewhat in Intel's favour at the low end, as it increases its 2D performance and makes AMD's FM2 APUs a sensible option only for setups without a discrete GPU. Of course, if you're not into 3D gaming, then the Intel CPU is again our firm favourite - in 2D tasks it outstrips similarly-priced AMD CPUs that we've tested. We'll hopefully be taking a look at a more comparable AMD CPU soon so you might want to hold on a while till we've put it through it's paces. However, the Core i3-4130 provides a lot of bang for your buck, especially if you combine it with a cheap LGA1150 motherboard.