Intel Skylake Core i3 processors are powerful enough for high-end gaming

Many gamers opt for more expensive quad-core processors when building a gaming rig, whether it’s out of habit or because they require the performance for multitasking and rendering.

However, when it comes to pure gaming rigs, Intel’s latest generation of consumer dual-core CPUs offer good performance at a much lower price.

These processors may very well be a better choice than more expensive Core i5 or Core i7 CPUs if you are building a rig purely for gaming.

In order to determine whether Intel’s Core i3 Skylake CPUs are worth buying, we take a look at their gaming performance.

Benchmarks

Below are a series of benchmarks conducted by AnandTech, detailing the gaming performance difference between Intel Skylake Core i3 and other processors:

Verdict

While they may not provide enough power for strenous multitasking or Virtual Reality, Intel’s Core i3 Skylake processors are perfectly fine for gaming at Full HD.

The above benchmarks show a negligible loss in average FPS when using a Core i3 processor, and gamers would see better performance by improving their GPU over their processor.

That being said, buying a quad-core processor does have its advantages, as these CPUs will begin to see better performance in DirectX 12 and Vulkan while delivering generally better performance in multiple strenous tasks.