Intel Core i3-8109U vs Intel Core i3-8121U. Specifications, performance, tests

Background information about the processors being compared, series, generation and market segment.

• CPU group
  Intel Core i 8000U Intel Core i 8000U
• Family
  Intel Core i3 Intel Core i3
• Generation
  8 8
• Segment
  Mobile Mobile

Core counts, threads, cache and clock modes describe the CPU configuration. Performance depends on the workload and comparable measured results.

• Base Frequency
  3 GHz 2.2 GHz
• Core architecture
  normal normal
• CPU Cores
  2 2
• CPU Threads
  4 4
• Hyperthreading / SMT
  Yes Yes
• Overclocking
  No No
• Turbo Frequency (1 Core)
  3.6 GHz 3.2 GHz
• Turbo Frequency (2 Cores)
  3.2 GHz 2.7 GHz

Internal Graphics does not affect the performance of the CPU, performs the work of the graphics card in its absence or on mobile devices.

• DirectX Version
  12 -
• Execution units
  48 -
• Generation
  9.5 -
• GPU Frequency
  300 MHz -
• GPU name
  Intel Iris Plus Graphics 655 no iGPU
• GPU Turbo
  1050 MHz No turbo
• Max. displays
  3 -
• Max. GPU Memory
  32 GB -
• Release date
  Q4/2017 -
• Shader
  384 -
• Technology
  14 nm -

Built-in codecs used to encode and decode content. Significantly speeds up the required operations.

• AV1
  No No
• H.264 / AVC
  Decode / Encode No
• h265 / HEVC (8 bit)
  Decode / Encode No
• h265 / HEVC (10 bit)
  Decode / Encode No
• JPEG
  Decode / Encode No
• VC-1
  Decode No
• VP8
  Decode / Encode No
• VP9
  Decode / Encode No

Types, channel quantity of RAM supported by Intel Core i3-8121U and Intel Core i3-8109U. Depending on the motherboards, higher or lower memory frequencies may be supported.

• ECC
  Yes No
• Max. Memory
  32 GB -
• Memory channels
  2 2
• Memory type
  DDR4-2400 SO-DIMM DDR4-2400 SO-DIMM
• PCIe lanes
  16 16
• PCIe version
  3.0 3.0

• AES-NI
  Yes Yes

Compare the TDP requirements of TDP Intel Core i3-8109U and Intel Core i3-8121U Power specifications describe different manufacturer limits. TDP, base power and maximum turbo power are separate values; they do not establish measured system consumption.

• TDP (PL1, legacy label)
  28 W 15 W
• TDP down
  20 W -

Architecture, interfaces, additional instructions supported by Intel Core i3-8109U and Intel Core i3-8121U, virtual machine technologies and process technology.

• Architecture
  Coffee Lake U Cannon Lake U
• Instruction set (ISA)
  x86-64 (64 bit) x86-64 (64 bit)
• ISA extensions
  SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AVX2 SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AVX2, AVX-512
• L3-Cache
  4 MB 4 MB
• Release date
  Q4/2017 Q2/2018
• Socket
  BGA 1528 BGA 1356
• Technology
  14 nm 10 nm
• Virtualization
  VT-x, VT-x EPT, VT-d VT-x, VT-x EPT, VT-d