SYSTEM ANALYZER

Rate My PC: Intel Core i3-12100TE + NVIDIA RTX 4000 SFF Ada Generation

Get a comprehensive performance analysis of your gaming rig with detailed benchmarks, bottleneck detection, and upgrade recommendations

Build Configuration

Select your components

PROCESSOR (CPU)

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GRAPHICS CARD (GPU)

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84 Score

Top 16% Ranking

84 / 100

HIGH-END

Power Build

Top 16% of systems. Excellent for 1440p Ultra or 4K High gaming.

1440p Ultra4K High

System Balance Analysis

CPU vs GPU performance ratio

CPU Bottleneck

CPU

70%

GPU

99%

Your CPU is limiting system performance. Consider upgrading to a faster processor to better utilize your GPU.

PROCESSOR

Intel Core i3-12100TE

2,475 Benchmark Score

Top 30% Market Ranking

View Full Specs →

GRAPHICS CARD

NVIDIA RTX 4000 SFF Ada Generation

117,088 Benchmark Score

Top 1% Market Ranking

View Full Specs →

Market Position

How your build compares to others

Budget

0-30

Mid-Range

30-60

High-End

60-85

Enthusiast

85-100

Your Build

Game Performance Benchmarks

Real-world 4K FPS in popular titles

View All Games →

Performance Insights

Tips to maximize your system

Strong Performance

Excellent for 1440p gaming. Most games will run at high/ultra settings smoothly.

Bottleneck Detected

CPU Bottleneck - Upgrading the weaker component will improve overall performance.

Compatible Games See what you can play Compare CPUs Find upgrades Compare GPUs Find upgrades

Performance Tiers Explained

90-100

Ultimate

4K Ultra gaming, VR ready, ray tracing enabled, professional workloads

4K 60+ FPS VR Ready

70-89

High-End

1440p Ultra or 4K High settings, excellent for modern AAA titles

1440p Ultra 4K High

50-69

Mid-Range

1080p Ultra or 1440p Medium, great value for most gamers

1080p Ultra 1440p Med

30-49

Entry Level

1080p Medium settings, suitable for eSports and older titles

1080p Med eSports

0-29

Legacy

Basic gaming, older titles, consider upgrading for modern games

720p-1080p Low Older Games

Balance and Bottleneck

This pairing of the Intel Core i3-12100TE with the NVIDIA RTX 4000 SFF Ada Generation creates a desktop configuration where the CPU is the clear limiting factor in most scenarios. The CPU sits at the 49th percentile among all processors, while the GPU ranks at the 95th percentile among all graphics cards. That 46-point gap between components means the GPU has substantially more compute headroom than the CPU can feed in many workloads.

The benchmark data confirms this imbalance. The CPU's average benchmark score is 2,475, placing it nearly dead-center in the processor landscape. Its nearest rivals — the Intel Xeon D-1540 at 2,467, the Intel Core i5-9500T at 2,493, and the Intel Core i5-8600 at 2,454 — all sit within a 1% margin. The GPU, meanwhile, averages 117,088 points and sits within 2.8% of the NVIDIA RTX A5500 Mobile and within 1.6% of the AMD Radeon PRO W7700. The GPU is a top-tier workstation part; the CPU is a mid-pack efficiency processor.

Because no measured FPS rows exist for this exact combination, all frame-rate discussion must be treated as estimated from the benchmark scores rather than observed results. The data shows a component pairing where the CPU's 4 cores and 8 threads will bottleneck the GPU in lightly-threaded, high-frame-rate gaming workloads. The RTX 4000 SFF Ada's 19.17 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and 280.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth are far beyond what a 4-core Alder Lake part can consistently utilize in real-time rendering.

For compute-heavy tasks like 3D rendering or GPU-accelerated video encoding, the bottleneck shifts. The CPU's Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 8,558 is competent but modest, meaning the CPU will still limit scene preparation, physics calculations, and other single-threaded or lightly-threaded tasks. In GPU-bound workloads like ray tracing or large dataset processing, the GPU becomes the dominant factor, and the CPU's slower single-core performance (Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1,208) becomes less relevant.

Power delivery tells a similar story. The CPU's 35W TDP and the GPU's 70W TDP mean the system draws very little power overall, with the suggested PSU rated at only 250W. This is a low-power build where thermal and electrical headroom are abundant. The practical bottleneck in most applications will be the CPU's 4-core/8-thread configuration, not power delivery or thermals.

FAQ

Q: How does the Intel Core i3-12100TE compare to its closest CPU rivals?

A: The i3-12100TE scores 2,475 on average, placing it 0.3% ahead of the Intel Xeon D-1540, 0.8% ahead of the Intel Core i5-8600, but 0.7% behind the Intel Core i5-9500T and 0.9% behind the Intel Core i5-1155G7. It is effectively a mid-pack processor, sitting at the 49th percentile of all CPUs.

Q: What is the GPU's performance position relative to other workstation cards?

A: The RTX 4000 SFF Ada Generation scores 117,088 on average, placing it at the 95th percentile of all GPUs. It is 1.6% behind the AMD Radeon PRO W7700, 0.3% behind the NVIDIA GB10, but 2.4% ahead of the NVIDIA Tesla V100 SXM2 16 GB and 2.8% ahead of the NVIDIA RTX A5500 Mobile.

Q: What memory options does the CPU support?

A: The Intel Core i3-12100TE supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration. It does not support ECC memory. The platform uses Intel Socket 1700.

Q: What are the GPU's memory specifications?

A: The RTX 4000 SFF Ada Generation has 20 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 160-bit bus, providing 280.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The memory clock is 1750 MHz, rated at 14 Gbps effective.

Q: Is there measured game performance data for this exact CPU+GPU combination?

A: No. The FACT PACK contains no measured FPS rows for this exact combination. All frame-rate analysis must be treated as estimates derived from the benchmark scores of each component.

Q: What is the physical footprint of the GPU?

A: The RTX 4000 SFF Ada Generation is a dual-slot card measuring 168 mm (6.6 inches) in length and 69 mm (2.7 inches) in height. It requires no power connectors and has a 70W TDP, with a suggested PSU of 250W.

Q: What PCIe interface does the GPU use?

A: The GPU uses a PCIe 4.0 x16 bus interface. The CPU provides PCIe Gen 5 with 20 lanes (CPU only), meaning the GPU has a modern, high-bandwidth connection available on this platform.

Usage Scenarios

High-Refresh Gaming: This is not an ideal pairing for high-refresh gaming. The CPU's 49th percentile ranking and 4-core/8-thread configuration will bottleneck the GPU in most gaming workloads, especially at lower resolutions where the CPU must feed frames faster. The GPU's 95th percentile performance is capable of very high frame rates, but the CPU's modest single-core score of 1,208 in Cinebench R23 will limit how many frames can actually be delivered.

Streaming: The RTX 4000 SFF Ada's 192 tensor cores and Ada Lovelace architecture provide hardware-accelerated encoding capabilities, which offload streaming work from the CPU. This makes the GPU the strong point for streaming. However, the CPU's limited 4 cores and 8 threads mean that running a game and streaming simultaneously will strain the processor, as the 8,558 multi-core score in Cinebench R23 indicates modest overall throughput.

Video Editing: This workload benefits from the GPU's 20 GB of VRAM and 280.0 GB/s bandwidth, which can handle large video buffers and effects processing. The GPU's 95th percentile ranking means timeline rendering and effects will be fast. The CPU's 2,475 average score is adequate for basic editing but will slow down export times and multi-track processing compared to higher-core-count processors.

3D Rendering: The GPU excels here. With 19.17 TFLOPS of FP32 compute, 48 ray-tracing cores, and 20 GB of VRAM, this card can handle complex scenes and ray-traced renders efficiently. The CPU will be the bottleneck for scene setup, physics simulation, and any CPU-based rendering, given its 4-core configuration and 8,558 Cinebench R23 multi-core score.

Software Development: Compilation workloads are CPU-bound, and this processor's mid-pack performance (49th percentile) means compile times will be moderate. The 4 cores and 8 threads handle typical development tasks adequately, and the 12 MB of shared L3 cache helps with working sets. The GPU is largely irrelevant for most development tasks, making this a capable but not fast development machine.

Student and Office Work: This configuration is overkill for typical office tasks. The GPU's 95th percentile performance and 20 GB of VRAM are far beyond what word processing, spreadsheets, or web browsing require. The CPU's 35W TDP and the GPU's 70W TDP mean the system runs cool and quiet, which is excellent for a shared or personal workspace. The 4.00 GHz boost clock ensures responsive single-threaded performance for everyday applications.

Who Should Build It

The primary target user for this build is a professional who needs serious GPU compute in a small, low-power desktop. The GPU's 95th percentile ranking and 20 GB of VRAM make it suitable for GPU-accelerated workloads like scientific computing, AI inference, and CAD rendering. The 168 mm card length and dual-slot design fit in compact chassis, and the 70W GPU TDP means no power connector is required, simplifying installation.

Content creators working with large video files or complex 3D scenes will benefit from the GPU's memory capacity and bandwidth. The 20 GB VRAM exceeds what most consumer cards offer, allowing larger textures and bigger datasets to stay in GPU memory. The CPU's 4 cores handle light-to-moderate workloads, so this suits creators who spend most of their time in GPU-accelerated applications rather than CPU-heavy rendering.

Gamers at 1440p or 4K resolution will see the GPU perform well, but the CPU will hold back frame rates in CPU-bound scenes. This is not a build for competitive esports at high refresh rates. It is better suited to visually demanding titles where the GPU does most of the work.

Developers working on GPU-accelerated code, machine learning models, or data processing will find the RTX 4000 SFF Ada's CUDA and tensor cores valuable. The 192 tensor cores accelerate AI workloads, and the 48 ray-tracing cores help with graphics development. The CPU's modest performance means compile times will be average, but the GPU accelerates the actual compute work.

Students in engineering, computer science, or digital arts programs will find this a capable workstation that runs quietly and sips power. The 35W CPU and 70W GPU combined with a 250W suggested PSU mean low electricity costs and minimal heat output. Small business workstations that need professional-grade graphics for design, architecture, or data visualization will benefit from the GPU's workstation-class features without requiring a large tower case.

Benchmark Performance

The CPU's average benchmark score of 2,475 places it at the 49th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals are tightly clustered: the Intel Xeon D-1540 scores 2,467 (0.3% behind), the Intel Core i5-8600 scores 2,454 (0.8% behind), the Intel Core i5-9500T scores 2,493 (0.7% ahead), and the Intel Core i5-1155G7 scores 2,496 (0.9% ahead). This places the i3-12100TE in a dead heat with several older mid-range processors, confirming its position as an efficiency-focused chip rather than a performance leader.

The Cinebench results show a consistent pattern. The multi-core scores scale with the processor's modest core count: 862 in R15, 3,594 in R20, and 8,558 in R23. Single-core scores are 121 in R15, 507 in R20, and 1,208 in R23. These numbers indicate a processor that handles single-threaded tasks reasonably well thanks to its 4.00 GHz boost clock, but multi-threaded workloads are limited by the 4-core/8-thread design.

The GPU's average benchmark score of 117,088 places it at the 95th percentile of all GPUs. In Geekbench, it scores 124,812 in OpenCL and 109,364 in Vulkan. The nearest rivals are the NVIDIA GB10 (117,393, 0.3% ahead), the AMD Radeon PRO W7700 (118,976, 1.6% ahead), the NVIDIA Tesla V100 SXM2 16 GB (114,395, 2.4% behind), and the NVIDIA RTX A5500 Mobile (113,944, 2.8% behind). This places the card in the upper echelon of workstation GPUs.

The combined percentile for this pair is 72, reflecting the significant imbalance between a mid-pack CPU and a top-tier GPU. The combined picture is a system that excels at GPU-accelerated tasks but falls short in CPU-heavy workloads. The data suggests this is a specialized workstation rather than a balanced general-purpose build.

GPU Analysis

The NVIDIA RTX 4000 SFF Ada Generation is built on the AD104 chip using TSMC's 5 nm process. The chip contains 35,800 million transistors on a 294 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 121.8 million per mm². This is a dense, modern design that achieves high performance in a 70W power envelope.

The memory subsystem consists of 20 GB of GDDR6 on a 160-bit bus, providing 280.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The memory clock is 1750 MHz, rated at 14 Gbps effective. This is a substantial amount of VRAM for a compact workstation card, allowing large datasets and high-resolution textures to reside entirely in GPU memory. The bandwidth is adequate for the GPU's compute capabilities, though not exceptional compared to wider-bus designs.

The GPU has 6,144 shading units, 192 texture mapping units, and 64 raster operations units. It operates at a base clock of 720 MHz and a boost clock of 1,560 MHz. This configuration yields a pixel rate of 99.84 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 299.5 GTexel/s. The FP32 performance is 19.17 TFLOPS, with FP16 performance at the same 19.17 TFLOPS (1:1 ratio), indicating this is not a card that doubles throughput for reduced precision.

For ray tracing and AI workloads, the GPU includes 48 ray-tracing cores and 192 tensor cores. The ray-tracing cores accelerate real-time ray-traced rendering, while the tensor cores accelerate AI inference and DLSS-style upscaling. The 20 GB VRAM combined with these tensor cores makes this a capable card for machine learning inference and training of smaller models.

The benchmark scores reflect this hardware. The Geekbench OpenCL score of 124,812 and Vulkan score of 109,364 are both strong, placing the card at the 95th percentile. The card outperforms the Radeon PRO W7700 by 1.6% in average score, despite having a narrower memory bus. The 95th percentile ranking means this card outperforms roughly 95% of all GPUs in the database, making it a serious compute device in a small form factor.

CPU Analysis

The Intel Core i3-12100TE is a 4-core, 8-thread processor from the Alder Lake family, built on Intel's 10 nm process. It has a base clock of 2.10 GHz and a boost clock of 4.00 GHz. The TDP is just 35W, making this an unusually power-efficient desktop processor. The die size is 163 mm², and the chip is manufactured by Intel.

The cache hierarchy consists of 80 KB of L1 cache per core, 1.25 MB of L2 cache per core, and 12 MB of shared L3 cache. This is a reasonable cache configuration for a 4-core chip, providing each core with fast local storage and a shared pool for inter-core communication. The memory controller supports both DDR4 and DDR5 in a dual-channel configuration, giving builders flexibility in memory choice. ECC memory is not supported.

The CPU uses the Intel Socket 1700 platform and provides PCIe Gen 5 with 20 lanes (CPU only). This is a modern interface that provides ample bandwidth for the RTX 4000 SFF Ada's PCIe 4.0 x16 connection. The integrated graphics are UHD Graphics 730, which provide a basic display output capability independent of the discrete GPU.

The benchmark results place this CPU at the 49th percentile, with an average score of 2,475. The Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 8,558 is respectable for a 35W chip but puts it in the same class as older 6-core processors like the i5-8600 (which scores 2,454 on average). The single-core score of 1,208 in R23 is decent, reflecting the 4.00 GHz boost clock. The launch MSRP is $125.

The nearest rivals show how this chip fits into the broader market. The Xeon D-1540 (a server chip) scores nearly identically, as do the i5-9500T and i5-8600. This means the i3-12100TE offers performance similar to mid-range processors from a few generations ago, but at a much lower power draw. For workloads that are lightly threaded and bursty, the 4.00 GHz boost clock provides responsive performance. For sustained multi-threaded loads, the 4 cores and 35W power limit will cap throughput.

Upgrade Path and Platform

The Intel Socket 1700 platform supports 12th Gen processors, and the Alder Lake architecture is the foundation of this build. The platform provides PCIe Gen 5 with 20 lanes from the CPU, which exceeds the requirements of the RTX 4000 SFF Ada's PCIe 4.0 x16 interface. Memory support includes both DDR4 and DDR5 in dual-channel mode, allowing builders to choose between cost-effective DDR4 or higher-bandwidth DDR5.

The GPU's power requirements are minimal. The 70W TDP and lack of power connectors mean the card draws all its power from the PCIe slot. The suggested PSU is 250W, which is very low for a system with a 95th-percentile GPU. This headroom means the current power supply is unlikely to be a bottleneck, and there is no need for an upgrade in this area unless adding more components.

The most sensible next upgrade for this build is the CPU. The 4-core/8-thread i3-12100TE is the limiting factor in most workloads, and the Socket 1700 platform supports higher-core-count processors from the same generation. Upgrading to a processor with more cores would shift the bottleneck toward the GPU, which is currently underutilized in CPU-bound tasks. The 12 MB L3 cache and 35W TDP are modest, and a higher-tier CPU would better complement the GPU's capabilities.

The GPU itself is near the top of its class (95th percentile), so an upgrade here would yield diminishing returns. The 20 GB VRAM is generous, and the 280.0 GB/s bandwidth is sufficient for most workstation tasks. The PCIe 4.0 x16 interface is fully supported by the CPU's PCIe Gen 5 lanes, so there is no platform limitation on GPU bandwidth.

Memory is another upgrade path. The dual-channel DDR4/DDR5 support means builders can increase capacity or switch between memory types, though the CPU's memory controller will limit speeds to what the chip supports. For most workloads, increasing memory capacity from a base configuration would help more than increasing speed, given the CPU's modest compute capabilities.

Build Overview

This is a desktop-class build pairing the Intel Core i3-12100TE with the NVIDIA RTX 4000 SFF Ada Generation. The CPU is a 4-core/8-thread Alder Lake processor with a 35W TDP, designed for efficiency rather than raw performance. The GPU is a workstation-class Ada Lovelace card with 20 GB of VRAM and a 70W TDP, designed for compact, low-power professional systems.

The combined percentile for this pair is 72, reflecting a system that is well above average overall but heavily skewed toward GPU performance. The CPU's 49th percentile ranking and the GPU's 95th percentile ranking create a lopsided configuration where the GPU is the dominant component by a wide margin.

This is best described as a GPU-centric workstation in a compact desktop form factor. The RTX 4000 SFF Ada Generation delivers top-tier compute performance in a small package, while the i3-12100TE provides adequate CPU support for professional applications. The overall tier is solidly mid-to-high, driven almost entirely by the GPU's exceptional performance relative to the broader GPU market.

The build class is desktop, and the low power requirements of both components (35W CPU, 70W GPU, 250W suggested PSU) make this suitable for small form factor cases and environments where noise and heat are concerns. The data indicates a specialized tool for GPU-accelerated professional work rather than a balanced gaming or general-purpose PC.

Rate My PC: Intel Core i3-12100TE + NVIDIA RTX 4000 SFF Ada Generation

Power Build

System Balance Analysis

Intel Core i3-12100TE

NVIDIA RTX 4000 SFF Ada Generation

Market Position

Game Performance Benchmarks

Cyberpunk 2077

Red Dead Redemption 2

Microsoft Flight Simulator

Control

Call of Duty: Warzone

Fortnite

Performance Insights

Strong Performance

Bottleneck Detected

Performance Tiers Explained

Ultimate

High-End

Mid-Range

Entry Level

Legacy

Balance and Bottleneck

FAQ

Usage Scenarios

Who Should Build It

Benchmark Performance

GPU Analysis

CPU Analysis

Upgrade Path and Platform

Build Overview

4K Gaming Performance

Cyberpunk 2077

Red Dead Redemption 2

Microsoft Flight Simulator

Control

Call of Duty: Warzone

Fortnite

1440p Gaming Performance

Cyberpunk 2077

Red Dead Redemption 2

Microsoft Flight Simulator

Control

Call of Duty: Warzone

Fortnite

1080p Gaming Performance

Cyberpunk 2077

Red Dead Redemption 2

Microsoft Flight Simulator

Control

Call of Duty: Warzone

Fortnite

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