In the past, I could have given you a play-by-play of how a low-cost processor comparison would go, without even touching hardware. The stock AMD CPU would have likely been beaten by Intel’s more efficient architecture, but then we would have overclocked to see AMD step into a more commanding position. Now, with both processors tunable, it’s anyone’s game.
Overclocking Athlon X4 750K
Let’s start with a known quantity. The Athlon X4 750K starts life as a Trinity APU, manufactured on a 32 nm process. Its CPU complex is Piledriver-based. To that end, it features a pair of modules, each with two integer units and a shared floating-point unit. AMD calls this four cores. The company then disables the graphics component of the APU, yielding a pure host processor with no Radeon engine to consume thermal headroom. And yet, the Athlon retains a 100 W TDP rating.
By default, the 750K sports a 3.4 GHz base clock and a 4 GHz maximum Turbo Core frequency. There’s a 3.7 GHz boost state in between, too.

Using MSI’s FM2-A85XA-G65 motherboard, we were able to increase voltage to 1.5 V and get all four cores running at 4.5 GHz through much of our benchmark suite (with a 2.2 GHz northbridge). Unfortunately, random crashes nudged us down to 4.4 and then to 4.3 GHz for total stability in Prime95. Temperature wasn’t the problem. AMD’s OverDrive software reported more than 25 degrees of margin throughout. And we simply didn’t want to push any higher on the voltage.
After slowing to 4.3 GHz, we were able to pull back to 1.425 V for a more comfortable long-term setup.
Overclocking Pentium G3258
With no precedent established, we borrow principles from our Haswell-based K-series CPUs for tuning the Pentium G3258 on MSI’s Z97 Gaming 7 motherboard. An unlocked multiplier makes it easy to test the chip’s upper bound. Given a fairly aggressive voltage on the Athlon X4, we went ahead and used 1.3 V to get Intel’s contender running at 4.7 GHz with both cores taxed and 4.8 GHz in single-threaded workloads. Despite temperatures in the mid-60 °C range, though, that proved unstable through our entire suite.
Eventually, we settled on 4.5 GHz with two active cores and a maximum Turbo Boost setting of 4.6 GHz for unflagging stability under Prime95. That sounds fairly modest for something like a Core i7-4770K. But remember this is a 3.2 GHz CPU overclocked more than 40%.

- An Enthusiast-Oriented Pentium CPU?
- Overclocking Pentium G3258 And Athlon X4 750K
- How We Tested Intel’s Pentium G3258 And AMD’s Athlon X4 750K
- Results: Arma 3
- Results: Battlefield 4
- Results: Grid 2
- Results: Metro: Last Light
- Results: Thief
- Results: Tomb Raider
- Results: World of Warcraft
- Results: Synthetics
- Results: Content Creation
- Results: Adobe CC
- Results: Productivity And Media Encoding
- Results: Compression Apps
- Power Consumption And Efficiency
- Haswell, Unlocked, For $75

Because of course buying a pentium G and fitting it with a 150USD board and 50USD cooler does not make sens by itself ,but you have a 100% future-compatible system that can be upgraded very very easily...
No, sorry. That is not true. Check this article:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ivy-bridge-wolfdale-yorkfield-comparison,3487-10.html
You should overclock your Q9550 to get performance that barely comes close to an ivy-bridge I3 on games and lightly threaded workloads (and it gets stomped by any i5 on any workload)... I personally have an OC'd QX9650 and am not even close. I believe if I change to that Pentium G, and overclock it as well, that would still be an upgrade...
Because of course buying a pentium G and fitting it with a 150USD board and 50USD cooler does not make sens by itself ,but you have a 100% future-compatible system that can be upgraded very very easily...
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant
CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor ($74.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($30.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock Z87 Pro3 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($90.00 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($75.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($52.92 @ Amazon)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 280 3GB Double Dissipation Video Card ($209.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($44.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $629.86
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-06-17 04:48 EDT-0400
No, sorry. That is not true. Check this article:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ivy-bridge-wolfdale-yorkfield-comparison,3487-10.html
You should overclock your Q9550 to get performance that barely comes close to an ivy-bridge I3 on games and lightly threaded workloads (and it gets stomped by any i5 on any workload)... I personally have an OC'd QX9650 and am not even close. I believe if I change to that Pentium G, and overclock it as well, that would still be an upgrade...
Yeah that would be better unless Intel decides to let o/c on Pentium with other chipsets like H97.
Leaked BIOS Enables Pentium Anniversary Edition OC on Some MSI H97 Boards
MSI H97 PC MATE ATX LGA1150 Motherboard $88.99
So if this happens and intel decide to let even lower mobo chipsets to do o/c only for pentiums it would be nice to pair $60 mobo, $75 CPU and a $25-30 CM 212 EVO or plus, to a total of ~$160 for a o/c ready system.
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant
CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor ($74.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($30.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock Z87 Pro3 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($90.00 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($75.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($52.92 @ Amazon)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 280 3GB Double Dissipation Video Card ($209.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($44.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $629.86
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-06-17 04:48 EDT-0400
As you say, the price difference is negligible. The performance difference is also fairly small, and both platforms leave lots of headroom for future upgrades. I am under the impression that any motherboard that can house this new Pentium can also run a blazing-fast i7. The article, unfortunately, doesn't mention that the AMD solution can't even run a FX chip. For someone looking to just get into an inexpensive PC with an eye towards future upgrades, the Intel solution is dramatically more attractive.
Compelling CPU, unfortunately your still stuck with buying a mildly overpriced Z-series board.
Now if this CPU had Iris or Iris Pro, then it would be MUCH MUCH more compelling.
Anyway I can see this being a good buy for an enthusiast that isn't quite making it to get an I5 or I7 at their price point but needs a machine performing decently NOW and wants to overclock, he can then upgrade to and I7 or I5 at a later date.
As you say, the price difference is negligible. The performance difference is also fairly small, and both platforms leave lots of headroom for future upgrades. I am under the impression that any motherboard that can house this new Pentium can also run a blazing-fast i7. The article, unfortunately, doesn't mention that the AMD solution can't even run a FX chip. For someone looking to just get into an inexpensive PC with an eye towards future upgrades, the Intel solution is dramatically more attractive.[/quote]
The point is rather moot as you probably wouldn't upgrade from a Kaveri-based APU to a Piledriver-based CPU, and FX in its current form is dead anyway.
> Could get a Q9550 for that price on Ebay ...
An i7 870 on P55 would be a better buy than a Q9550. 870s dropped below
50 UKP on ebay UK this week. Never mind S775, my 870/P55 setup was faster
than a friend's X58/930 system for gaming (lower latency with P55, and some
boards do have x16/x16 CF/SLI).
Ian.
I would expect a round of price drops from AMD over this; otherwise they're done in the gaming market.