Intel Pentium G4400T 2-core LGA1151

The Pentium G4400T is a 35W dual-core Skylake chip that's fine for basic tasks and old LGA1151 systems, but it's hopelessly outclassed by modern budget CPUs. Single-thread performance is serviceable at 1743 PassMark, but multi-thread is weak at 2318. Only worth buying if you need a cheap drop-in replacement for an existing board. Otherwise, spend your money on something newer.

The PassMark numbers tell the story. 2318 multi-thread and 1743 single-thread. For context, that single-thread score lands in the 43rd percentile among CPUs in our database. Not terrible for a chip this old, but nothing to write home about. The multi-thread score is where things get rough, sitting in the 27th percentile. Two threads just don't stretch far in 2025.

What does that mean in real life? Web browsing, email, light document work, maybe a 1080p video stream. That's about the ceiling. The single-thread performance is decent enough that basic tasks won't feel painfully slow, but open more than a handful of browser tabs and you'll feel the lack of cores. The 35W TDP means it'll run cool and quiet, which is nice, but you're trading away a lot of performance for that low power draw. The gaming score of 25.9 out of 100 confirms what you probably already guessed. This is not a gaming chip, not even for older titles at this point.

The competitor list here is honestly a bit absurd. The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D, a Core i9, and a Ryzen 5 spare part are not really competitors to a dual-core Pentium. They're in completely different universes of performance and price. The 9800X3D is one of the best gaming CPUs on the planet right now. Comparing it to the G4400T is like comparing a bicycle to a fighter jet. The Pentium's multi-thread score of 2318 wouldn't even register as a rounding error next to those chips.

A more realistic comparison would be against other budget or older chips. Any modern entry-level processor, even a basic Ryzen 3 or Intel Core i3 from the last few generations, will absolutely demolish the G4400T in multi-threaded workloads while offering better integrated graphics and a modern platform with actual upgrade options. The G4400T's only real advantage is that it's cheap and it works in old boards. If you don't have an LGA1151 board already, there's no reason to seek this chip out.

Pricing is weird here. There's no standard retail price listed, but we see listings at EUR 316 in Germany and JPY 22,726 in Japan. Those are wildly different markets and currencies, so don't try to compare them directly. What matters is that this chip is old enough that you should be finding it used or in clearance bins for very little money. Paying anything close to triple digits in any major currency for a dual-core Skylake chip in 2025 is a bad deal.

The value proposition only makes sense if you already own an LGA1151 motherboard and need a drop-in replacement. Maybe your old CPU died, or you're repurposing a board for a home server. In that scenario, the G4400T is a cheap way to get a system running again. But if you're building from scratch, even a budget modern chip with integrated graphics will crush this thing in every metric while using similar or less power.

The Intel Pentium G4400T is a relic from the Skylake era, a dual-core chip that launched back when 2 cores and 2 threads was still a reasonable entry point. It runs at 2.9GHz with no turbo, sips power at 35W, and drops into any LGA1151 board. This is an OEM part too, so don't expect a cooler in the box. You're getting the bare chip and nothing else.

Who is this actually for? Honestly, it's for people trying to keep an old LGA1151 system alive on the cheap, or someone building a basic office box, a home server, or a low-power NAS. It's not a gaming chip, not a productivity chip, and definitely not something you'd buy for anything AI-related. The budget score of 45.8 out of 100 tells you a lot. It's affordable in absolute terms, but you're not getting much for your money by modern standards.

The interesting thing here is the efficiency angle. At 35W TDP, this chip barely registers on a power bill. But the efficiency score of 36.6 out of 100 is dragged down by the fact that it doesn't do much with those watts. Modern low-power chips run circles around it. Still, for a fanless build or a system that just needs to exist quietly in a corner, there's a certain charm to a chip this simple.

Skip this if you're building a new system from scratch. The LGA1151 platform is dead, with no upgrade path to anything modern. You'd be locking yourself into a socket that's been obsolete for years. A modern budget CPU will cost more upfront but gives you better performance, better efficiency, and a platform you can actually grow with.

Also skip it if you need any kind of multi-threaded performance. Video editing, streaming, running virtual machines, or even heavy multitasking will bring this chip to its knees. The 27th percentile multi-thread score means it's slower than the vast majority of CPUs in our database. If you're doing anything beyond basic office work and web browsing, look at a used quad-core or a modern budget chip instead.

If you have an old LGA1151 system that needs a cheap CPU to keep running as a basic office machine, home server, or media box, the G4400T is a perfectly fine choice. It's low power, runs cool, and handles light tasks without complaint. Just don't expect it to do anything demanding. The single-thread performance is decent enough that everyday browsing and document work won't feel like pulling teeth.

For anyone building a new system, even on a tight budget, look elsewhere. A modern budget chip will give you more cores, better integrated graphics, a current platform with upgrade headroom, and likely better efficiency too. The G4400T is a stopgap, not a foundation. It's the CPU equivalent of a spare tire. It'll get you home, but you wouldn't want to drive across the country on it.