Intel Pentium G4600 2-core LGA1151

The Intel Pentium G4600 is a budget dual-core CPU that still handles basic office work and web browsing fine, but struggles with multitasking and anything demanding. Single-thread performance is decent at the 59th percentile, but multi-thread drops to the 32nd. It's worth considering only if you can find it cheap, ideally under EUR 100, and only for a basic PC build.

The G4600 posts a PassMark multi-core score of 3620 and a single-core score of 2139. In practice, that means it handles everyday tasks like web browsing, email, and office apps without much drama. The 3.6GHz base clock helps keep things snappy in single-threaded workloads, which is why it lands at the 59th percentile for single-thread performance. You won't be waiting forever for a spreadsheet to open or a browser tab to load.

But push it harder and the cracks show. Multi-thread performance sits at the 32nd percentile, which is below average even among budget CPUs. The 2 physical cores and 4 threads mean anything that actually uses multiple cores, like video encoding, heavy multitasking, or modern games, will struggle. AI workloads are the weakest spot at the 29th percentile, so don't expect this chip to run local LLMs or any kind of machine learning task with any grace. The 51W TDP is reasonable for the performance, but efficiency overall is just middle of the pack at the 46th percentile.

Stacked against something like the AMD Ryzen 5 9600X, the G4600 looks like it's from a different century, because it basically is. The Ryzen 5 has more cores, more threads, and dramatically better performance in every category. But that's not a fair fight, the 9600X costs way more and targets a completely different buyer. The real question is how the G4600 holds up against other budget options in its own price bracket.

Against the Dell Xeon E5-2637 V2, the G4600 actually has a case to make. The Xeon is also old and also cheap, but it's a server chip with different trade-offs. The G4600's single-thread performance is competitive, and it's easier to find compatible consumer motherboards for LGA1151 than for whatever server board that Xeon needs. The be quiet! Ryzen 3 Dark Rock Pro 5 is a weird comparison since that's a cooler, not a CPU, but if we're talking about the Ryzen 3 chips that cooler is designed for, those will generally beat the G4600 in multi-thread workloads while costing about the same used. The Phenom II X6 is even older than the G4600, so no real contest there unless you need 6 physical cores for some legacy reason.

The G4600's value depends entirely on what you pay. The EUR pricing across European vendors ranges from EUR 108 to EUR 141, which is a pretty wide spread for a chip this old. If you can snag it at the lower end of that range, or better yet find one used for well under EUR 100, it's a reasonable buy for a basic office PC or a cheap home server. But at USD 170 in the US, you're getting into territory where you could buy a much newer budget CPU with actual upgrade potential. The 70th percentile affordability score reflects that this chip is cheap compared to high-end parts, but it's not necessarily a good deal compared to other old budget options. For the money, you'd be better off looking at a used Ryzen 3 or even a newer Pentium Gold if you can find one at a similar price.

The Intel Pentium G4600 is a budget dual-core desktop CPU from Intel's Kaby Lake era, sitting in that weird space where it's old enough to be cheap but still functional for basic tasks. It runs at 3.6GHz with 4 threads and a 51W TDP on the LGA1151 socket. You'll find it floating around used markets and OEM listings for anywhere from EUR 108 to EUR 141 in Europe, or about USD 170 if you're shopping in the US. That's a lot of money for a chip this old, so we'll dig into whether it makes any sense in 2025.

People searching for this processor are usually asking the same thing: is the Pentium G4600 good for office work, light gaming, or a cheap home PC build? The short answer is yes for the first one, sort of for the second, and only if you get it cheap for the third. It's a 2-core, 4-thread part with 3MB of L3 cache, which was entry-level even when it launched. But for web browsing, document editing, and streaming video, it still gets the job done without making you want to throw your monitor out a window.

Our database puts this chip at the 70th percentile for affordability, which sounds decent until you realize that's compared against a sea of other old budget CPUs. Single-thread performance lands at the 59th percentile, so it's about average for its class. Multi-thread drops to the 32nd percentile, which is where the 2-core limitation really shows up. If you're building a machine for anything beyond basic productivity, you'll feel that ceiling fast.

Skip the G4600 if you're building a gaming PC, a video editing workstation, or anything that needs to run modern software with real multitasking. The 2-core design will frustrate you within a week. Content creators, streamers, and anyone running virtual machines or local AI models should look elsewhere. If you're on a tight budget, a used Ryzen 3 or a newer Pentium Gold will give you more headroom for about the same money. Also skip it if you're paying anywhere near USD 170, that's just bad value for a chip this old.

Should you buy the Intel Pentium G4600? If you need a cheap CPU for a basic office PC, a home file server, or a machine for your parents to check email and watch YouTube, and you can find it for under EUR 100 or the equivalent, sure. It'll do that job without complaining. The single-thread performance is good enough that everyday tasks feel responsive, and the 51W TDP means it won't turn your power bill into a horror story.

But if you're building a gaming PC, a content creation rig, or anything that needs to run modern software with any kind of multitasking, skip it. The 2-core design is a hard ceiling, and the multi-thread performance is below average even for budget chips. You'd be better off saving a bit more for a used Ryzen 3 or a newer Pentium Gold. The G4600 is a tool for a specific job, and that job is basic computing on a tight budget.