Intel Celeron G3900 2-core LGA1151

A 2015 budget CPU that still boots Windows and not much else. Fine for a grandma PC, painful for everything else.

PassMark puts this at 2157 multi and 1676 single, which lands it in the bottom third for multi-threaded work and dead average for single-thread. That single-core score is the saving grace here, it keeps basic apps feeling responsive enough. But the 51W TDP for this level of performance is rough, our efficiency score puts it in the bottom third. The HD 510 iGPU will play video and handle a second monitor, but don't expect it to do anything beyond that. What surprised us most is that people still buy these in 2025 and leave 4-star reviews, nostalgia is a hell of a drug.

Stacked against the AMD Ryzen 5 5500, this Celeron looks like it's from a different planet, because it basically is. The 5500 has six cores, twelve threads, and modern architecture, while the G3900 has two cores and a prayer. The Dell Xeon E5-2637 V2 is another interesting alternative, older server silicon but with more cores and ECC support if you're building a cheap NAS. Even a used i3-6100 from the same Skylake generation would be a smarter buy, you get hyperthreading and a better iGPU for maybe ten bucks more.

At USD 48 for a single US listing, this is basically pocket change. But the EUR spread is wild, EUR 52 to EUR 83 across four listings, and the CAD range is even worse at CAD 30 to CAD 118. If you're in Canada, the CAD 30 listing is the only one that makes any sense. The best EUR deal is at the EUR 52 end, anything above that and you're paying too much for a chip that belongs in a recycling bin. For the price of the higher listings, you could grab a used Ryzen 3 or older i3 that runs circles around this.

The Intel Celeron G3900 is a dual-core Skylake chip that refuses to die, mostly because it's dirt cheap and still shows up in refurbished office boxes. The one thing to know: this is a 2015-era budget CPU that handles basic desktop work fine, but anything beyond web browsing and light office tasks will make you feel every one of its two cores. At 2.8GHz with no turbo and just 2MB of L3 cache, it's not pretending to be anything fancy.

If you're building a new system or want to do any gaming, video editing, or heavy multitasking, this isn't it. Go grab a used Ryzen 3 3100 or i3-8100 instead, you'll spend a bit more but get a machine that doesn't feel like it's running through molasses.

Buy this only if you're fixing an old office PC on a strict budget and you find it at the absolute bottom of the price range. For anything else, save your money for a used i3 or Ryzen 3. The G3900 was a budget chip in 2015, and in 2025 it's a budget chip that's also old. That's not a winning combo.