Intel Core i3-4030Y vs Intel Core i3-4100M

The Intel Core i3-4030Y is an ULV (ultra low voltage) dual-core processor for ultrabooks and tablets which has been presented in Q2/2014. It is based on the Haswell architecture and manufactured in 22nm. Due to Hyperthreading, the two cores can handle up to four threads in parallel, leading to better utilization of the CPU. Each core offers a base speed of 1.6 GHz (no Turbo Boost support).

Haswell is the successor to the Ivy Bridge architecture with improvements on both GPU and CPU performance. The CPUs are produced in 22nm and offer an optimized branch prediction as well as additional execution ports, improving the performance per clock by almost 10 percent. Furthermore, new features like AVX2 and FMA should increase the performance in future applications.

The performance of the Core i3-4030Y is just slightly below the Ivy Bridge based Core i3-3217U (17 W TDP). However, when using new instructions such as AVX2, the performance can be significantly better. Thus, the CPU has sufficient power for office and multimedia purposes as well as most applications.

The integrated HD Graphics 4200 offers 20 Execution Units (EUs) clocked at 200 - 850 MHz (with Turbo Boost), making it somewhat faster than the former HD Graphics 4000 (at similar clocks). However, the HD 4200 is clearly slower than the HD 4400 of other ULV models (with a higher TDP).

The i3-4020Y is rated at a TDP of 11.5 watts (SDP 6 watts) including graphics card, memory controller, VRMs and the integrated chipset.  Therefore, the CPU is suited for very small ultrabooks or tablets.

The Intel Core i3-4100M is a middle-class dual-core processor for laptops launched in Q2 2013. It is based on the Haswell architecture and is manufactured in 22nm. Due to Hyper-Threading, the two cores can handle up to four threads in parallel leading to better utilization of the CPU. Each core offers a base speed of 2.5 GHz and includes no Turbo Boost support.

Haswell is the successor to the Ivy Bridge architecture with improvements on both GPU and CPU performance. The CPUs are produced in 22nm and offer an optimized branch prediction as well as additional execution ports. Furthermore, new features like AVX2 and FMA should increase the performance in future applications.

Due to these changes, the performance per clock has been improved by almost 10 percent compared to Ivy Bridge. Therefore, the i3-4100M is about as fast as the former Sandy Bridge model i5-2430M.

The integrated Intel HD Graphics 4600 offers 20 Execution Units (EUs) clocked at 400 MHz up to 1100 MHz with Turbo Boost, making it about 30 % faster than a similarly clocked HD 4000.

The i3-4100M is rated at a TDP of 37 W including the graphics card, memory controller and VRMs. Therefore, the CPU is suited for laptops 14-inches or greater.