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Results: Real-World Benchmarks

The Pentium G3258 Cheap Overclocking Experiment
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Content Creation

I should probably preface the next several paragraphs with a caveat: nobody who runs taxing workloads is going to settle for a dual-core Pentium (or even a Core i3/Athlon). If you read my Core i7-4790K review, you know that even a still-mainstream Core i7 can finish our workloads in half the time of what’s reflected here.

Nevertheless, it’s remarkable that Intel’s Pentium G3258 jumps from last place to second with a 1.2 GHz tailwind in 3ds Max. Similarly, AMD’s Athlon X4 750K hops ahead of the pricier (and multiplier-locked) Core i3-4330 after a 900 MHz overclock.

The finishing order doesn’t really change in Blender, nor is Vegas Pro 12’s outcome affected.

Adobe CC

AMD’s Athlon X4 750K overclocked to 4.3 GHz loses a little steam on our new platform in Premiere Pro CC. Still, a higher frequency shaves off more than a minute from its render time.

After Effects is the first title seriously affected by this experiment. Intel’s Pentium runs quite a bit slower, barely beating the stock G3258, while the Athlon seriously regresses. But the explanation is simple enough. Both low-cost motherboards come equipped with two memory slots, cutting us back from 16 to 8 GB of DDR3 RAM. Our After Effects workload is acutely sensitive to available memory per core or thread, which is why performance tanks.

It pops back up in Photoshop, though. The Pentium doesn’t change much. AMD’s Athlon slows down a little, allowing the Core i3 to pass. More interesting is how the Piledriver architecture seems to hold our GeForce GTX Titan back in the OpenCL-accelerated test. Overclocking doesn’t really help alleviate that bottleneck either.

Productivity and Media Encoding

While the Pentium G3258 doesn’t slow down much in FineReader, despite losing 100 MHz of overclocked frequency at the hands of a too-small stock cooler, AMD’s Athlon X4 750K runs about 10 seconds longer in this benchmark. That puts the quad-core processor behind Intel’s dual-core chip.

Visual Studio shows the Athlon performing much more consistently—it nearly ties its previous result. Intel’s Pentium lands just ahead of it, and neither CPU is able to catch a dual-core, Hyper-Threaded Core i3-4330.

The finishing order stays pretty consistent in TotalCode Studio, while the overclocked Athlon moves down a spot in HandBrake. Practically, though, we’d call that a tie with Intel’s more expensive Core i3-4330.

LAME and iTunes are both single-threaded metrics, exercising one core on each CPU. With clock rate and instruction per cycle throughout in the spotlight, an overclocked Haswell-based processor naturally wins. The Piledriver design just can’t keep up, even running at 4.3 GHz.

Compression

Our WinZip benchmark includes three workloads. Sorted by threaded CPU scores, AMD’s Athlon X4 overclocked beyond 4 GHz scores a victory against Intel’s Pentium G3258. In the maximum-compression EZ and OpenCL-accelerated tests, the tables turn.

The finishing order doesn’t change in WinRAR or 7-Zip. The former favors Intel’s Haswell architecture and doesn’t really reward highly parallel configurations, while the latter knows how to exploit AMD’s module-oriented design for maximum performance from four integer units.

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  • 2 Hide
    Someone Somewhere , July 29, 2014 2:30 AM
    First page (in bold heading):
    Quote:
    Wait, Did You Say B81?

    You mean either H81 or B85, I'm guessing.
  • 0 Hide
    Nuckles_56 , July 29, 2014 2:41 AM
    so 2x4GB=16GB RAM and also 2x4GB=32GB RAM

    Maths fail?
  • 6 Hide
    blackmagnum , July 29, 2014 4:02 AM
    Spoiler: Old girl Athlon gets whipped by jock strap Pentium.
  • 7 Hide
    edlivian , July 29, 2014 4:22 AM
    athlon whimpers into the corner, and pentium flexes its skinny little arms
  • 0 Hide
    LucoTF , July 29, 2014 4:23 AM
    Quote:
    First page (in bold heading):
    Quote:
    Wait, Did You Say B81?

    You mean either H81 or B85, I'm guessing.


    LOL

    they were offered both and settled on the H81
  • 0 Hide
    tomfreak , July 29, 2014 6:30 AM
    U guys should throw in Core 2 quad 9550/9650 and bench together or even the Nehelem quad core to compare.
  • 0 Hide
    cangelini , July 29, 2014 7:03 AM
    @ Nuckles_56: the modules we used came from one standardized kit. Because the H81 and A78 platforms only offer two slots, we pulled two modules from the kit. The other boards gave us four slots, so we used four modules from the same kit. On an X79- based board, you'd see all eight in play.
  • 4 Hide
    Traciatim , July 29, 2014 7:29 AM
    @TomFreak, Tom's have already done an old vs new article that tested the core2duo and Quad vs newer i3's an i5's. No reason to redo the tests since you can pretty much extrapolate about where your performance would sit if you look over both articles. Bottom line is it's probably not worth going from a Core2Quad that overclocks pretty reliably to an i3 or Pentium, but in most cases the i3 and newest unclocked Pentium would perform slightly better and use less power.

    http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ivy-bridge-wolfdale-yorkfield-comparison,3487-9.html
  • 2 Hide
    bdiddytampa , July 29, 2014 8:21 AM
    If you are in the US and are close to a Microcenter, they offer a G3258 and MSI Z97 board bundle for $99. Killer deal for a cheap starter system.
  • 0 Hide
    envy14tpe , July 29, 2014 8:33 AM
    Just to be clear. the Pentium is on a H81 with stock intel fan, right? I'd really like to see what each CPU has...mobo and cooler for this testing..it just isn't clear.
  • 0 Hide
    TechyInAZ , July 29, 2014 8:35 AM
    Very interesting article, the Pentium G3258 defiantly does show it's value in gaming and other areas on a budget.
  • 2 Hide
    LucoTF , July 29, 2014 8:36 AM
    Quote:
    Just to be clear. the Pentium is on a H81 with stock intel fan, right? I'd really like to see what each CPU has...mobo and cooler for this testing..it just isn't clear.


    "The Pentium, also topped with a bundled cooler and factory grease, ran exceedingly warm, too."
  • 3 Hide
    mrmotion , July 29, 2014 9:22 AM
    So when are you going to put the little guy on nitrogen and see what it will really do?
  • -4 Hide
    elbert , July 29, 2014 9:24 AM
    This is all well and good but with DX12 and Mantle. Will these dual core wins be disappointing? Once Intel tunes mantle will the i3 blow away the Pentium?
  • 9 Hide
    mamasan2000 , July 29, 2014 9:25 AM
    Stutter stutter stutter!

    http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2014-pentium-g3258-review

    Who cares how many FPS its pushing if its a stuttering mess.
  • -2 Hide
    bhauck , July 29, 2014 10:16 AM
    Is there a reason the 760K is never included in these types of articles?
  • -2 Hide
    James Mason , July 29, 2014 10:51 AM
    While I can understand that using a high GPU and SSD and tons of RAM makes it so we're only seeing the CPU's impact, I feel that such a high system with a low end chip doesn't make sense, or that it somehow doesnt show the real results
  • 2 Hide
    bhauck , July 29, 2014 10:55 AM
    Quote:
    While I can understand that using a high GPU and SSD and tons of RAM makes it so we're only seeing the CPU's impact, I feel that such a high system with a low end chip doesn't make sense, or that it somehow doesnt show the real results


    Well have I got the article for you then!
  • 2 Hide
    LucoTF , July 29, 2014 11:02 AM
    Quote:
    Is there a reason the 760K is never included in these types of articles?


    because it OCs just the same as a 750k?
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