Intel Pentium G3258 Anniversary Edition Dual Core Processor Review

The Pentium G3258 is an Anniversary Edition, meant to “celebrate” 20 years of the Pentium brand. The G3258 comes unlocked hence it’s the talk of the town when it comes to overclockable budget processors.

Intel Pentium G3258 Anniversary Edition Dual Core Processor Review

Processor Details

Here’s a quick summary of the Intel Pentium G3258.
Intel Pentium G3258 Anniversary Edition Dual Core Processor Review
Full details at Intel ARK.

CPU-Z capture.
Intel Pentium G3258 Anniversary Edition Dual Core Processor Review

Here’s the CPU-Z details of my overclock.
Intel Pentium G3258 Anniversary Edition Dual Core Processor Review

Test Setup & Overclocking

Motherboard Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming 3
RAM Corsair Vengeance DDR3 2x 4GB kit.
Cooler Cooler Master Seidon 280L
Power Supply FSP Hyper 600
Operating System Windows 8 Pro 64bit

While some review sites reached 4.8Ghz at 1.375vcore with their Pentium G3258, I could only reach 4.6Ghz with my unit with vcore runnning no less than 1.35. 4.7Ghz onwards is a NO GO regardless how much vcore was pumped. It wasn’t a heat issue as the Cooler Master Seidon 280L kept it under excellent operating temperature despite the load.

Benchmarks

The following are the test results.

x264 – 10bit to 8bit Video Conversion

The source video is a 720p MKV file that is 90 seconds in duration. x264 settings at the slowest.

CPU Time Taken
Intel Pentium G3258 489 seconds
Intel Pentium G3258 @ 4.6Ghz 357 seconds
Intel Core i3-4130 313 seconds

The overclock gave the Pentium a significant boost in performance but it’s still no where near the capability of a Core i3 with 2C / 4T.

Cinebench R15

Default settings

CPU CB
Intel Pentium G3258 234
Intel Pentium G3258 @ 4.6Ghz 330

WinRAR

Speed of archiving some almost 1GB worth of CR2 and MOV file.

CPU Time Taken
Intel Pentium G3258 99 seconds
Intel Pentium G3258 @ 4.6Ghz 88 seconds

Power Consumption

Power Consumption measurement is based on readings taken from watt-meter. Power consumption is based on entire system, comprising of the processor, a motherboard, 2 sticks of RAM and 1 fan for cooling purpose.

CPU Idle (W) Peak (W)
Intel Pentium G3258 30.6 54.5
Intel Pentium G3258 @ 4.6Ghz 31.6 86.9

Temperature

goldfries.com’s lab temperature is set at +/- 25°C

CPU Idle (°C) Load (°C)
Intel Pentium G3258 (stock speed, stock cooler) 35 59
Intel Pentium G3258 @ 4.6Ghz with CM Seidon 280L 31 69

The G3258 may be a processor with low voltage but pumping the vcore to attain speeds above 4Ghz makes is a rather hot monster that the stock cooler couldn’t keep up with it.

The Verdict

The Intel Pentium G3258 is expected to retail around RM 235, about 2/3 the price of the Intel Core i3-4130.

This is an excellent processor for budget systems and those who love the overclocking challenge would appreciate pumping this RM 200 processor to almost a Core i3’s performance but you’ll need an overclocking capable board before doing so. This means that on a price to performance ratio, a cheap B85 board with Core i3 still performs better than a Z97 board with the Pentium G3258, not forgetting that the Pentium G3258 requires a good third-party cooler that can handle the vcore pump.

It’s a good budget processor and a good processor for the love of overclocking, just don’t expect it to beat the Core i3 with overclocking. 🙂

goldfries recommended