Intel Core i3 7100 's Advantages
Higher base frequency (3.9GHz vs 3.3GHz)
Lower TDP (51W vs 60W)
Intel Core i3 12100 's Advantages
Released 5 years late
Better graphics card performance
Higher specification of memory (4800 vs 2400)
Larger memory bandwidth (76.8GB/s vs 35.76GB/s)
Newer PCIe version (5.0 vs 3.0)
Larger L3 cache size (12MB vs 3MB)
More modern manufacturing process (10nm vs 14nm)