Intel Core i3 9300 4-core LGA 1151

The Intel Core i3-9300 is a 9th Gen 4-core desktop processor that's fine for basic tasks and light upgrades on older LGA1151 boards. Single-core performance is solid, but multi-core is just average and there's no hyperthreading. Only worth buying if you find it near EUR 95 and already own a compatible 300 Series motherboard.

In our database, the i3-9300 posts a PassMark multi-core score of 7070 and a single-core score of 2533. The single-core number lands in the 71st percentile, which translates to solid but not spectacular responsiveness in everyday apps. The multi-core score sits at the 48th percentile, right around average for CPUs in our dataset. Four threads without hyperthreading means background tasks can pile up fast if you're the type to keep 30 browser tabs open while streaming music and running a virus scan.

The 4.3GHz boost clock helps with bursty workloads like launching programs or loading web pages. But sustained multi-threaded work, think video encoding or heavy spreadsheet crunching, will show the limits of those 4 cores pretty quickly. The 8MB of L3 cache is decent for this class of chip, and ECC memory support is a nice touch if you're building a small home server or a budget workstation where data integrity matters.

The competitor list here is a strange mix, but it's what our database surfaces. The AMD Ryzen 9 7900X is in a completely different universe, 12 cores, 24 threads, and multi-core scores that make the i3-9300 look like a calculator. But it also costs way more and needs a new AM5 board and DDR5 memory. Not a fair fight, but worth knowing the gap is enormous. The be quiet! Ryzen 3 Dark Rock Pro 5 is actually a CPU cooler, not a processor, so that's a data quirk more than a real competitor.

The Dell Xeon E5-2637 V2 is an older server chip with different priorities. It'll handle more simultaneous tasks in some server workloads but draws more power and needs a server board. The D&H Core i9 BX80673I99960X is a high-end desktop part that crushes the i3-9300 in every metric except price and power draw. For most people comparing these, the real question is whether you need a cheap drop-in upgrade or a full platform rebuild. The i3-9300 only wins if you already own a compatible board and want to spend as little as possible.

Value is tricky here because the price swings so much. At EUR 95 from the DE listing, this chip makes sense as a cheap upgrade for an existing 300 Series board. At EUR 348, you're getting fleeced, plain and simple. For that kind of money you could buy a modern Ryzen 5 or Core i5 that would run circles around the i3-9300. The USD listing at 268 also feels steep for a 9th Gen i3 in 2025. If you can find it near the low end of that EUR range, it's a reasonable budget pick. Otherwise, look elsewhere.

The Intel Core i3-9300 sits in that weird middle ground of older budget CPUs that still show up on store shelves. It's a 9th Gen chip with 4 cores, 4 threads, a 3.7GHz base clock, and a 4.3GHz boost. No hyperthreading here, which feels a bit stingy even for its era. You get 8MB of L3 cache, support for up to 64GB of DDR4, and a 62W TDP with a boxed cooler in the package. It's built for LGA1151 boards using Intel's 300 Series chipset, so if you're on an older 8th or 9th Gen platform, this could be a drop-in upgrade.

People searching for a cheap desktop processor for office work or light home use will find the i3-9300 does the basics fine. It's not a gaming monster and it won't impress anyone doing heavy multitasking, but for web browsing, documents, and older titles, it holds up. The included cooler saves you a few bucks, and the 62W power draw means it won't turn your PC into a space heater.

Pricing is all over the map depending on where you shop. We're seeing it listed from EUR 95 to EUR 348 across European retailers, with the best deal coming from the DE listing at EUR 95. That spread is wild, so don't just grab the first listing you see.

Skip this if you're building a new PC, doing serious gaming, or running multi-threaded workloads like video editing or heavy virtualization. The lack of hyperthreading and the dead-end LGA1151 platform make it a poor foundation for anything beyond basic use. If you need a budget server chip, the weak server score of 42.9 out of 100 in our database means you should look at used Xeon or Ryzen options instead. And if you see it priced anywhere near EUR 300 or above, run, don't walk, to a modern alternative.

Should you buy the Intel Core i3-9300? Only if you already have an LGA1151 300 Series motherboard and you can snag it at the low end of that EUR price range. As a cheap upgrade for an aging office PC or a light home server, it's fine. The single-core performance is good enough for snappy everyday use, and the low power draw is genuinely nice.

But if you're building a new system from scratch, don't do it. The platform is dead, the multi-core performance is average at best, and the price spread means you could easily overpay. A modern budget Ryzen or Core i3 from a newer generation will give you more cores, better efficiency, and an actual upgrade path for similar or less money.