Last week, we reviewed the AMD A10 6790K, the second fastest “Richland” APU (by 100 MHz) and were overall pleased with the results. Going up against the Ivy Bridge powered Core i3 3240, it outperformed the Intel chip in most desktop applications, and unlike the Core i3, its integrated graphics performance was usable in many games using settings higher than Xbox 360 or PS3 would use.

Perhaps we can’t be blamed for not considering the existence of Haswell based Core i3 CPUs, as they were quietly launched in September with little to no fanfare. Intel usually don’t send samples for low end products like the Core i3, so we went and got our own to do this review.