This is just my $0.02, but this seems to be the right idea with the wrong chip. What I want to overclock is an i3; the chip with Hyperthreading, AES-NI, and AVX. The Pentium lacks all of that functionality, and while it won't break programs it will make it slower than an i3 in programs that can use those features.
For gaming in particular it seems like bad tradeoff. The current generation consoles support AVX, so it's now a baseline feature that game developers can target. I'd certainly expect i3s to be faster than Pentiums because of this in games that use the current gen consoles as a baseline, which potentially nullifies any advantage of overclocking.
This is just a one time thing I guess, to celebrate the 20 year anniversary. I don't think Intel ever plans on releasing an unlock i3 (or any more unlock pentiums after this) considering people are willing to pay more for the i5 and i7 to get oveclocking capability.
However, I agree that it'll be cool to see any unlocked i3, as long as it's not more than a $20-30 premium compared to the locked ones.
I don't think you can say people are willing to pay more for overclockable I5s and I7s seeing as they have no choice. People were OCing i3 500s like crazy even with the limitations.
For me, it would all come down completely to cost.
I would personally throw one into an ITX chassis, you have great single threaded performance at 4.4-4.6ghz and low idle TDP for very little money. Not everyone needs a quad-core-hex-core or more for everything...
Yup.. just as games start to profit from 4 cores rather than 2. Selling us a cheap dual core die for this is fine (from my POV), but please don't disable HT.
As one who remembers the Celery overclocking days well, (had a Celeron 400 overclocked to 533), this is interesting. But back then games didn't react any better to the expensive Pentium II chips. Today however, many modern games respond to four cores or more over a single or dual core chip running at the same effective clock speeds. I don't see this being of much benefit to anyone for the low end Intel G series.
I wonder how high these will clock. This will be an unlocked dual core chip so there should be plenty of extra power going into the socket to crank the clocks and voltages a bit higher vs. a quad core chip. If I had to fathom a guess, I'd say this would bring clock speed inline with what was possible with Sandy Bridge: ~5.0 Ghz with relative ease.
the g3240 is great not for the CPU, but for the quiet! HSF that is included with it (i bought two of two g3240, one had a HSF from Delta, the second from foxconn) both are silent because they don't have the "full speed spin-up" the the stock intel HSF that are supplied with the other CPU such as the g1610, i3-4330, i3-3225, g2120 (i have purchased all of those... mythtv builds)
If you buy an unlocked i5 and use aftermarket cooling, you can also use the HSF from the i5, which is higher quality with a copper core, where as the HSF included with pentiums are all aluminum.
Yea, the era of a high clocked dual core is a bit past. If this chip is more than $60 it will be a bust.
Honestly this feels like a way to get people on socket 1150 more than anything, which wouldn't be so bad except nobody is sure Skylake will also run on it - I wouldn't bet on it sadly.
But either way it's a net plus for Intel - you bought a chipset at least, and maybe later you buy an i5 or i7 if you end up needing more.
Also I wonder if this is some sort of response to AMD's socket FS1b (there's a mess of a name). FS1b could actually be some fun if both the mobo+CPU ended up around $60 and it was actually overclockable, but sadly that doesn't sound like it's going to be either of these things =(
Plus even gimped (but overclocked) Haswell would still stomp it, but again it should assuming it would cost at least twice as much.
Sounds like a gesture for the Pentium anniversary. IMHO, my high points of "overclocking" were Overdrive processors (bought 4 trays on the forum and made a killing on EBay), C 366/550 (had one running for 8 years), cheap "S" processors (can't part with P-III S 1.4 and P4 S 3.4) and Phenom II hexacore unlocking. Still running C2Q 9650, 3 SSDs, Raptor and WD Black and awaiting a compelling reason to upgrade. I've built custom i5 and i7 machines for others, but find them only marginally more responsive than C2Q. Perhaps an eight-core will move me into present.
This seems to be a good processor for budget builds as mentioned by many, or for the simple enjoy of overclocking. I do think this processor can still run the latest games with an AMD branded graphics card using the Mantle API. A CPU overclocked correctly, with an R9 270x/280x will serve solid gaming performance under a small price tag. Would anyone agree?
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19 Comments
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EzioAs - Wednesday, March 19, 2014 - link
It'll be interesting to see how this stacks up against the i3's and APUs. Hopefully the pricing won't ruin it.Ryan Smith - Wednesday, March 19, 2014 - link
This is just my $0.02, but this seems to be the right idea with the wrong chip. What I want to overclock is an i3; the chip with Hyperthreading, AES-NI, and AVX. The Pentium lacks all of that functionality, and while it won't break programs it will make it slower than an i3 in programs that can use those features.For gaming in particular it seems like bad tradeoff. The current generation consoles support AVX, so it's now a baseline feature that game developers can target. I'd certainly expect i3s to be faster than Pentiums because of this in games that use the current gen consoles as a baseline, which potentially nullifies any advantage of overclocking.
EzioAs - Wednesday, March 19, 2014 - link
This is just a one time thing I guess, to celebrate the 20 year anniversary. I don't think Intel ever plans on releasing an unlock i3 (or any more unlock pentiums after this) considering people are willing to pay more for the i5 and i7 to get oveclocking capability.However, I agree that it'll be cool to see any unlocked i3, as long as it's not more than a $20-30 premium compared to the locked ones.
dorion - Thursday, March 20, 2014 - link
I don't think you can say people are willing to pay more for overclockable I5s and I7s seeing as they have no choice. People were OCing i3 500s like crazy even with the limitations.StevoLincolnite - Wednesday, March 19, 2014 - link
For me, it would all come down completely to cost.I would personally throw one into an ITX chassis, you have great single threaded performance at 4.4-4.6ghz and low idle TDP for very little money.
Not everyone needs a quad-core-hex-core or more for everything...
MrSpadge - Thursday, March 20, 2014 - link
> the right idea with the wrong chipYup.. just as games start to profit from 4 cores rather than 2. Selling us a cheap dual core die for this is fine (from my POV), but please don't disable HT.
Nfarce - Thursday, March 20, 2014 - link
As one who remembers the Celery overclocking days well, (had a Celeron 400 overclocked to 533), this is interesting. But back then games didn't react any better to the expensive Pentium II chips. Today however, many modern games respond to four cores or more over a single or dual core chip running at the same effective clock speeds. I don't see this being of much benefit to anyone for the low end Intel G series.Zoomer - Monday, April 28, 2014 - link
Weak; 300a @ 450 is where it's at. "Dual core" on a BP6, of course.BadThad - Wednesday, March 26, 2014 - link
What if the CPU is $50? The i3 is $75 more - money that could be spent on a better video card for a budget gamer.Kevin G - Wednesday, March 19, 2014 - link
I wonder how high these will clock. This will be an unlocked dual core chip so there should be plenty of extra power going into the socket to crank the clocks and voltages a bit higher vs. a quad core chip. If I had to fathom a guess, I'd say this would bring clock speed inline with what was possible with Sandy Bridge: ~5.0 Ghz with relative ease.danjw - Thursday, March 20, 2014 - link
My big question about these is if they will fix the Haswell regression with Quicksync video transcoding?MikeMurphy - Thursday, March 20, 2014 - link
I'm holding out for the 60mhz edition.haardrr - Friday, March 21, 2014 - link
the g3240 is great not for the CPU, but for the quiet! HSF that is included with it (i bought two of two g3240, one had a HSF from Delta, the second from foxconn) both are silent because they don't have the "full speed spin-up" the the stock intel HSF that are supplied with the other CPU such as the g1610, i3-4330, i3-3225, g2120 (i have purchased all of those... mythtv builds)meacupla - Wednesday, March 26, 2014 - link
If you buy an unlocked i5 and use aftermarket cooling, you can also use the HSF from the i5, which is higher quality with a copper core, where as the HSF included with pentiums are all aluminum.xrror - Friday, March 21, 2014 - link
Yea, the era of a high clocked dual core is a bit past. If this chip is more than $60 it will be a bust.Honestly this feels like a way to get people on socket 1150 more than anything, which wouldn't be so bad except nobody is sure Skylake will also run on it - I wouldn't bet on it sadly.
But either way it's a net plus for Intel - you bought a chipset at least, and maybe later you buy an i5 or i7 if you end up needing more.
xrror - Saturday, March 22, 2014 - link
D'oh, I meant Broadwell not Skylake.Also I wonder if this is some sort of response to AMD's socket FS1b (there's a mess of a name). FS1b could actually be some fun if both the mobo+CPU ended up around $60 and it was actually overclockable, but sadly that doesn't sound like it's going to be either of these things =(
Plus even gimped (but overclocked) Haswell would still stomp it, but again it should assuming it would cost at least twice as much.
Now what would be fun is a SilvermontK SKU... =D
meacupla - Wednesday, March 26, 2014 - link
I wonder how an overclocked haswell pentium stacks up against an overclocked A6-7400k.billgerr - Sunday, March 30, 2014 - link
Sounds like a gesture for the Pentium anniversary. IMHO, my high points of "overclocking" were Overdrive processors (bought 4 trays on the forum and made a killing on EBay), C 366/550 (had one running for 8 years), cheap "S" processors (can't part with P-III S 1.4 and P4 S 3.4) and Phenom II hexacore unlocking. Still running C2Q 9650, 3 SSDs, Raptor and WD Black and awaiting a compelling reason to upgrade. I've built custom i5 and i7 machines for others, but find them only marginally more responsive than C2Q. Perhaps an eight-core will move me into present.n47h4n96 - Monday, June 16, 2014 - link
This seems to be a good processor for budget builds as mentioned by many, or for the simple enjoy of overclocking. I do think this processor can still run the latest games with an AMD branded graphics card using the Mantle API. A CPU overclocked correctly, with an R9 270x/280x will serve solid gaming performance under a small price tag. Would anyone agree?