Intel Pentium G3258 2-core LGA 1150

The Pentium G3258 is a legendary budget overclocker with an unlocked multiplier and a cult following. Single-thread performance is mid-pack, but multi-thread is near the bottom of our database. Worth grabbing if you find it cheap and want a fun project, not a daily driver.

The G3258 scores 2076 in PassMark multi-thread and 1843 single-thread. That puts single-thread performance right around the middle of the pack, while multi-thread lands near the bottom quarter. Two cores and two threads is a hard ceiling in 2024, no matter how far you overclock. The 53W TDP is modest, and the integrated Intel HD Graphics will handle desktop tasks and ancient games, but that's about it. Feature-wise it's actually decent for its age, sitting in the 84th percentile thanks to the unlocked multiplier and Quick Sync Video support.

Against something like the AMD Ryzen 5 7600, this chip looks like a museum piece. The Ryzen has six cores, twelve threads, and absolutely demolishes the G3258 in every benchmark we track. Even older Xeon parts like the E5-2637 V2 or E5-2697 v2 offer way more multi-threaded grunt for similar money on the used market. The G3258's only real advantage is its unlocked multiplier and low power draw. If you want a cheap overclocking project, it's fun. If you want actual performance, look at used Xeons or save up for a modern budget chip.

Pricing is all over the map. In the US you'll find it around USD 125, which is frankly too much for a decade-old dual-core. European listings range from EUR 184 to EUR 241, and Canadian prices swing wildly from CAD 50 to CAD 291. If you're buying one of these, hunt for the low end of that range. At CAD 50 it's a fun toy. At EUR 241 it's a rip-off. The sweet spot is whatever you can snag from a used parts bin or a clearance listing.

The Intel Pentium G3258 is the little chip that could. It's a dual-core Haswell part from 2014 with one party trick up its sleeve: a fully unlocked multiplier. Overclockers loved this thing back in the day, and it still has a cult following for budget builds and retro rigs.

At 3.2GHz stock with 3MB of L3 cache, it's not going to impress anyone on paper. But the unlocked multiplier means you can push it well past stock speeds with a decent cooler. Just don't expect modern workloads to feel anything but sluggish.

Skip this if you need a machine for anything beyond basic tasks. Video editing, streaming, modern gaming, or running multiple applications at once will all feel painful on two threads. If you're building a daily driver, put your money toward a used Ryzen or even an older quad-core i5 or i7 instead.

Buy this if you're building a retro Windows 7 machine, want a cheap overclocking experiment, or need a basic office PC for web browsing and email. It's a fun little chip with a legit enthusiast pedigree. Just know what you're getting into: this is a 2014 dual-core, and no amount of overclocking will make it feel modern.