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Tom's Hardware: The Pentium G3258 Cheap Overclocking Experiment

Cheap overclock options are going to shake up things on the enthusiast scene, especially for the (probably-not-all-that-big) market segment filled with 760k buyers.

That Tom's article is interesting, though I would liked to have seen more details regarding how difficult it was (or wasn't) to overclock the G3258 on that H81 board.
 
The only gripe I have is that like previous reviews, this one pairs a cpu/mobo combo with RAM that costs just as much if not more than the cpu/mobo combo itself. We need some data telling us what we lose by going with a single 4GB stick of el cheapo $34 DDR3-1600. Because it makes terribly little sense to spend more on memory than on the CPU itself. I must admit that I myself fit into this category as well since I spent $60 on my pentium yet still spent $70 on RAM. I am thinking of buying another G3258 combo for $100 and simply stealing one memory stick from my first build. :biggrin: But I dont want to do that just to find it totally gimps performance.
 
sm625 said:
The only gripe I have is that like previous reviews, this one pairs a cpu/mobo combo with RAM that costs just as much if not more than the cpu/mobo combo itself. We need some data telling us what we lose by going with a single 4GB stick of el cheapo $34 DDR3-1600. Because it makes terribly little sense to spend more on memory than on the CPU itself. I must admit that I myself fit into this category as well since I spent $60 on my pentium yet still spent $70 on RAM. I am thinking of buying another G3258 combo for $100 and simply stealing one memory stick from my first build. :biggrin: But I dont want to do that just to find it totally gimps performance.
Click to expand...

Running with one memory stick on Pentium G3258 limits memory speed to 1333 on a Non-Z board AFAIK.

Still I think it would be a great if one of the review sites eventually gave us a comparison using a budget configuration (like you mention).

Maybe something like the following would be a good ending point:

1. Core i3-4130 on H81 motherboard with one 4GB DDR3 1600 stick and R7 250X or 260X video card

2. Pentium G3258 on H81 motherboard with one 4GB DDR3 1600 (running 1333) and R7 250X or 260X video card

3. Athlon x4 750K or 760K with FM2+ (not sure what chipset yet) motherboard with one 4GB DDR3 1600 stick and R7 250X or 260X video card.
 
Another thing to consider for the extreme budget user:

Does it make more sense to buy Core i3-4130 and H81 motherboard or buy Pentium G3258 and H81 and spend the leftover on a better video card or SSD?

With a price difference of around $45 between the Core i3-4130 and Pentium G3258, a person could upgrade from R7 260X (896 Stream processors @ 1100 MHz, 16 ROPs, 128 bit GDDR5 @ 6.5 Ghz) to R9 270 (1280 stream processors @ 925 Mhz, 32 ROPs, 256 bit GDDR5 @ 5.6 Ghz)

Apparently, in some games like Crysis 3 memory bandwidth can really help out even at lower detail settings:

61104.png


Personally, I would inclined to go with the R7 260X as my maximum video card, but this type of comparison still makes me wonder where we draw the limit on practical Video card pairings?

How much Video Card is too much for Pentium G3258?
 
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Crysis 3 has parts which push a massive multi-threaded load(please don't quote the TR review as they linked to a video of what area they tested,which is one of the less taxing areas which is lightly threaded,and it hardly has any enemies too).

Look at this article from the German site pcgameshardware:

https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pcgameshardware.de%2FCrysis-3-PC-235317%2FTests%2FCrysis-3-CPU-Test-1068140%2F&edit-text=

That part of the game is open world(not like the more linear parts of the game) and has lots of animated vegetation too. Some of the later stages are more of the same.

The game actually can use HT well after the 1.3 patch,and from my own experience of running it in SP and MP,I would get a Core i3/FX6300 and a R7 265 or GTX750TI over a Pentium dual core and a R9 270. There are parts where my Core i5 is at maximum utilisation.

Edit to post

What TR tested:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5pV69ELx5g

A short one minute part with no enemies.

Welcome to the Jungle with is grass animations:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLOXZDdCRp0

Another open world part:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCrY7uUYWyo#t=1763
 
Last edited:
USER8000 said:
Crysis 3 has parts which push a massive multi-threaded load(please don't quote the TR review as they linked to a video of what area they tested,which is one of the less taxing areas which is lightly threaded,and it hardly has any enemies too).

Look at this article from the German site pcgameshardware:

https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pcgameshardware.de%2FCrysis-3-PC-235317%2FTests%2FCrysis-3-CPU-Test-1068140%2F&edit-text=

That part of the game is open world(not like the more linear parts of the game) and has lots of animated vegetation too. Some of the later stages are more of the same.

The game actually can use HT well after the 1.3 patch,and from my own experience of running it in SP and MP,I would get a Core i3/FX6300 and a R7 265 or GTX750TI over a Pentium dual core and a R9 270. There are parts where my Core i5 is at maximum utilisation.

Edit to post

What TR tested:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5pV69ELx5g

A short one minute part with no enemies.

Welcome to the Jungle with is grass animations:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLOXZDdCRp0

Another open world part:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCrY7uUYWyo#t=1763
Click to expand...

Thanks for your input.

My only objection is that Core i3 + R7 265 would not be a fair comparison to Pentium G3258 + R9 270 (at least going by US prices). At Newegg, both the R7 265 and R9 270 currently start at $140 After rebate. The R7 260X 1GB, on the other hand, starts at $90 After rebate.

R7 260X listings:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...874&IsNodeId=1

R7 265 listings:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...396&IsNodeId=1


R7 260X listings:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...061&IsNodeId=1

(The R7 265, of course, shares the same 256 bit GDDR5 memory system as the R9 270. While the R7 260X gets by with only 128 bit GDDR5)
 
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