Intel Celeron G3900 2-core LGA 1151

The Celeron G3900 is a 2015 chip that still boots and browses, but it's a coin flip on quality and a dinosaur on performance. Only buy it if you're rescuing an old LGA 1151 board and have zero ambition beyond email and YouTube.

The PassMark scores tell the story. 2157 multi-core and 1676 single-core put this chip in the bottom third of our database for multi-threaded work and below average for single-thread. That single-core score is actually the more important number here, since most basic tasks lean on one or two cores. It's enough for Windows 10 or a light Linux distro, but don't try to run a modern browser with 30 tabs open. The integrated HD Graphics 510 is fine for video playback and desktop use, but it's not touching anything beyond Minesweeper. The 51W TDP is also a bit high for what you get, modern chips do way more with less power.

The AMD Ryzen 5 7600 is in a completely different universe, six cores, twelve threads, and modern architecture. Comparing them is almost unfair, but it shows how far budget CPUs have come. The Dell Xeon E5-2637 V2 is another interesting alternative if you're on an old server platform, it's also old but offers more cores for similar money on the used market. Honestly, the G3900 only makes sense if you're locked into LGA 1151 and need the absolute cheapest thing that boots. Otherwise, save up a bit more and get something from this decade.

At around $38 USD or 36-39 EUR, this chip is cheap. But cheap doesn't always mean good value. If you already have an LGA 1151 motherboard and just need a working CPU, sure, it's a low-risk gamble. But if you're building from scratch, you can find used Ryzen or newer Intel chips that absolutely demolish this for not much more. The value here is entirely dependent on your existing hardware.

The Intel Celeron G3900 is a relic from 2015 that still shows up in budget builds and office PCs. It's a dual-core, dual-thread chip at 2.8GHz with a 51W TDP, and honestly, it's fine for exactly one thing: keeping an old LGA 1151 board alive for basic tasks. Don't expect magic. This is a web browsing, document editing, email checking kind of processor. The one thing to know? It's cheap, it works if you get a good unit, and it absolutely will not impress anyone in 2024.

If you're building a new PC, skip this entirely. Go find a used Ryzen 3 or an older i3 instead, you'll get way more performance for a similar price. If you want to game, edit video, or run anything more demanding than a web browser, this chip will make you miserable. It's a rescue part for old hardware, nothing more.

The Celeron G3900 is a stopgap, not a solution. If you have a dead LGA 1151 system and need to bring it back to life for basic tasks, it's a reasonable $38 gamble. But if you're building anything new, or you want to do more than check email and watch YouTube, this chip will frustrate you. Buy it only if you have no other choice, and even then, keep your expectations firmly on the floor.