Although it isn’t a Devil’s Canyon processor, Intel’s Pentium G3258 Anniversary Edition could be considered a nod to the overclocking-focused past that the brand is famous for. The G3258 is the cheapest, multiplier-unlocked dual-core Haswell processor available on the market and it is making life hell for AMD, particularly when the software market is still so heavily focused on single-threaded performance. What does this little Pentium offer, then, to the consumer and what would you need to get the most out of it? Hit the jump to read a little more into this tiny monster.
Pricing locally is competitive
Comparing Processors – R800 to R1600 |
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| Rebel Tech | TakeAlot | Raru | Wootware | Landmark PC | |
| Intel Pentium G3240 3.1GHz dual-core | R721 | R696 | R763 | R780 | R760 |
| AMD A6-6320 3.8-4.0GHz dual-core | R755 | R820 | R732 | R801 | |
| Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz unlocked dual-core | R828 | R849 | |||
| AMD Athlon 5350 2.0GHz quad-core | R844 | R848 | R870 | ||
| AMD A6-6400K 3.9-4.1GHz unlocked dual-core | R849 | R820 | R869 | R900 | R877 |
| Intel Pentium G3450 3.4GHz dual-core | R1281 | R1310 | R1324 | ||
| Intel Core i3-4150 3.5GHz dual-core with HT | R1427 | R1490 | R1489 | R1504 | |
| AMD FX-4300 3.8-4.0GHz unlocked quad-core | R1548 | R1543 | R1532 | R1517 | R1577 |
| AMD A8-6600K 3.9-4.2GHz unlocked quad-core | R1572 | R1568 | R1454 | R1613 | R1629 |
| Intel Core i3-4330 3.5GHz dual-core with HT | R1629 | R1566 | R1720 | R1703 | R1719 |
| AMD FX-6300 3.5-4.1GHz unlocked six-core | R1791 | R1755 | R1672 | R1655 | R1729 |
Initially I could not believe that the entry price for the Pentium G3258 would be so low. When accounting for today’s (07 July 2014) exchange rate to the US Dollar, things get even more weird – $75 converted is R810.08 (at R10.80 to US $1) and that’s only a few rum and cokes away from Rebel Tech and Wootware’s advertised price points. Locally, Intel is extremely competitive in the low-end market and mostly uncompetitive once you hit the R1500 bracket. If you just want a dual-core CPU that’s good enough for modern games right out of the box, the Pentium G3220 is around R600, which is a good example of Intel using their position as market leader locally to maintain that iron grip through low prices.
Moving along, though, the Pentium G3258 is cheap – we get that. Overclocked even modestly to 4.2GHz, however, it begins to behave like a Core i3-4330, which costs twice as much, has twice as many threads and doesn’t even share the same power rating. Compared to the only other unlocked dual-core processor on the market, the A6-6400K, it’s a much better performer at stock and overclocked speeds, however the AMD chip has the benefit of being able to overclock on almost any socket FM2/FM2+ motherboard.
The value play for the Pentium G3258 is there and for games that aren’t GPU-limited the higher clock speeds would certainly be welcome. If you mostly play GPU-limited games then there isn’t much of a reason to invest in the chip and a decent Z87/Z97 motherboard when a Pentium G3220 and a cheap H81 motherboard would give you almost exactly the same performance.
As a stepping stone to Broadwell…
Comparing ATX/mATX Z97 motherboards – R1500 to R2500 |
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| Rebel Tech | TakeAlot | Raru | Wootware | Landmark PC | |
| MSI Z97 PC-Mate ATX | R1661 | R1715 | R1683 | R1700 | |
| ASRock Z97 Pro4 ATX | R1694 | R1688 | R1766 | R1495 | R1750 |
| MSI Z97 Guard-Pro ATX | R1780 | R1838 | R1803 | R1821 | |
| ASRock Z97M OC Formula mATX | R1899 | ||||
| ASUS Z97-P ATX | R1936 | ||||
| ASUS Z97M-Plus mATX | R1941 | R1987 | R1996 | R2005 | |
| ASUS Z97-K ATX | R1962 | R2009 | R2017 | R2027 | |
| Gigabyte GA-Z97-D3H ATX | R2002 | R2113 | R2092 | R2114 | |
| ASRock Fatal1ty Z97 Killer ATX | R2058 | R2051 | R2145 | R2105 | R2126 |
| ASRock Z97 Extreme4 ATX | R2179 | R2172 | R2272 | R1995 | R2252 |
| ASUS Z97-C ATX | R2184 | R2236 | R2234 | R2256 | |
| MSI Z97 Gaming 3 ATX | R2299 | R2343 | R2452 | R2405 | R2429 |
| MSI Z97 SLI Plus ATX | R2301 | R2376 | R2365 | R2376 | |
| Gigabyte GA-Z97X Gaming 3 ATX | R2306 | R2495 | R2470 | R2571 | |
| MSI Z97M Gaming mATX | R2375 | R2452 | R2405 | R2429 | |
| ASUS Z97-A ATX | R2427 | R2484 | R2495 | R2507 | |
| Gigabyte GA-Z97MX Gaming 5 mATX | R2427 | R2557 | R2509 | R2571 | |
| MSI Z97 Gaming 5 ATX | R2550 | R2741 | R2743 | ||
The issue that remains, though, is motherboard compatibility. The Pentium G3258 is a drop-in upgrade for most of the LGA1150 8-series and 9-series boards and it’ll run like a regular Pentium G3240 for most of the time. When it comes to overclocking, however, things are a bit murky. Out of all the boards listed here, currently one of them is ideal if you’re planning to just pick up the Pentium G3258 and have fun with it, namely the ASRock Z97M OC Formula. That is an introductory price, though and it’s only a little better than the Fatal1ty Z97 Killer, which offers the same overclocking capabilities and 8-phase VRM layout.
Some of Intel’s partners, namely ASUS, ASRock and Gigabyte, have motherboards that are capable of overclocking the G3258 and do not feature the Z87/Z97 chipset. Although most don’t have the kind of VRM layouts that would support the chip clocked to super-high speeds, 4.0GHz at stock voltages should be doable on most hardware. The question then remains: would Intel let this chip run rampant and leave it unlocked on cheaper boards?
It’s not a question of price or concern for the welfare of AMD, no. The main concern here is that Intel wants people to buy the Broadwell-K chips when they come out in late 2014 – someone has to buy them. The Pentium G3258 is the perfect stepping stone because you can invest in a good board, good memory and a great GPU and simply plop in the R800-odd chip and overclock it to keep things running.
But if they allow their board partners to enable overclocking the chip on H81, H87 and H97 boards, less people will buy the Broadwell-K chips. As it is now, the only thing that Broadwell will bring is a new production process and more energy efficiency , but it’s at least four months out from now – Devil’s Canyon processors, meanwhile, are available today.
So ideally, you’d buy this chip together with a decent Z97 board because you’re moving to Broadwell for real, or you don’t have enough money for a Core i5 or i7 K-series processor just yet. There is the possibility that a cheap Z87 board would do just as well, although you’re limiting your upgrade path to regular Haswell chips and not Devil’s Canyon in most cases. Perhaps you hit it lucky and find that some H87/H97 boards work just fine with a BIOS update, so you leave them on that BIOS version to enable overclocking and enjoy the free speed. Win-win.
But for the majority of people out there the Pentium G3258 doesn’t mean much. There’s just too much uncertainty and there’s not enough information for myself or anyone else to recommend this chip along with a cheap board – at any time, Intel can call in some of its partners and coerce them to disable the overclocking functionality.
That risk isn’t worth your money.