Intel Pentium G3258 CPU Review: Haswell, Unlocked, For $75

[de5_Roy]

Asrock H81M-DGS R2.0 and H97 pro4 both have overclocking options and Asus recently announced it was going to be added to some non Z boards.

going by past events, these announcements and motherboards seem squarely aimed to sell as many units as fast as possible before intel makes mobo companies release a "bios fix" to "fix" the non-z overclocking. if users have bios auto update enabled or update the bios post-fix or buy these motherboards with "fixed" bios, they'd be out of o.c. options.
if intel fully abstains from "fixing" non-z overclocking, only then these motherboards have some value in terms of o.c.ing. regular, stock usage won't vary. question is if people willing to take that risk because with a cheapo z-chipset mobo, they can still o.c. the pentium a.e. and upgrade to a devil's canyon i5/i7 and o.c. that too. unlike the pentium, o.c.ing unlocked quads will likely benefit from better-implemented power delivery than those usually found on h-chipsets.

 

[logainofhades]

I was not even aware of the non z overclocking till I read a manual on that H81 board. I had seen somewhere that it had multicore enhancement, so I downloaded the manual to verify it. Funny what you can find, that you were not even looking for. :lol:

 

[de5_Roy]

I was not even aware of the non z overclocking till I read a manual on that H81 board. I had seen somewhere that it had multicore enhancement, so I downloaded the manual to verify it. Funny what you can find, that you were not even looking for. :lol:

yeah, those two are different. non-z o.c. is for enabling cpu o.c. on other chipsets while mce is for applying top single core turbo clockrate on all cores when x.m.p. is enabled.. or simply enabled by default - for core i5 and i7 cpus, both locked and unlocked (stock). iirc last time, asrock and msi started non-z o.c. and gigabyte released a board later. asus never joined. this time it's all of them trying to sell mobos with pentium a.e.

edit: non-z o.c. combo'ed with m.c.e. takes away any reason to spend $240 for an unlocked core i5 or i7. however, mce is riskier than non-z o.c. because of it being manufacturer-applied auto o.c. which sometimes use high vcore.

 

[logainofhades]

Yea, the H81 board I mentioned has both. I have not investigated what other boards have both yet.

 

[somebodyspecial]

Asrock H81M-DGS R2.0 and H97 pro4 both have overclocking options and Asus recently announced it was going to be added to some non Z boards.

going by past events, these announcements and motherboards seem squarely aimed to sell as many units as fast as possible before intel makes mobo companies release a "bios fix" to "fix" the non-z overclocking. if users have bios auto update enabled or update the bios post-fix or buy these motherboards with "fixed" bios, they'd be out of o.c. options.
if intel fully abstains from "fixing" non-z overclocking, only then these motherboards have some value in terms of o.c.ing. regular, stock usage won't vary. question is if people willing to take that risk because with a cheapo z-chipset mobo, they can still o.c. the pentium a.e. and upgrade to a devil's canyon i5/i7 and o.c. that too. unlike the pentium, o.c.ing unlocked quads will likely benefit from better-implemented power delivery than those usually found on h-chipsets.

There are tools that allow you to unhide etc options in the bios. Whatever they FIX you can unfix most likely via modbin, Cbrom, winhex or other tools (been a while since I played in there, might be better tools now). Once it's in there, without hardware changes you can undo whatever Intel tells them to do to piss us off with

Only one guy needs to fix it (and there are many willing no doubt) and release it where people can get the hacked version and it can be done for every new bios version after that too. Once the cat is out of the bag and the hardware can do it, you can't undo it. At worst it becomes a game of cat and mouse which always favors the hackers. The tools above are not illegal and are used all the time by OEM's who want to hide features from their users, or in my case put my company name/logo inside the bios so when you boot you see MY page instead of Asus or whatever. Branding. You could easily mod the post screen pics and more. Serious functionality is in there, but a huge portion is hidden even from major OC boards etc. Most of us shouldn't be mucking around in this way but there are people well versed in bios modding and most learned from doing it for company purposes (like branding etc). It's not that complicated really, just that it exposes a LOT of stuff most would not understand in settings.

https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=87849.0
MSI discussions on it, you can find others. I believe that's an MSI HQ guy responding with all the tools I mentioned above to someone asking how to do it. The MSI guy even links to a package with all the tools you'd want to get it done. That was just a quick google to illustrate the points above but it's old so I'd get more info on whatever is the latest. I haven't modded a bios since I moved and dropped my PC business. Intel can maybe remove it later from people haven't heard of google, but that's about it. The motherboard makers would be sued if it was illegal to put it in there to begin with (a user can do whatever they want anyway if you don't care about warranty or can fix it with a re-flash) but if they were worried they wouldn't have spent the R&D to do this without Intel help which it seems they did. This type of thing has been done before by board makers so no shocker here.

 

[Casecutter]

I like this don't get me wrong it’s a great CPU, but if it’s got to be shackled to a "Z" mobo I don't know that and a cooler kind of "pops" the budget. vs a "H" series mobo, an i3 no OC'n so just a stock cooler. If you’re paying more than $90 for the mobo it all goes out the window.

Would’ve like to see the FX-6300, on a 970 and a cooler in the mix just to see what adding $20 looks like.

What lunyone bundled is nice, might have said the 280 while a good price/perf a 270X feel more in line with that CPU and overall budget... Them I would've gone with like a Corsair CX500M, but looking those being deals is fairly nil.

 

[cub_fanatic]

Now all Intel needs to do is create a mobile CPU with 4 cores and no HT and they will have a CPU for almost everyone. Right now, enthusiasts who want a decent gaming laptop are forced to buy one of the i7s with 4 cores + HT. The next step down is an i7/i5/i3 with 2 cores + HT then the Pentium/Celerons with 2 cores + no HT. There is nothing in between the quad core + HT and dual core + HT chips. Instead of making the "mainstream" level mobile i7 a slightly better than the mobile i5 dual core + HT, they should make them quad cores with HT disabled. I've always wondered why Intel has never released a "core" series quad core + no HT mobile CPU since the Core2 Quad Mobile Q9000 and Q9100. Like an unlocked desktop dual core, a quad core + no HT mobile is another gap that needs to be filled in their lineup and there is certainly a market for it.

 

[cub_fanatic]

Could get a Q9550 for that price on Ebay nice try Intel, but that would kick the crap out of that weak Pentium it's reasonably on par with the i5. Way too damn expensive for what it is in reality.

I doubt it would "kick the crap" out of this Pentium in just gaming but it would definitely do better in multi-threaded non-gaming applications. In single-threaded apps, the Pentium would kick the crap out of the C2Q. It will also kick its butt in upgradeability since you can easily slap an i7 or i5 in it and it has DDR3, PCIe 3.0, SATA III, USB 3.0 so there is that. But, in terms of bang for your buck, there are some great old 775 and even 1156 parts you can find on ebay that can still run all the newest games for less than an i3 costs alone. I just bought a Q6600 for $35 and a Asus P5QL for $40 on ebay. The most expensive part was the 8 GB DDR2 800 RAM that cost me $60 (4x 2GB). I had all the rest of the parts including an HD7950 boost. I am playing every game maxed out in 1080p including the newest games like Wolfenstein, Watch Dogs and Thief. I'm getting at least 30 FPS and up to 60 on those games which isn't bad for a rig that I paid $135 for. It isn't the best motherboard but it allows me to OC the CPU to just over 3 GHz by only raising the FSB speed to 1333 (it can go up to 1600) and the GPU runs on a PCIe 2.0 x16 slot. There are so many very nice PC parts floating around ebay for dirt cheap right now that are easily as good as or better than most low to mid range new parts. If you are fine with no warranty they are great budget buys. I actually downgraded from an Ivy Bridge i7 3770k, Sabertooth Z77, 16GB DDR3 1600 and GTX 660 SLI to this Q6600. I can't tell the difference in gaming and in some games, the 7950 boost performs better. I sold the Ivy Bridge CPU/Mobo/RAM + 660 SLI parts for a little under $1,000 and bought their replacements for a little over $300 ($130 for CPU/Mobo/RAM & $200 for 7950B). I'll probably be lurking on ebay in 5 or 6 years looking for a cheap LGA 2011 Ivy-E setup for less than $200 total to pair with a decent future GPU and it will still be running all the latest games. All you really need these days is a decent quad core 3GHz or higher CPU, 8GB RAM and a high end GPU from either NV or AMD from the last 3 generations. There is no need to build a large pixel collider with all the latest stuff in it for $10k. There really isn't even a need to build anything over $1500 for a gaming PC.

 

[Reynod]

Getting one of these.

It will be my new E5300.

Hopefully I won't blow it up ... I'll try not to use crashman's settings !!

 

[TechyInAZ]

Sweet! This cpu is what I've been waiting for since the core 2 duo days.

This will defiantly be the cpu to put in my next rig since I'm on a budget.

 

[logainofhades]

There is no physical difference in a 750k vs a 760k. They are the same cpu with a different multiplier setting. All of richland's improvements over trinity were on the GPU side, which is not in use on the FM2 Athlons.

 

[ingtar33]

There is no physical difference in a 750k vs a 760k. They are the same cpu with a different multiplier setting. All of richland's improvements over trinity were on the GPU side, which is not in use on the FM2 Athlons.

not entirely true... richland overclocks a LOT better then trinity... most richlands get to 5ghz pretty easily... while trinity seemed stuck around 4.3ghz-4.5ghz

 

[TheEvolution]

Without any OC Intel Pentium G3258 is any good for upcoming modern PC games ?
Or more core is the future ?

 

[ingtar33]

i would rarely suggest a dual core cpu for any reason. That said... this little chip is acceptable in some limited ways. However, those limited usages are all under an overclock

I would not advise anyone to get this chip unless they planned to overclock it a bit.

 

[cub_fanatic]

Without any OC Intel Pentium G3258 is any good for upcoming modern PC games ?
Or more core is the future ?

It should be good enough paired with the right video card. As long as you don't run the games off the Intel HD Graphics GPU on the CPU then you should get respectable medium detail performance (30+ FPS) in 720p and maybe 1080p in some games. Most newer games really only need a great video card and any dual core CPU with at least a 3 GHz clock speed made after 2010 would be good enough to at least run them in their stock detail settings... in 1080p or lower of course. Also, even if you OC this CPU to 4 GHz, I doubt it would give you much of a performance boost in newer games unless that game is very CPU dependent. It won't even come close to what a similar overclock (around +30% which is quite a bit for a GPU) of a mid to high end GPU would do in the same PC. Basically, if you aren't expecting to max every game out and get 100 FPS in resolutions higher than 1080p, this CPU should serve you well in most games, even with its stock clock speed... paired with the right GPU, of course. Because it can also be a complete bum if you run the games off the HD Graphics iGPU.

 

[TheEvolution]

I'm facing shuttering issue at new games like Thief,BF4 etc with my old PC Intel C2D E4500+ATI HD5670.
Doesn't matter I change the res to 720P or 1080P fps always remain same.

Intel Pentium G3258 with AMD R9 270 will be good idea for future PC games ?
Or at low budget we better need better CPU like AMD FX-6300 with lower GPU like R7 250 ?

 

[cub_fanatic]

I'm facing shuttering issue at new games like Thief,BF4 etc with my old PC Intel C2D E4500+ATI HD5670.
Doesn't matter I change the res to 720P or 1080P fps always remain same.

Intel Pentium G3258 with AMD R9 270 will be good idea for future PC games ?
Or at low budget we better need better CPU like AMD FX-6300 with lower GPU like R7 250 ?

Either of those CPUs with a 270. Like I said, don't settle for a cheaper GPU especially if you are playing newer games in 1080p. The GPU is more important than the CPU for games.

 

[somebodyspecial]

I'm facing shuttering issue at new games like Thief,BF4 etc with my old PC Intel C2D E4500+ATI HD5670.
Doesn't matter I change the res to 720P or 1080P fps always remain same.

Intel Pentium G3258 with AMD R9 270 will be good idea for future PC games ?
Or at low budget we better need better CPU like AMD FX-6300 with lower GPU like R7 250 ?

Go the Pentium route but get a board that accepts broadwell for later (z97) and OC the crap out of it until then. Other than that get the best gpu you can afford with plans to update the cpu later. The AMD route is a dead end, while the Intel route gets you a VERY nice broadwell at some point which leaves AMD in the dust in apps and many games (already on current haswell, broadwell will be even better).

 

[ingtar33]

I'm facing shuttering issue at new games like Thief,BF4 etc with my old PC Intel C2D E4500+ATI HD5670.
Doesn't matter I change the res to 720P or 1080P fps always remain same.

Intel Pentium G3258 with AMD R9 270 will be good idea for future PC games ?
Or at low budget we better need better CPU like AMD FX-6300 with lower GPU like R7 250 ?

Go the Pentium route but get a board that accepts broadwell for later (z97) and OC the crap out of it until then. Other than that get the best gpu you can afford with plans to update the cpu later. The AMD route is a dead end, while the Intel route gets you a VERY nice broadwell at some point which leaves AMD in the dust in apps and many games (already on current haswell, broadwell will be even better).

intel has stated a number of times. broadwell will represent zero computing power performance increase over haswell. broadwell is the "power efficiency/igpu" update. furthermore broadwell isn't coming out until september of 2015.

Additionally, in most modern multithreaded titles that g3258 overclocked up to 4.7ghz can't even match a FX 6300 at STOCK settings. So to just toss out a blanket recommendation for someone who is struggling to play BF4 on their cpu with a g3258 (which will struggle to play bf4 at 4.7ghz) is really silly.

This isn't to get into a peeing contest about who is better, intel or amd. AMD isn't really competitive with intel in performance. However, if the choice it between some dual core pentium you can overclock or a 6 core fx 6300, i'd get the 6300 every time, unless of course you're playing MMOs, in which case that pentium actually is a better buy.

So my advice to that person is, save another $30, get the fx6300... you can get a solid overclockable motherboard for the same or less money then you can for the pentium, get the r9-270 gpu, and be happy. The jump in performance in most titles going with the fx6300 will be more then worth the extra $30 for the 6core cpu.

BTW: this is exactly why i said in my first post in this thread, "i don't understand what the market is for this cpu"... it's nice, it's cute... and it's still too expensive to be worth a recommendation (and before you say the athlon ii x4 750k is the same price, i don't recommend quad core amd's either, in fact i can't remember the last time i recommended anything in the fm2/fm2+ platform; i think in a few rare occasions an a8 has made sense, but generally it's a silly platform too).

 

[JonMooo]

Will the stock CPU heat sink be strong enough to support overclocking to around 4.3-4.4 gHz? I am buying silver 5 thermal paste as well.

 

[ingtar33]

nope

 

[somebodyspecial]

I'm facing shuttering issue at new games like Thief,BF4 etc with my old PC Intel C2D E4500+ATI HD5670.
Doesn't matter I change the res to 720P or 1080P fps always remain same.

Intel Pentium G3258 with AMD R9 270 will be good idea for future PC games ?
Or at low budget we better need better CPU like AMD FX-6300 with lower GPU like R7 250 ?

Go the Pentium route but get a board that accepts broadwell for later (z97) and OC the crap out of it until then. Other than that get the best gpu you can afford with plans to update the cpu later. The AMD route is a dead end, while the Intel route gets you a VERY nice broadwell at some point which leaves AMD in the dust in apps and many games (already on current haswell, broadwell will be even better).

intel has stated a number of times. broadwell will represent zero computing power performance increase over haswell. broadwell is the "power efficiency/igpu" update. furthermore broadwell isn't coming out until september of 2015.

Additionally, in most modern multithreaded titles that g3258 overclocked up to 4.7ghz can't even match a FX 6300 at STOCK settings. So to just toss out a blanket recommendation for someone who is struggling to play BF4 on their cpu with a g3258 (which will struggle to play bf4 at 4.7ghz) is really silly.

This isn't to get into a peeing contest about who is better, intel or amd. AMD isn't really competitive with intel in performance. However, if the choice it between some dual core pentium you can overclock or a 6 core fx 6300, i'd get the 6300 every time, unless of course you're playing MMOs, in which case that pentium actually is a better buy.

So my advice to that person is, save another $30, get the fx6300... you can get a solid overclockable motherboard for the same or less money then you can for the pentium, get the r9-270 gpu, and be happy. The jump in performance in most titles going with the fx6300 will be more then worth the extra $30 for the 6core cpu.

BTW: this is exactly why i said in my first post in this thread, "i don't understand what the market is for this cpu"... it's nice, it's cute... and it's still too expensive to be worth a recommendation (and before you say the athlon ii x4 750k is the same price, i don't recommend quad core amd's either, in fact i can't remember the last time i recommended anything in the fm2/fm2+ platform; i think in a few rare occasions an a8 has made sense, but generally it's a silly platform too).

http://www.techpowerup.com/201936/intel-desktop-cpu-roadmap-updated.html
"It looks like Intel will launch unlocked "K" series parts of "Broadwell" in Q1"
June 2014 article. If it ends up sept, I'd say they're REALLY late. I'd expect at least a 5% IPC among other things that usually get improved in each rev. The point is a Broadwell will blow away whatever you can stick in an AMD board you buy today. Buying the Intel junk today, you can upgrade to the next king later, no matter the date at least you get the option.

He has a core2 duo 2.4ghz, not this Pentium chip. He isn't stuggling on a chip he doesn't OWN yet. Hence he's asking if he should buy one...LOL. You're confused.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/pentium-g3258-overclocking-performance,3849-5.html
Battlefield 4, looks just like a i5-4690 with a top card. CPU is NOT the problem in BF4 as all chips scored basically the same top to bottom.
"Battlefield 4, even at a fairly mainstream 1920x1080, is quite graphics-dependent with the Ultra detail preset selected. The Core i5 and i3 are followed by Intel’s Pentium G3258 overclocked to 4.5 GHz."
Do you even read tomshardware articles? The massive overclock didn't add a fps over the regular stock clock...LOL. 58fps min isn't bad, and as noted same as i5-4690 in BF4 1080p ULTRA. Lower it from ultra and all scores will go up, so who cares if over 60fps min?

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2014/06/24/intel-pentium-g3258-review/5
SKYRIM Pentium G3258 @4.8, blowing out FX8350@4.8ghz. That's an 8core AMD isn't it? Surely the FX6300 would be running worse than a 4.8ghz 8350 correct? Also note it beats the 4.8ghz 8350 even at it's stock speed...LOL

Shogun 2, same thing, a full 25% faster 4.8G3258 vs. 4.8ghz 8350 correct? So FX 6300 going to get is A$$ handed to it right? I'm looking at the mins here @25fps pentium, 20fps 8350, but avg shows ~20% for pentium anyway with 31fps vs. 8350 26fps). More playable on INTEL.

"Additionally, in most modern multithreaded titles that g3258 overclocked up to 4.7ghz can't even match a FX 6300 at STOCK settings."
At best I'd call this total BS. An OC'ed 8350@4.8ghz has trouble with the same clocked G3258. Unfortunately toms didn't include 8350 or 6300 in their article. But others have.

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/pentium_20th_anniversary_series_g3258_processor_review,14.html
Bioshock infinite, OC'd G3258 scores same as i7-4770K/4790K in 1080p, and even with a 780ti only 10fps less STOCK (<10% slower even at stock vs. 4770/4790K)!
"The performance benefit in-between the CPUs is nominal to say at the least."
"The G3258 struggles... until you overclock it. That really is impressive to see, the two cores when overclock offer really fast performance."

Same exact story in Tomb Raider. ZERO fps difference at 1080p. Scores exactly same as 4790K! Even at stock only 88fps vs. all others 90fps. 2fps less at stock...LOL. Already great in most stuff. Not too far away in 3dmark Firestrike either vs. top dogs.

There aren't many games like MetroLL which show a pretty good difference between cpus. Most games are gpu dependent still.
http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/cpu/70977-intel-pentium-anniversary-edition-g3258/?page=7
Discrete 750ti tested yields same results as i7-4770:
"The overclocked chip does a very good impression of a Core i7-4770K - there's very little difference in real-world games run at 1080p. Sometimes numbers can be misleading, but the game(s) felt smooth and fluid to play. We'd challenge anyone to tell the difference between the overclocked Pentium G3258 and the 5x dearer Core i7-4770K in these games. Really, the standard chip is good enough for 1080p gaming. "
Totalwar Rome2, Bioshock Inf, Grid2 tested. Not much diff when oc'd and as they say even STOCK ok for 1080p.

http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/cpu_mainboard/intel_pentium_g3258_20th_anniversary_review/12
Hitman absolution Oc'd pentium keeping up with 4790/4770 (not when OC'ed but when it is...)

http://www.overclockingmadeinfrance.com/omf-intel-pentium-g3258/3/
Shogun 2 same story as before. Performs like top chips.
Crysis 3 a bit different but still beats i7-3770 in avg, but loses by some in mins. Pretty sure FX6300 would lose knowing this in C3.

http://www.madshrimps.be/articles/article/1000621/Intel-Pentium-20th-Anniversary-Edition-G3258-CPU-Review/4#axzz36la0yKfn
Bioshock, Sleeping dogs, Tomb Raider, same story at 1080p, and BEATING 8350 even at stock in all 3 cases for both min & avg fps. THOSE ARE STOCK to STOCK. So not bad even NOT OC'd yet again! Resident evil 6 shows OC'ed is right on i7-4770K's butt.

Please show some benchmarks PROVING there will be a JUMP when using FX6300 for that extra $30. Seems in most stuff OC'd beats FX8350 (not apps maybe, but we're talking a GAMING here). I've shown my side, let's see yours? I pretty much pulled up every review I could find, so proof please.

https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=2&hl=en&ie=UTF8&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http://pclab.pl/art57691-3.html&usg=ALkJrhixHLqDm5DxdStt8NlAt0xpzazmcw
One more and it has FX6300.
Assassin's 3: Beats fx6300 when Oc'd vs. OC'd and stock vs. stock.
ARMA 3 same story, and over 8350...LOL
BF4 multiplayer, loses OC'ed to stock 6300 by a decimal point but still 58.8fps vs. 59.5. The OC 6300 adds more but at 4.7ghz FX6300 is going to chew through some watts and produce far more heat.
CounterStrike 128fps FX6300 Pentium 120fps. Who cares. Rather save the $30 and upgrade to broadwell later. even stock hits 93fps @1080p.
Crysis 3, 38fps FX6300 Pentium 36fps again who cares.
Far Cry3, finally a decisive victory, but still well 44fps. All these scores are 1080p BTW.
GTA IV Pentium decisive win topped the chart
Max Payne 3 beats at stock, loses when FX6300 Oc'ed too. But playable anyway, these are ultra settings everywhere, so dropped things should speed up and over 35fps already.
Watch Dogs a true 6300 victory. IF anyone's still playing with all the bugs...LOL.
Civ5 Brave New world, STOCK pentium virtual tie with OC 8350/6300, and when OC'ed smacked them all around, topped chart.
Skyrim again, same story as before. Beats stock to stock or oc'd to oc'd.
Witcher 2, Pentium wins while OC'ed again vs. Oc'ed.
StarCraft 2, decisive win for STock and OC'd Pentium vs. AMD. again topped chart when OC'ed.
TotalWar Rome2, again nearly tops chart for pentium OC. Beats both AMD's again.
Flight sim X, decisive for Pentium , stock and OC beats even OC'ed AMD's.

Are we done yet? There are so few AMD wins in all of those sites, you're plain crazy. And your BF4 statement seems asinine too (not to mention he was using a core2 duo E4500 not this chip, he's upgrading to pentium not owning it complaining).

My advice is read more please before giving advice. To use your words, your comments are "really silly" as proven by boatloads of benchmarks above. Correct? We can add MMO's I guess since you even say those are good for pentium. You don't even appear to have carefully read his comment.

Also, please show where Intel has said broadwell will represent ZERO computing power. I've never seen them say ZERO. No peeing contest here, I think we've just proven INTEL PENTIUM ROCKS vs. AMD's 6300 or 8350. Right?

I'll make my Blanket statement again. BUY INTEL vs. AMD in this case period. By the time games hit that MAY use 4 cores or more very well, he can upgrade and sell this thing. Heck it's only $75...LOL and should do well for quite some time anyway at 1080p. Do you want to be right today, or some day hopefully before he upgrades? I'll take right 90% of the time as shown above. With motherboard makers releasing bios mods for cheapo boards, you don't even seem to have to pay for the Z97 chipset but they have boards under $100 on Z97 anyway so I'd still buy one.

 

[Onus]

SS; the above is an excellent, well-researched summary, and decisively supports your Intel vs. AMD assertions. AMD owners need not switch, but those building new appear to have no rational basis to choose AMD.

 

[somebodyspecial]

nope

You can't guarantee that, as toms hit 4.8 on air at 1.3v 60 temps. You don't know how low you can go on volts at 4.3-4.4 and arctic silver helps some, as a reseller of it for 8yrs and applying it to every chip I've ever sold I know. Reviews say this too (7-11 or so drops), it can drop temps quite a bit vs. whatever comes on your retail boxed sink and really gets good after 200hrs baking in (curing, then you do the OC if you failed at first). On top of that, based on the benchmarks I'd say he'll be pretty ok at 4ghz for a while. Clearly there may be some cases where that won't be true, but I think most cases he'll be looking at gpu walls instead of cpu lacking at least for a while longer. Obviously to get the most out of the chip he'll want to buy a good hsf eventually, but it's not wasted money as it will be able to be used on broadwell again later when he upgrades. So might as well see what you get out of the box, then if he runs into issues, save for a HSF to get to 4.5 or something. They have devils canyon doing 4.4 out of the box, so it isn't unreasonable to expect 4ghz pretty easily at a decent voltage.

My own xeon is a 1.25/1.35v chip, but I run it at stock speeds undervolted to 1.06v. It's a dual core 3ghz and can easily hit 3.6ghz cool without any overvolting (at 1.18 actually undervolted even then) and stay below 53 in prime95 with an artic 7 freezer that was ~25 when bought (the 80mm kind, have larger 92's now for same price). The retail allowed 3.6 also but at 60 instead of 53. With people doing 4.7 or 4.8 on these pentium rock solid, I'd expect 4ghz on retail if not more with a good chip if you take the time to figure out the lowest volts required. Two cores is a lot easier to OC than 4 and it's already only a 53w chip.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1420871/ocing-4770k-with-stock-cooler-4-4ghz
4.4ghz stock cooler at 1.05v. It can be done. 4.2ghz at .99v lol. It's a luck of the draw, you can't claim NONE will do what he asked as quads can already with retail hsf.

 

[somebodyspecial]

SS; the above is an excellent, well-researched summary, and decisively supports your Intel vs. AMD assertions. AMD owners need not switch, but those building new appear to have no rational basis to choose AMD.

Thanks. Sad I had to go through that, but there are probably a lot of people on a budget interested in the data, so not exactly wasted time I guess. Agree, no need to switch, the advice is for poor new buyers or upgraders like the OP. Based on it being a few gens later than my wolfdale xeon 3ghz, even I'd be pretty happy for a bit with this and am pondering it myself until broadwell comes. Then just pass it to my nephew who's on a dual 3ghz 1MB cache chip. It's just a cut down version of my own chip, just less cache, 2.4ghz running 3ghz on retail stock hsf. It's also undervolted (got too hot for 3.6 for my comfort but it worked, with me in another state I didn't want to run that hot for him). If these non Z97 boards all upgrade their bios to support OCing this chip, as they seem to on the cheap chipsets for many boards, I could hand it to him easily even with a board and only be out $100 or so after you consider me using it for a good 9 months. After 9mo use is it even a $50 loss on the cpu? Either way a great upgrade for him from wolfdale 45nm, with many advancements, quicksync etc and probably easily 4ghz+.

The heatsink fan part# E97378-001 uses a delta fan (DTC-DAA14), and is rated for 95w cpus, compatible with i7 so it isn't wimpy. Turning off the gpu on the pentium should knock it well below it's rate 53w so I really expect 4ghz easily for most even on the puny heatsink (same size as my xeon cooler, little half heighter). This really is a great chip for cheap pricing if your not after the core count for apps that can use them. It's a great cheap GAMER with a cpu upgrade in mind later. That gpu is 1100mhz IIRC so it should drop some heat disabling it and allow the retail to do a fairly decent job based on my own experience pushing the crap out of Intel HSF. That is also a 92mm with copper core, so while it's half height, it's still fairly effective for a 53w chip minus the gpu. In my experience that last 10% mhz (in this case a jump from say 4.4 to 4.8ghz) is what runs up the volts and heat. So many should hit 4+ on retail quite easily IMHO. I wish tomshardware had tested to see how well it would do with retail stock fan. Nobody seems to test these the way a POOR person probably would try to run (stock+OC). Though you can really clobber it of course with $25 or less on a good one. I don't think any review I read hit less than 4.7.