Intel Pentium G3250 Review

Get to know the Pentium G3250! This Desktop processor is a beast in Intel's entry-level series. Launched in 2014, it's armed with 2 cores and 2 threads. It runs at a base frequency of 3.2GHz, can boost up to 3.2GHz, and has a power requirement of 53W, ready to power up your gaming rig. The Pentium G3250 is a product of the Haswell Refresh 22nm process and is a part of the acclaimed Pentium series.

And guess what? The Pentium G3250 is the ultimate successor to Intel's previous-gen gaming champion, the Pentium E2200. The Pentium E2200 was based on the legendary Conroe and 65nm process, and it made its grand entrance into the gaming scene back in 2009. But now, it's time for the Pentium G3250 to take the throne and conquer the gaming world!

Heads up, with a simple overclock, the Pentium G3240 can actually perform almost as well as the Pentium G3250, even when the Pentium G3250 is overclocked too. But the Pentium G3240 is $70 cheaper! Don't get us wrong, the Pentium G3250 is still a beast and offers more overall performance than AMD's A6-7470K, but if you're on a budget, the cheaper sibling might be the better call.

We already went deep into the nitty-gritty details of the Haswell Refresh chip design in our reviews of the Intel Pentium G3258 and Pentium G3240. If you want to learn more about the Pentium G3250's architecture (which is identical to the Pentium G3240), head over there!

The Pentium G3250 is the more expensive version of the Pentium G3240, and it shows with its higher base and boost clock speeds: 3.2 GHz and 3.2 GHz, respectively. That's a nice boost in speed, but the real game changer is the higher power delivery (PPT). This lets the motherboard pump more juice (up to 142W) to the Pentium G3250 compared to the Pentium G3240's limit of 53W. This extra power allows the Pentium G3250 to crank up the boost clocks even more aggressively, on both single and multiple cores. That means the performance gap between these two CPUs might be bigger than what the specs on paper suggest.

The Intel Pentium G3250 launched on Sep 2014 for $171, which is pretty much the same price as the last-generation Pentium E2200. At least there's no crazy price hike this generation!

Heads up! If you already have a Pentium E2200, this new generation doesn't offer a huge jump in performance. You might be better off waiting a year to upgrade or spending more on a higher-end CPU.

For gamers, both the A6-7470K and Pentium G3250 are great choices. They're neck and neck, with a slight edge to the AMD CPU if you don't overclock it. The Pentium G3250's base performance can be achieved with cheaper RAM (around $90), whereas the A6-7470K needs faster RAM ($110-$120) to hit the frame rates we showed. The price difference is small though, and with anything less than an RTX 2070 or Vega 64 graphics card, your GPU will bottleneck your performance anyway. BottleneckAtPlay

One of the best things about the Intel Pentium G3250 is that it comes with a free CPU cooler! You can grab the Pentium G3250 for $171 without having to spend extra on cooling.

The Intel Pentium G3250 comes with a basic heatsink cooler, nothing fancy. But it gets the job done for this low-power CPU (TDP of 53W). You won't need a fancy aftermarket cooler unless you want to overclock it.

The Intel Pentium G3250 is a decent performing chip for $171. The main competitor at this price point is the A6-7470K, a 2-core unlocked processor with integrated graphics, which costs $215.7.

The Intel Pentium G3250 might not get a lot of hype, but it's a solid entry-level option that delivers a good experience for casual users.

If you don't care too much about overclocking and max boost speeds, then the Intel Pentium G3240 is a good option for $167.72. It also has 2 cores and 2 threads, but with slightly lower clock speeds (3.1GHz base and 3.1GHz boost).

Building on the success of mainstream Pentium CPUs, Intel is now attacking the entry-level market with the Pentium G3250 processors, available since Sep 2014.