The Intel Core i3-8300 is a new quad-core processor based on the “Coffee Lake” silicon, part of the company’s second wave of 8th Generation Core processors, to expand choice on its 300-series chipset platform. This part sits bang in the middle of the Core i3-8100 quad-core and unlocked i3-8350K quad-core chip.
AMD’s successful Ryzen family of processors forced Intel to increase mainstream desktop processor core counts by 50-100 percent. The Core i5 and Core i7 series received 50 percent increases and are made up of 6-core parts, whereas the Core i3 series, which were dual-core until the 7th generation, received a 100 percent core-count increase and are now quad-core.
Within the Core i3 series, Intel nurtures two distinct sub-variants, the Core i3-x100 series and i3-x300 series. The two are usually differentiated by L3 cache amount. i3-x100 series SKUs from past generations featured 3 MB of L3 cache and were priced under the $140-mark, while the i3-x300 series SKUs packed 4 MB of L3 cache and were priced anywhere between $140-$180.
With a 100 percent core-count increase comes a proportionate increase in L3 cache size. The Core i3-8100 which was part of Intel’s first-wave of “Coffee Lake” chips, has 6 MB of it, while the i3-8350K has 8 MB. The new i3-8300 resembles the latter and comes with 8 MB of L3 cache.
Core i3 series desktop SKUs historically lacked both Turbo Boost and HyperThreading, and the same is the case with the Core i3-8300. A minor 100 MHz in clock speed differentiates the i3-8100 from the i3-8300, besides L3 cache size. The i3-8300 is clocked at 3.70 GHz, 100 MHz higher than the i3-8100. The integrated graphics solution is almost the same between the two; you get UHD Graphics 630, armed with 24 execution units and 350 MHz nominal clocks, although the iGPU boost frequency is 50 MHz higher on the i3-8300, at 1.15 GHz.
The 100 MHz speed bump Intel coupled with 33 percent more L3 cache results in the Core i3-8300 being priced $20 (20%) higher than the i3-8100, at $139. Unlike the i3-8350K, it lacks an unlocked base-clock multiplier. In this review, we examine if the i3-8300 has enough muscle to warrant its increased price over the cheaper i3-8100 and similarly priced AMD Ryzen 3 1400.
| Price | Cores / Threads |
Base Clock |
Max. Boost |
L3 Cache |
TDP | Architecture | Process | Socket | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pentium G4560 | $60 | 2 / 4 | 3.5 GHz | N/A | 3 MB | 54 W | Kaby Lake | 14 nm | LGA 1151 |
| Pentium G5600 | $95 | 2 / 4 | 3.9 GHz | N/A | 4 MB | 54 W | Coffee Lake | 14 nm | LGA 1151 |
| Ryzen 3 1200 | $100 | 4 / 4 | 3.1 GHz | 3.4 GHz | 8 MB | 65 W | Zen | 14 nm | AM4 |
| Ryzen 3 2200G | $100 | 4 / 4 | 3.5 GHz | 3.7 GHz | 4 MB | 65 W | Zen | 14 nm | AM4 |
| Core i3-7100 | $115 | 2 / 4 | 3.9 GHz | N/A | 3 MB | 51 W | Kaby Lake | 14 nm | LGA 1151 |
| Core i3-8100 | $120 | 4 / 4 | 3.6 GHz | N/A | 6 MB | 65 W | Coffee Lake | 14 nm | LGA 1151 |
| Ryzen 3 1300X | $110 | 4 / 4 | 3.4 GHz | 3.7 GHz | 8 MB | 65 W | Zen | 14 nm | AM4 |
| Core i3-7300 | $160 | 2 / 4 | 4.0 GHz | N/A | 4 MB | 51 W | Kaby Lake | 14 nm | LGA 1151 |
| Core i3-8300 | $145 | 4 / 4 | 3.7 GHz | N/A | 8 MB | 65 W | Coffee Lake | 14 nm | LGA 1151 |
| Ryzen 5 1400 | $140 | 4 / 8 | 3.2 GHz | 3.4 GHz | 8 MB | 65 W | Zen | 14 nm | AM4 |
| Ryzen 5 2400G | $160 | 4 / 8 | 3.6 GHz | 3.9 GHz | 4 MB | 65 W | Zen | 14 nm | AM4 |
| Core i3-8350K | $175 | 4 / 4 | 4.0 GHz | N/A | 8 MB | 91 W | Coffee Lake | 14 nm | LGA 1151 |
| Ryzen 5 1500X | $160 | 4 / 8 | 3.5 GHz | 3.7 GHz | 16 MB | 65 W | Zen | 14 nm | AM4 |
| Core i5-7400 | $180 | 4 / 4 | 3.0 GHz | 3.5 GHz | 6 MB | 65 W | Kaby Lake | 14 nm | LGA 1151 |
| Core i5-8400 | $180 | 6 / 6 | 2.8 GHz | 4.0 GHz | 9 MB | 65 W | Coffee Lake | 14 nm | LGA 1151 |
| Core i5-7500 | $200 | 4 / 4 | 3.4 GHz | 3.8 GHz | 6 MB | 65 W | Kaby Lake | 14 nm | LGA 1151 |
| Ryzen 5 1600 | $190 | 6 / 12 | 3.2 GHz | 3.6 GHz | 16 MB | 65 W | Zen | 14 nm | AM4 |
