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

[vertexx]

And I have to add - the ad space on Tom's has increased to the point that these articles are almost unreadable. You are turning this website into a garbage website.

 

[logainofhades]

I am glad that I am not the only one that has found recent articles somewhat lacking.

 

[firefoxx04]

I feel the Athlon could have caught the pentium when both were overclocked if the tester tried harder. 4.5ghz is not out of the question for them.

That said, the pentium offers equal and better performance for a similar price but it also offers a huge upgrade path (i5, i7) while the Athlon is the best amd has for that socket.

Good job intel

 

[jdwii]

This is interesting although the Pentium build beats the Amd CPU in FPS the Amd machine does seem to be better for frame time variance

 

[damric]

The Athlon WAS the only AMD CPU worth getting. Unless AMD drops the price of the 760K, it's over...

On that note, I haven't seen any 3dmark scores where the Haswell Pentium or i3 defeats my Overclocked Athlon 760K, but I'm sure they will come now.

 

[James Mason]

Yeah, Price-to-performance wise, I think you'd still be better off with an i3-4130 for a budget intel build. I suggested this build earlier today for a "LoL at max graphics build" :

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4130 3.4GHz Dual-Core Processor ($114.49 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock H81M-HDS Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($52.99 @ Micro Center)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($39.97 @ TigerDirect)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($54.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Video Card ($139.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Cougar MG100 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($29.99 @ Mwave)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 300W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($39.99 @ Mwave)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NSB0 DVD/CD Writer ($15.98 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $578.38
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-06-17 13:40 EDT-0400

After reading this article I was hoping I could save money by using this new pentium, but the cost increases from having to get an overclocking mobo AND a cpu cooler make it more expensive than previous, while performing at the same rate roughly:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor ($78.98 @ NCIX US)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($30.99 @ B&H)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97M-D3H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($94.99 @ NCIX US)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($39.97 @ TigerDirect)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($54.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Video Card ($139.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 300W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($39.99 @ Mwave)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NSB0 DVD/CD Writer ($15.98 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $585.87
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-06-17 16:47 EDT-0400

The only upside to the pentium is that if you go OC pentium route, you could LATER upgrade to unlocked 5th gen intel cpu.

 

[Onus]

To get the prices in line, you could drop the bang/buck Loser, the Hyper212 EVO, and get Masscool's version for $22, or even the older Hyper212 Plus for $20 (but you need to play the rebate game, and win). The Pentium build has a brighter future to be sure.
Oh, and it's worth pointing out that the more powerful 450W Antec VP-450 is available for the same price. It's not quite as efficient, but it is a modern design according to HardwareSecrets testing. This PSU would allow a future graphics card upgrade as well (although the GTX750Ti is an excellent, power-sipping choice).

 

[Drejeck]

No motherboard should ever be more costly than its CPU. As a gamer I usually spend a half of the CPU price on the motherboard. But this yet to be seen. For the chip itself it sports huge price/performance ratio and even energy efficiency. Gonna build a low power budget gaming system? I' d go for the 20th anniversary Pentium

 

[-Fran-]

I actually expected a lot more from an unlocked Pentium CPU, to be honest. At least, beat handily the i3 in all metrics (when OC'ed). I find it hard to believe that just HT and 1MB extra of L3 cache can make that big of a difference in CPU performance.

It could be worth to dig a little deeper, right? haha

Cheers!

 

[lp231]

Get this CPU is you just want to celebrate the anniversary of the Pentium Brand. For a more a more powerful system on a budget get a Core i3. This Pentium is basically for those just want to OC and play games. In the real world, people don't just build a machine only for games, they also run other programs too.

 

[logainofhades]

Yeah, Price-to-performance wise, I think you'd still be better off with an i3-4130 for a budget intel build. I suggested this build earlier today for a "LoL at max graphics build" :

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4130 3.4GHz Dual-Core Processor ($114.49 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock H81M-HDS Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($52.99 @ Micro Center)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($39.97 @ TigerDirect)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($54.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Video Card ($139.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Cougar MG100 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($29.99 @ Mwave)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 300W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($39.99 @ Mwave)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NSB0 DVD/CD Writer ($15.98 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $578.38
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-06-17 13:40 EDT-0400

After reading this article I was hoping I could save money by using this new pentium, but the cost increases from having to get an overclocking mobo AND a cpu cooler make it more expensive than previous, while performing at the same rate roughly:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor ($78.98 @ NCIX US)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($30.99 @ B&H)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97M-D3H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($94.99 @ NCIX US)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($39.97 @ TigerDirect)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($54.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Video Card ($139.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 300W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($39.99 @ Mwave)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NSB0 DVD/CD Writer ($15.98 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $585.87
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-06-17 16:47 EDT-0400

The only upside to the pentium is that if you go OC pentium route, you could LATER upgrade to unlocked 5th gen intel cpu.

If the Asrock NonZ overclock feature works, you could go with an ASRock H81M-DGS R2.0 with that pentium. If I had the cash to just spend, I would try it for the hell of it. I want to see its WoW performance, since that is all I really need for my spare rigs.

 

[ichigokunbaka]

how will this go against a quad core atom chip ? price/ performance/ power/

 

[BranFlake5]

1.Put these in a pre-built Dell
2.Distribute to Highschools everywhere
3.Sneaky tech kids OC
4........
5. Profit

 

[HomeSkillenSlice]

Looks like the cannons have officially arrived. To bad u need a Z series to use it. I bet AMD was s****** bricks for sometime ahaha.

 

[wiinippongamer]

I guess that's that for AMD

 

[lunyone]

Looks like the cannons have officially arrived. To bad u need a Z series to use it. I bet AMD was s****** bricks for sometime ahaha.

Well that isn't the case now. See the link below:

Asus Unlocks Overclocking on Non Z-Series Motherboards

 

[tomfreak]

Damn this could mean the i7 will become a beast when compared to i5 when Most games are using 8 threads properly in future.

 

[jlwtech]

While I do agree with the conclusions made in this article, (that CPU is an amazing value) I disagree with the methods used to achieve that conclusion.

1) The use of a GTX Titan is absurd.
Nobody is going to pair a $75 CPU with a $1000 GFX card.
The testing should have been done with a more realistic, and balanced, configuration. Something between the r7-260, and the GTX 760, would have provided more useful/realistic results.

2) More CPU's, of roughly the same value, should have been included.
You had an i3, and an i5, to compare with. Why no FX CPU's?
With the $30 difference in platform costs, the FX-6300 is AMD's closest competitor in terms of cost, and it is the most popular of AMD's overclockable offerings. It would seem like a natural choice....

 

[XGrabMyY]

Tom's Hardware needs to do a budget HTPC marathon build series. Like sub 200USD media server/HTPC. Could easily be done with the AMD APUs and/or the new celeron quad core boards like J1900. mITX or Thin mITX builds would be sweet.

 

[somebodyspecial]

Still waiting for a response from tomshardware as to why they didn't check the cuda box in adobe and give at least a SINGLE test. Are we going to get an answer as to why this wasn't done? Does cuda turn junk cpu's into photoshop/premiere editing kings? At least make up some lame excuse like anandtech/extremetech does. Joel Hruska went pages with me on this, excuse after excuse. It's too hard, I don't know how, not easy, blah blah...checkbox...nuff said.

 

[granno21]

I would have preferred to see the AMD 760K in this review as it is more of a true competitor. Its dropping in price to the same price point and has the newer richland cores that have higher IPC and overclock much better.

 

[f688xt6]

Just pre-ordered the G3258 for my fiancé's system and yes, I got a Z97 motherboard. ASUS just announced they're allowing overclocking on non-Z boards with a BIOS update, but I figured that the Z97 board had all the features and flexibility that I wanted, but I didn't need an i5 or i7 for her to watch Netflix. I will play with the multiplier myself to see what's what. Will give feedback... It's replacing her FX-6100 which is a steaming pile of... well you get the point.

And at the same time I ordered another Z97 and i7-4790k to replace my aging i7-870 and ASUS P7P55DE-LX (which is damaged, but still working). Going to replace the Lynnfield with something fast.

 

[paor]

it is all about of number of cores:with the increasing number of apps which support multicores,in my opinion AMD is better buy.Beside,who claims that only gamers need cheap powerfull cpus? Dare Intel to make i3K with HT for 135 $ !?

 

[glenl]

TomsHardware is trying to tell us here that all cpu's tested weather $70 or $200 are all within 2fps of each other on average. I suggest they check again as there is already many reviews on this pentium chip what contradicts what they are suggesting. Especially in games like bf4 it's almost like they are making up their reuslts.

 

[logainofhades]

Just pre-ordered the G3258 for my fiancé's system and yes, I got a Z97 motherboard. ASUS just announced they're allowing overclocking on non-Z boards with a BIOS update, but I figured that the Z97 board had all the features and flexibility that I wanted, but I didn't need an i5 or i7 for her to watch Netflix. I will play with the multiplier myself to see what's what. Will give feedback... It's replacing her FX-6100 which is a steaming pile of... well you get the point.

And at the same time I ordered another Z97 and i7-4790k to replace my aging i7-870 and ASUS P7P55DE-LX (which is damaged, but still working). Going to replace the Lynnfield with something fast.

Asrock has been doing that already with the non z overclock. H97 pro4 has this feature as does the H81M-DGS R2.0. I haven't checked to see if anything other boards have this feature. Been suggesting so many budget builds lately, that those are generally the two boards I pick.