LATEST GAMES!
Non-Z97/Z87 boards than can Overclock the Pentium-K (G3258)
For those that wish to play future and the latest next generation games it would be best to upgrade to an i5 or an i7 this year. 2015 Q1-Q2 or sometime in Q2!
Developers are now focusing on multi-threading more than ever before!
Quote:
EuroGamer included the G3258 and the i3 4150 in their "Digital Foundry 2015 budget gaming PC guide
PlayStation 4 performance for ÂŁ300. Can it be done?"
They have an amazing video covering them!
New Performance Gameplay
Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel
Battlefield 3
Natural Selection 2
Assetto Corsa
The performance decreases as A.I is added to the track in Assetto Corsa, I'm not entirely sure about Multiplayer performance though.
Unreal Tournament Pre-Alpha
In Unreal Tournament's Pre-Alpha the performance of this processor is pretty good, the lowest dip I saw was about 40fps, it was mostly 60+ fps.
Dark Souls
This area in the game gives me the creeps!
The performance in this game ran mostly around 40+ fps.
I was using DSFIX with most of the settings maxed out.
Alien: Isolation
I got lost in this game so I was mostly wandering around.
Amazing performance in this game, pushing 100+ fps with a GTX 970, one of the games which this CPU doesn't bottleneck the GPU much, since it is mostly a GPU bound game.
Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes (Coming soon)
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (Coming soon)
Black Desert Online (Coming soon)
GTX 970 tests!
Most of the time this processor will bottleneck a GTX 970/780/R9 290, so I wouldn't advise buying a high-end GPU to pair with this processor AT ALL unless you're upgrading to an i5 or an i7 very soon!
MIDDLE-EARTH: SHADOW OF MORDOR
Metro Last Light
Max Settings + PhysX at 2560x1440p!
Batman Arkham Origins
Max Settings + PhysX at 2560x1440p!
Assassin's Creed Unity
Maxed settings 2X MSAA at 1080p, the game is heavily CPU-bound at all times throughout the game with this processor, running between 20-30+ fps and sometimes dipping under, however is playable. (Shockingly, the frame-rate is around the PS4 and Xbox One performance as of Patch 1.3, this may change as the next patch is believed to provide performance optimizations and improvements)
I've been benchmarking for a couple of days with my Phenom II X4 B55 @3.9GHz, pushing it to the max stable clock and temperatures I could manage without it throttling due to temperatures, I also have my hands on a Pentium G3258 @4.4GHz which I have been benching and will be benching.
What this thread will consist of?
The original post will have various benchmarks using the G3258 at 4.4GHz and comparing it against my Phenom II @3.9GHz, this is to show any performance gains or losses in games and benchmarks, however you are free to post your own results with the processor, they would be highly beneficial to anyone who's looking into this processor, whether it be a HTPC, a budget gaming system or a placebo until you can get a processor with more threads or cores.
Owners Thread
More results would be greatly appreciated, this will allow other individuals to see the overclocks you've attained.
Benchmark results are missing, how comes?
I'm likely searching through them on my hard drive and the results will be added soon.
If you have any questions or suggestions for me to run games (If I have them) or benchmarks throw them at me!
Do you have a G3258 or you want to compare your processor against the G3258 you can post your results if you wish in the thread(However if you do please state what chip it is, it's clockspeed the benchmark and the score, a simple screenshot or "snip" with CPU-Z would be gone enough to fit this criteria), a lot of benchmarks have been unleashed in the Anniversary Review page and we're now at 133 pages, 1336 posts and counting, a lot of the benchmarks consist of the G3258 at clocks of 3GHz to 4.7GHz, and also a couple of AMD systems and other Intel systems comparing against them, there is a few OCN members, including myself who have had first-hand experience with these processors and others have pitted their chips, both Intel and AMD against our processors.
Currently I am working through spreadsheets and screenshots of my X4 B55 @3.9GHz benches and performing them on my G3258 @4.4GHz, 4.4GHz I believe isn't my highest clock I can achive, I could likely push it further but I'm currently working with the stock cooler which surprisingly does a good job for it, this is only because I didn't have thermal paste at the time of building my PC to be able to apply my aftermarket cooler which should hopefully drop my temps by 20c on load so I can push this CPU higher and harder.
I will be uploading videos of gameplay using this processor, most of them running MSI Afterburner and Rivatuner OSD to provide frame-rate, frame times and GPU utilization, if they are not the OSD is likely not compatible with that game, so I will try to run FRAPs or Shadowplay's counter as a substitute.
Benchmarks and Games I'm going to run:
Skyrim
Grand Theft Auto IV
Grand Theft Auto IV: EFLC
Saints Row 2
Saints Row 3
Planet Side 2 (I've already ran this, much smoother than my Phenom II @3.9GHz)
Just Cause 2 Multiplayer
League of Legends
PCSX2 - Shadow of the Colossus (Already done, I need to upload the video)
PCSX2- Zone of the Enders The 2ND Runner (Basically one of the most demanding, if not the most PCSX2 game there is)
Dolphin: Zelda Skyward Sword
Dolphin: Super Mario Galaxy 2
Games which don't perform too well/unplayable games
You win some you lose some huh?
Star Citizen was on the verge of unplayable, the inconsistent frame-rates did it no justice along with lag spikes in my playthrough, this game is still in it's early Alpha stages and hasn't received much optimization because of it. I'll see about getting a video up alongside, min, max avg and FPS.
APB-Reloaded - Still to be decided, it appears player counts can have an affect on the playability.
Watch_Dogs doesn't run too well, suffering from similar problems and frames ranging from 18-30fps, bare in mind this game haeen running notoriously bad for PC Gamers of all hardware configs.
NEW
Dragon Age Inquisition, from what I've heard about this game, and also seen is that it's pretty much unplayable, you need 4 cores/threads to play this game, I'm unsure about tri-cores though.
Far Cry 4 - Apparently you cannot launch this game on 2 cores/threads, however people have used a mod to allow you to.
It could be likely that these games rely heavily on multi-threading, and various games are taking a step in this direction with the introduction of the next generation consoles, Watch_Dogs from my performance thread analysis didn't gain much if anything at all from the fourth core/thread strangely enough.
Ultimately this processor's main strength and the whole reason it performs so well against AMD quad cores is that it's single threaded performance is vastly superior to anything from AMD, especially once overclocked, so it takes advantage of AMD's main weakness, single threaded performance and excels in those areas, games and applications which benefit from high single-threaded performance, Assassin's Creed IV, Skyrim, MMOs, emulators such as Dolphin and PCSX2 and so on, these are a few areas where you can expect this chip to perform well, even against six and eight core processors because their cores are under utilized in many games currently, however this will likely change for the future with the introduction of the next generation consoles.
Opinions and thoughts on the Intel Pentium G3258's performance
All in all, this processor will excel in single-thread dependent tasks, and take on chips with inferior single-threaded performance, however will be more likely to perform worse in tasks which are heavily multi-threaded or multi-thread dependent which are becoming more and more frequent in the future of software and game development, it takes advantage of one of AMD's major flaws, their weak core performance and performs better than them in most tasks which demand strong core performance.
This is not the most future proof processor, but I guess it was never meant to be, it is able to topple AMD chips in their fields of weakness and if you can find a use for this CPU it's pretty much untouchable in it's area, it's really affordable and you can practically achieve the single-thread performance of an i5 4790K which has a turbo frequency of 4.4GHz which my processor is running at in most of these benchmarks unless stated otherwise.
Fields of usage:
Minecraft servers - Typically Minecraft servers run on a single-thread, an area which Intel processors excel in against AMD chips, for those buying 4 and 6 core processors they can attempt to host multiple servers on one processor, whether it be one server per core, or two cores per server, if you are aiming at hosting a single server this CPU could be an attractive option depending on your priority, however if you aim to run other things at once on the server, such as TeamSpeak3 you may want a processor with more cores, however I'm unsure of the CPU demands of Teamspeak3 so I cannot speak on that with 100% certainty.
Emulators - My videos below contain footage of games emulated through PCSX2 and Dolphin, these emulators typically run on two cores at the max, with the exception of the "Software" emulation settings in PCSX2 which may benefit from multiple cores, other than that the processors individuals would previously go for to do emulation were processors such as the i5 K chips, like the well renowned i5 2500K and to overclock them for higher per core performance, but for something like Dolphin you don't necessarily require the 4 cores, but mainly the high single core performance which is this processor's main strength, in my playthrough of Shadow of the Colossus and Super Mario Galaxy 2 they essentially ran at full speed, so this could likely be a much more affordable candidate of a processor for emulation, here you can see what my G3258 clocked to 4.4GHz scored in the Dolphin CPU benchmark:
Single-thread optimized games - Optimized may not be the greatest word to use here, but some games predominately demand high single-threaded performance, such as Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag which could be a key example of this, when I ran this on my Phenom II X4 OC'd to 3.9GHz I was struggling to get full or significantly higher GPU utilization, especially at sea during sailing and ship combat, sailing I'd often be around 30-40fps, having my GPU under worked, during ship combat and boarding the frames would go down to 30FPS and below.
When I tried the G3258 at 4.4GHz I was completely blown away by the performance, my GPU was actually being worked hard and I was pushing 45-50+ FPS in Nassau, and whist sailing I was achieving 50-60fps, gameplay of this with MSI Afterburner are lower down in the thread in the "Assassin's Creed IV" section.
Other games which benefit from high single core performance are games such as Star Craft 2, Skyrim and various MMOs, in the Final Fantasy XIV: A Real Reborn Benchmark I ran and provide the scores for, the G3258 at 4.4GHz pushed my score up and beat my 3.9GHz Phenom II X4 B55.
Who/What would I recommend this CPU for?
If you're going with a big budget machine or ÂŁ500-600+ builds with powerful GPUs, this is not for you, it would be wise to squeeze in a more capable processor.
Those who want future proof machines, this is an interesting subject, Intel's socket 1150, Z97 chipset has many upgrade paths from this processor, you can use 1st gen Haswell, 2nd gen Haswell (Devil's Canyon) and Intel are allegedly releasing Broadwell with support for it on Z97 1150, so from a G3258 you can upgrade to an i3, an i5 or an i7 of Haswell or Broadwell if your motherboard has compatibility with those chips.
When/If games start requiring 4-8 threads to be playable, this CPU will likely struggle, as it does in Star Citizen and Watch Dogs, so it isn't really a future proof CPU, but for a really affordable Intel processor, it isn't really expected to stay relevant performance-wise for long, however you can futureproof the platform your PC is on by going the Z97 1150 route, that way you can upgrade to the processors which are the best for gaming, the i5s and i7s.
We are approaching a time in game development and games which are becoming to be better multi-threaded, likely as a result of the 8 Jaguar cores in the next gen consoles, such as the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One which aren't particularly great performers by themselves due to their low clock speed and low-power nature, however they rely heavily on multi-threading to perform, which may have an affect on the future of games ported to or from PC.
On AMD's side roughly for ÂŁ80-90 you can get an FX 6300(currency variances, it will likely more than the G3258 in any currency), which is looking to be more future proof than the G3258, but it is also more expensive, and if you wanted to you could upgrade to the 8320 for 2 more cores, currently it is unknown if AMD are going to release more chips on the platform of AM3+, however Intel has come out and said Broadwell will be supported on Z97, these CPUs have their weakness in single core performance so if that is your priority you'll likely be tempted to shift over to Intel, the G3258 is not for everybody, so it may not meet your demands in tasks such as multi-threading, which the 6 and 8 cores of the 6300 and 8320 do well in when their cores are utilized, currently Intel can be perceived of having a more futureproof platform, however the G3258 is not really a futureproof chip depending on it's usage.
Another thing is that if Intel doesn't release another unlocked dual core processor in their next generation CPUs this processor could still be looked at as what was the best in it's field, high single-threaded performance (once overclocked) at a highly affordable price.
Star Citizen - Hangar
I've done quite a lot of benchmarks already, I just have to find them on my hard drive and there's a ton of benchmarks to sort through.
Here are a few of my own benchmarks. (I am currently benching and will likely update the thread continuously over the next few days with new benchmarks)
Benchmarks
(My ram holds back the Pentium G3258 in Cinebench and Geek bench so don't take them too seriously, they'll likely be others clocked the same as mine with faster ram bringing the score up considerably, post your 4.4GHz Cinebench results if you want, I can add it to the thread as reference)
Dolphin Benchmark
Games
Resident Evil 6 Benchmark
AMD Phenom II 3.9GHz
Score: 9919
Rank: S
Intel Pentium G3258 4.4GHz
Score: 10226
Rank: S
I've noticed wherever the Phenom II build fell short it was often CPU-bound causing it to come up short, the Pentium @4.4GHz almost always outperforms it.
Hitman Absolution
AMD Phenom II 3.9GHz
Minimum FPS: 42.718445
Maximum FPS: 97.276268
Average FPS: 52.977028
Intel Pentium G3258 4.4GHz
Minimum FPS:
Maximum FPS:
Average FPS:
Battlefield 3 Multiplayer
Intel Pentium G3258 4.4GHz
Minimum FPS: 30
Maximum FPS: 118
Average FPS: 64.724
Frames:
Saints Row The Third
Grand Theft Auto IV
Final Fantasy XIV
ArcheAge CBT2
Firefall
Borderlands 2 - PhysX High
Borderlands 2 - PhysX Low
League of Legends
Testing soon.
Battlefield 4
PlanetSide 2
Each were performed in the harshest conditions possible, the Pentium G3258 @4.4GHz was able to deliver better performance.
Sleeping Dogs
Skyrim
Max Payne 3
Far Cry 3
Pentium G3258 4.4GHz
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag
Location: Nassau
Min: 40
Max: 64 (The built in frame-rate cap)
Avg: 52.623
Will be posting gameplay of this, the performance absolutely blew me mind, i was stuck to 40fps max and below on the Phenom II.
Intel Pentium G3258 4.4GHz
Guild Wars 2
I'll run with two different settings, Settings 1 and Settings 2, which one of these has the decided in-game settings I haven't established yet, however I believe shadows are performed on the CPU, I noticed this while altering my settings in Divinity's Reach, when I dropped them to medium I got an insane boost in frames per second.
Settings 1:
(Image placeholder)
Settings 2:
(Image placeholder)
World vs World
Apologies about the poor visibility of MSI Afterburner, I've made sure it's a lot larger in my newer videos.
World vs World 1 (I've experimented with the settings in GW2, I've lowered the character model limit and shadows, I noticed this boosts FPS in CPU-bound scenarios, however I'm still trying to find the most balanced settings)
World vs World 2 (At 3:05 I find a ton of players)
General adventuring (Settings 1)
General adventuring (Settings 2)
World Vs World (Settings 1)
World Vs World (Settings 2)
Emulators
Dolphin 4.0.2
Signature Code
Code:
Intel Pentium G3258 Performance and Owners Thread
Non-Z97/Z87 boards than can Overclock the Pentium-K (G3258)
For those that wish to play future and the latest next generation games it would be best to upgrade to an i5 or an i7 this year. 2015 Q1-Q2 or sometime in Q2!
Developers are now focusing on multi-threading more than ever before!
Quote:
Today (11/04/2015)
EuroGamer included the G3258 and the i3 4150 in their "Digital Foundry 2015 budget gaming PC guide
PlayStation 4 performance for ÂŁ300. Can it be done?"
They have an amazing video covering them!
New Performance Gameplay
Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel
Battlefield 3
Natural Selection 2
Assetto Corsa
The performance decreases as A.I is added to the track in Assetto Corsa, I'm not entirely sure about Multiplayer performance though.
Unreal Tournament Pre-Alpha
In Unreal Tournament's Pre-Alpha the performance of this processor is pretty good, the lowest dip I saw was about 40fps, it was mostly 60+ fps.
Dark Souls
This area in the game gives me the creeps!
The performance in this game ran mostly around 40+ fps.
I was using DSFIX with most of the settings maxed out.
Alien: Isolation
I got lost in this game so I was mostly wandering around.
Amazing performance in this game, pushing 100+ fps with a GTX 970, one of the games which this CPU doesn't bottleneck the GPU much, since it is mostly a GPU bound game.
Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes (Coming soon)
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (Coming soon)
Black Desert Online (Coming soon)
GTX 970 tests!
Most of the time this processor will bottleneck a GTX 970/780/R9 290, so I wouldn't advise buying a high-end GPU to pair with this processor AT ALL unless you're upgrading to an i5 or an i7 very soon!
MIDDLE-EARTH: SHADOW OF MORDOR
Metro Last Light
Max Settings + PhysX at 2560x1440p!
Batman Arkham Origins
Max Settings + PhysX at 2560x1440p!
Assassin's Creed Unity
Maxed settings 2X MSAA at 1080p, the game is heavily CPU-bound at all times throughout the game with this processor, running between 20-30+ fps and sometimes dipping under, however is playable. (Shockingly, the frame-rate is around the PS4 and Xbox One performance as of Patch 1.3, this may change as the next patch is believed to provide performance optimizations and improvements)
I've been benchmarking for a couple of days with my Phenom II X4 B55 @3.9GHz, pushing it to the max stable clock and temperatures I could manage without it throttling due to temperatures, I also have my hands on a Pentium G3258 @4.4GHz which I have been benching and will be benching.
What this thread will consist of?
The original post will have various benchmarks using the G3258 at 4.4GHz and comparing it against my Phenom II @3.9GHz, this is to show any performance gains or losses in games and benchmarks, however you are free to post your own results with the processor, they would be highly beneficial to anyone who's looking into this processor, whether it be a HTPC, a budget gaming system or a placebo until you can get a processor with more threads or cores.
Owners Thread
More results would be greatly appreciated, this will allow other individuals to see the overclocks you've attained.
What hardware did you use?
The only hardware which has been changed is my CPU and motherboard, the rest of the components are the same.
ROG Freedom (Rig in signature, current)
CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 @4.4GHz
Memory: 6GB 1333mhz DDR3@1436mhz
Motherboard: Asus Maximus Gene VII
GPU: MSI GTX 760 Hawk @1280MHz core, 6808MHz memory (Onpar with a 670 at stock clocks)
PSU: Corsair CX600
Destiny's Shard (Rig in signature, disassembled)
CPU: AMD Phenom II @3.9GHz
Memory: 6GB 1333mhz DDR3
Motherboard: Asus M4N68t-MV2
GPU: MSI GTX 760 Hawk @1280MHz core, 6808MHz memory (Onpar with a 670 at stock clocks)
PSU: Corsair CX600
The only hardware which has been changed is my CPU and motherboard, the rest of the components are the same.
ROG Freedom (Rig in signature, current)
CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 @4.4GHz
Memory: 6GB 1333mhz DDR3@1436mhz
Motherboard: Asus Maximus Gene VII
GPU: MSI GTX 760 Hawk @1280MHz core, 6808MHz memory (Onpar with a 670 at stock clocks)
PSU: Corsair CX600
Destiny's Shard (Rig in signature, disassembled)
CPU: AMD Phenom II @3.9GHz
Memory: 6GB 1333mhz DDR3
Motherboard: Asus M4N68t-MV2
GPU: MSI GTX 760 Hawk @1280MHz core, 6808MHz memory (Onpar with a 670 at stock clocks)
PSU: Corsair CX600
Benchmark results are missing, how comes?
I'm likely searching through them on my hard drive and the results will be added soon.
If you have any questions or suggestions for me to run games (If I have them) or benchmarks throw them at me!
Do you have a G3258 or you want to compare your processor against the G3258 you can post your results if you wish in the thread(However if you do please state what chip it is, it's clockspeed the benchmark and the score, a simple screenshot or "snip" with CPU-Z would be gone enough to fit this criteria), a lot of benchmarks have been unleashed in the Anniversary Review page and we're now at 133 pages, 1336 posts and counting, a lot of the benchmarks consist of the G3258 at clocks of 3GHz to 4.7GHz, and also a couple of AMD systems and other Intel systems comparing against them, there is a few OCN members, including myself who have had first-hand experience with these processors and others have pitted their chips, both Intel and AMD against our processors.
Currently I am working through spreadsheets and screenshots of my X4 B55 @3.9GHz benches and performing them on my G3258 @4.4GHz, 4.4GHz I believe isn't my highest clock I can achive, I could likely push it further but I'm currently working with the stock cooler which surprisingly does a good job for it, this is only because I didn't have thermal paste at the time of building my PC to be able to apply my aftermarket cooler which should hopefully drop my temps by 20c on load so I can push this CPU higher and harder.
I will be uploading videos of gameplay using this processor, most of them running MSI Afterburner and Rivatuner OSD to provide frame-rate, frame times and GPU utilization, if they are not the OSD is likely not compatible with that game, so I will try to run FRAPs or Shadowplay's counter as a substitute.
Benchmarks and Games I'm going to run:
Skyrim
Grand Theft Auto IV
Grand Theft Auto IV: EFLC
Saints Row 2
Saints Row 3
Planet Side 2 (I've already ran this, much smoother than my Phenom II @3.9GHz)
Just Cause 2 Multiplayer
League of Legends
PCSX2 - Shadow of the Colossus (Already done, I need to upload the video)
PCSX2- Zone of the Enders The 2ND Runner (Basically one of the most demanding, if not the most PCSX2 game there is)
Dolphin: Zelda Skyward Sword
Dolphin: Super Mario Galaxy 2
Games which don't perform too well/unplayable games
You win some you lose some huh?
Star Citizen was on the verge of unplayable, the inconsistent frame-rates did it no justice along with lag spikes in my playthrough, this game is still in it's early Alpha stages and hasn't received much optimization because of it. I'll see about getting a video up alongside, min, max avg and FPS.
APB-Reloaded - Still to be decided, it appears player counts can have an affect on the playability.
Watch_Dogs doesn't run too well, suffering from similar problems and frames ranging from 18-30fps, bare in mind this game haeen running notoriously bad for PC Gamers of all hardware configs.
NEW
Dragon Age Inquisition, from what I've heard about this game, and also seen is that it's pretty much unplayable, you need 4 cores/threads to play this game, I'm unsure about tri-cores though.
Far Cry 4 - Apparently you cannot launch this game on 2 cores/threads, however people have used a mod to allow you to.
It could be likely that these games rely heavily on multi-threading, and various games are taking a step in this direction with the introduction of the next generation consoles, Watch_Dogs from my performance thread analysis didn't gain much if anything at all from the fourth core/thread strangely enough.
Ultimately this processor's main strength and the whole reason it performs so well against AMD quad cores is that it's single threaded performance is vastly superior to anything from AMD, especially once overclocked, so it takes advantage of AMD's main weakness, single threaded performance and excels in those areas, games and applications which benefit from high single-threaded performance, Assassin's Creed IV, Skyrim, MMOs, emulators such as Dolphin and PCSX2 and so on, these are a few areas where you can expect this chip to perform well, even against six and eight core processors because their cores are under utilized in many games currently, however this will likely change for the future with the introduction of the next generation consoles.
Opinions and thoughts on the Intel Pentium G3258's performance
All in all, this processor will excel in single-thread dependent tasks, and take on chips with inferior single-threaded performance, however will be more likely to perform worse in tasks which are heavily multi-threaded or multi-thread dependent which are becoming more and more frequent in the future of software and game development, it takes advantage of one of AMD's major flaws, their weak core performance and performs better than them in most tasks which demand strong core performance.
This is not the most future proof processor, but I guess it was never meant to be, it is able to topple AMD chips in their fields of weakness and if you can find a use for this CPU it's pretty much untouchable in it's area, it's really affordable and you can practically achieve the single-thread performance of an i5 4790K which has a turbo frequency of 4.4GHz which my processor is running at in most of these benchmarks unless stated otherwise.
Fields of usage:
Minecraft servers - Typically Minecraft servers run on a single-thread, an area which Intel processors excel in against AMD chips, for those buying 4 and 6 core processors they can attempt to host multiple servers on one processor, whether it be one server per core, or two cores per server, if you are aiming at hosting a single server this CPU could be an attractive option depending on your priority, however if you aim to run other things at once on the server, such as TeamSpeak3 you may want a processor with more cores, however I'm unsure of the CPU demands of Teamspeak3 so I cannot speak on that with 100% certainty.
Emulators - My videos below contain footage of games emulated through PCSX2 and Dolphin, these emulators typically run on two cores at the max, with the exception of the "Software" emulation settings in PCSX2 which may benefit from multiple cores, other than that the processors individuals would previously go for to do emulation were processors such as the i5 K chips, like the well renowned i5 2500K and to overclock them for higher per core performance, but for something like Dolphin you don't necessarily require the 4 cores, but mainly the high single core performance which is this processor's main strength, in my playthrough of Shadow of the Colossus and Super Mario Galaxy 2 they essentially ran at full speed, so this could likely be a much more affordable candidate of a processor for emulation, here you can see what my G3258 clocked to 4.4GHz scored in the Dolphin CPU benchmark:
Single-thread optimized games - Optimized may not be the greatest word to use here, but some games predominately demand high single-threaded performance, such as Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag which could be a key example of this, when I ran this on my Phenom II X4 OC'd to 3.9GHz I was struggling to get full or significantly higher GPU utilization, especially at sea during sailing and ship combat, sailing I'd often be around 30-40fps, having my GPU under worked, during ship combat and boarding the frames would go down to 30FPS and below.
When I tried the G3258 at 4.4GHz I was completely blown away by the performance, my GPU was actually being worked hard and I was pushing 45-50+ FPS in Nassau, and whist sailing I was achieving 50-60fps, gameplay of this with MSI Afterburner are lower down in the thread in the "Assassin's Creed IV" section.
Other games which benefit from high single core performance are games such as Star Craft 2, Skyrim and various MMOs, in the Final Fantasy XIV: A Real Reborn Benchmark I ran and provide the scores for, the G3258 at 4.4GHz pushed my score up and beat my 3.9GHz Phenom II X4 B55.
Who/What would I recommend this CPU for?
If you're going with a big budget machine or ÂŁ500-600+ builds with powerful GPUs, this is not for you, it would be wise to squeeze in a more capable processor.
Those who want future proof machines, this is an interesting subject, Intel's socket 1150, Z97 chipset has many upgrade paths from this processor, you can use 1st gen Haswell, 2nd gen Haswell (Devil's Canyon) and Intel are allegedly releasing Broadwell with support for it on Z97 1150, so from a G3258 you can upgrade to an i3, an i5 or an i7 of Haswell or Broadwell if your motherboard has compatibility with those chips.
When/If games start requiring 4-8 threads to be playable, this CPU will likely struggle, as it does in Star Citizen and Watch Dogs, so it isn't really a future proof CPU, but for a really affordable Intel processor, it isn't really expected to stay relevant performance-wise for long, however you can futureproof the platform your PC is on by going the Z97 1150 route, that way you can upgrade to the processors which are the best for gaming, the i5s and i7s.
We are approaching a time in game development and games which are becoming to be better multi-threaded, likely as a result of the 8 Jaguar cores in the next gen consoles, such as the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One which aren't particularly great performers by themselves due to their low clock speed and low-power nature, however they rely heavily on multi-threading to perform, which may have an affect on the future of games ported to or from PC.
On AMD's side roughly for ÂŁ80-90 you can get an FX 6300(currency variances, it will likely more than the G3258 in any currency), which is looking to be more future proof than the G3258, but it is also more expensive, and if you wanted to you could upgrade to the 8320 for 2 more cores, currently it is unknown if AMD are going to release more chips on the platform of AM3+, however Intel has come out and said Broadwell will be supported on Z97, these CPUs have their weakness in single core performance so if that is your priority you'll likely be tempted to shift over to Intel, the G3258 is not for everybody, so it may not meet your demands in tasks such as multi-threading, which the 6 and 8 cores of the 6300 and 8320 do well in when their cores are utilized, currently Intel can be perceived of having a more futureproof platform, however the G3258 is not really a futureproof chip depending on it's usage.
Another thing is that if Intel doesn't release another unlocked dual core processor in their next generation CPUs this processor could still be looked at as what was the best in it's field, high single-threaded performance (once overclocked) at a highly affordable price.
Star Citizen - Hangar
I've done quite a lot of benchmarks already, I just have to find them on my hard drive and there's a ton of benchmarks to sort through.
Here are a few of my own benchmarks. (I am currently benching and will likely update the thread continuously over the next few days with new benchmarks)
Benchmarks
(My ram holds back the Pentium G3258 in Cinebench and Geek bench so don't take them too seriously, they'll likely be others clocked the same as mine with faster ram bringing the score up considerably, post your 4.4GHz Cinebench results if you want, I can add it to the thread as reference)
Cinebench R11.5
Pentium G3258 4.4GHz
Score: 3.63
Pentium G3258 4.4GHz
Score: 3.63
AMD Phenom II X4 B55 3.9GHz
Score: 4.42
Cinebench R15
Pentium G3258 4.4GHz
Score: 308
Score: 4.42
Cinebench R15
Pentium G3258 4.4GHz
Score: 308
AMD Phenom II X4 B55 3.9GHz
Score: 380
Black Hole 4.2 Final
Multithreaded: 4052
4 Threads: 3388
Single threaded: 2728
Score: 380
Black Hole 4.2 Final
Multithreaded: 4052
4 Threads: 3388
Single threaded: 2728
Dolphin Benchmark
Games
FFXIV ARR Bench (Exploration)
AMD Phenom II 3.9GHz
FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn Official Benchmark (Exploration)
Tested on:03/07/2014 19:40:34
Score:6490
Average Framerate:56.788
Performance:Very High
-Easily capable of running the game. Should perform exceptionally well, even at higher resolutions.
Screen Size: 1920x1080
Screen Mode: Full Screen
Graphics Presets: Maximum
Intel Pentium G3258 4.4GHz
FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn Official Benchmark (Exploration)
Tested on:07/07/2014 22:43:48
Score:7780
Average Framerate:67.720
Performance:Extremely High
-Easily capable of running the game on the highest settings.
Screen Size: 1920x1080
Screen Mode: Full Screen
Graphics Presets: Maximum
AMD Phenom II 3.9GHz
FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn Official Benchmark (Exploration)
Tested on:03/07/2014 19:40:34
Score:6490
Average Framerate:56.788
Performance:Very High
-Easily capable of running the game. Should perform exceptionally well, even at higher resolutions.
Screen Size: 1920x1080
Screen Mode: Full Screen
Graphics Presets: Maximum
Intel Pentium G3258 4.4GHz
FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn Official Benchmark (Exploration)
Tested on:07/07/2014 22:43:48
Score:7780
Average Framerate:67.720
Performance:Extremely High
-Easily capable of running the game on the highest settings.
Screen Size: 1920x1080
Screen Mode: Full Screen
Graphics Presets: Maximum
Resident Evil 6 Benchmark
AMD Phenom II 3.9GHz
Score: 9919
Rank: S
Intel Pentium G3258 4.4GHz
Score: 10226
Rank: S
I've noticed wherever the Phenom II build fell short it was often CPU-bound causing it to come up short, the Pentium @4.4GHz almost always outperforms it.
Hitman Absolution
AMD Phenom II 3.9GHz
Minimum FPS: 42.718445
Maximum FPS: 97.276268
Average FPS: 52.977028
Intel Pentium G3258 4.4GHz
Minimum FPS:
Maximum FPS:
Average FPS:
Battlefield 3 Multiplayer
Intel Pentium G3258 4.4GHz
Minimum FPS: 30
Maximum FPS: 118
Average FPS: 64.724
Frames:
Saints Row The Third
Grand Theft Auto IV
Quote:
Final Fantasy XIV
ArcheAge CBT2
Firefall
Borderlands 2 - PhysX High
Borderlands 2 - PhysX Low
League of Legends
Testing soon.
Battlefield 4
PlanetSide 2
Each were performed in the harshest conditions possible, the Pentium G3258 @4.4GHz was able to deliver better performance.
Sleeping Dogs
Skyrim
Max Payne 3
Far Cry 3
Pentium G3258 4.4GHz
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag
Location: Nassau
Min: 40
Max: 64 (The built in frame-rate cap)
Avg: 52.623
Will be posting gameplay of this, the performance absolutely blew me mind, i was stuck to 40fps max and below on the Phenom II.
Intel Pentium G3258 4.4GHz
Guild Wars 2
I'll run with two different settings, Settings 1 and Settings 2, which one of these has the decided in-game settings I haven't established yet, however I believe shadows are performed on the CPU, I noticed this while altering my settings in Divinity's Reach, when I dropped them to medium I got an insane boost in frames per second.
Settings 1:
(Image placeholder)
Settings 2:
(Image placeholder)
World vs World
Apologies about the poor visibility of MSI Afterburner, I've made sure it's a lot larger in my newer videos.
World vs World 1 (I've experimented with the settings in GW2, I've lowered the character model limit and shadows, I noticed this boosts FPS in CPU-bound scenarios, however I'm still trying to find the most balanced settings)
World vs World 2 (At 3:05 I find a ton of players)
General adventuring (Settings 1)
General adventuring (Settings 2)
World Vs World (Settings 1)
World Vs World (Settings 2)
Emulators
Dolphin 4.0.2
Signature Code
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[CENTER]:clock: :clock:[B][U] [URL=http://www.overclock.net/t/1500524/intel-pentium-g3258-performance-and-owners-thread]Intel Pentium G3258 Performance and Owners Thread [/URL][/U][/B] :clock: :clock:[/CENTER][CODE][CODE]