Intel Pentium G7400: For what are two cores with HT (not) enough?

Intel Pentium G7400 in detail

From the top, we gradually worked our way down to the class of the iconic Pentium. Its design is quite conservative by today’s standards. The performance of the dual-core processor is at the limit, which begins to complicate the actual execution of the tests. One of the biggest appeals is the low power draw, but that may not be worth much if your processor can’t handle your demands in real time. Or can it?

Intel Pentium G7400 v detailoch

The processor is built on two cores of the Golden Cove architecture, the large – “powerful” ones. Compared to the cheaper Celeron G6900, the Pentium G7400 has 2 MB more L3 cache (6 MB), HyperThreading (it is a four-thread processor) and the base frequency is also higher, by 400 MHz. Meanwhile, the Pentium G7400’s 3.7 GHz runs in both single-threaded and multi-threaded workloads. This processor does not support any form of Turbo Boost.

The two Golden Cove cores are on a natively 6-core chip with a total area of roughly 160 mm². So these are not the worst quality large chips, which physically have eight P and E cores. The chip is soldered to the heat spreader, which means good heat transfer and eventual quiet operation even with simple low-profile top-flow coolers. This is important for small PCs built on Thin Mini-ITX boards, for example, or for various embedded systems with significantly limited space.

The claimed TDP is 46 W, 12 W lower than the Core i3-12100(F). After capping the Core i3 to Intel’s recommended limits (i.e. PL2 at 58 W), the Pentium could be more efficient as well. This in applications that use two cores, where the G7400 may benefit from higher frequencies. Also, the Pentium has a dual controller, so in addition to DDR5 memory, it also supports DDR4, which makes considerably more sense for the lower price. For this reason, we also tested the processor on a platform with DDR4 memory.

The Pentium G7400 also has an active graphics core – UHD 710 with 128 shaders, 8 texturing and rasterization units. Supported video output via HDMI is 4096×2160 px at 60 Hz. Even though the HDMI 2.1 standard is mentioned in the specs, beware of one thing. The HDMI consortium has rebranded the original HDMI 2.0 standard to HDMI 2.1 (similar to what happened with, for example, UDB 3.0 being renamed to USB 3.1 gen. 1 and then even to USB 3.2 gen. 1). It’s admittedly very confusing, but unfortunately the HDMI 2.1 designation no longer means that the graphics support the capabilities that were originally associated with HDMI (such as support for higher resolutions than 4K or new features).

The package also includes Intel’s new Laminar RS1 cooler. It will be covered in detailed tests later in a separate article over the next week.

* Don’t be confused by the HDMI 2.1 designation, the maximum supported resolution is 4096×2160 px at 60 Hz refresh rate, not 5120×3200 px (60 Hz).

From the top, we gradually worked our way down to the class of the iconic Pentium. Its design is quite conservative by today’s standards. The performance of the dual-core processor is at the limit, which begins to complicate the actual execution of the tests. One of the biggest appeals is the low power draw, but that may not be worth much if your processor can’t handle your demands in real time. Or can it?

Gaming tests

We test performance in games in four resolutions with different graphics settings. To warm up, there is more or less a theoretical resolution of 1280 × 720 px. We had been tweaking graphics settings for this resolution for a long time. We finally decided to go for the lowest possible (Low, Lowest, Ultra Low, …) settings that a game allows.

One could argue that a processor does not calculate how many objects are drawn in such settings (so-called draw calls). However, with high detail at this very low resolution, there was not much difference in performance compared to FHD (which we also test). On the contrary, the GPU load was clearly higher, and this impractical setting should demonstrate the performance of a processor with the lowest possible participation of a graphics card.
At higher resolutions, high settings (for FHD and QHD) and highest (for UHD) are used. In Full HD it’s usually with Anti-Aliasing turned off, but overall, these are relatively practical settings that are commonly used.

The selection of games was made considering the diversity of genres, player popularity and processor performance requirements. For a complete list, see Chapters 7–16. A built-in benchmark is used when a game has one, otherwise we have created our own scenes, which we always repeat with each processor in the same way. We use OCAT to record fps, or the times of individual frames, from which fps are then calculated, and FLAT to analyze CSV. Both were developed by the author of articles (and videos) from GPUreport.cz. For the highest possible accuracy, all runs are repeated three times and the average values of average and minimum fps are drawn in the graphs. These multiple repetitions also apply to non-gaming tests.

Computing tests

Let’s start lightly with PCMark 10, which tests more than sixty sub-tasks in various applications as part of a complete set of “benchmarks for a modern office”. It then sorts them into fewer thematic categories and for the best possible overview we include the gained points from them in the graphs. Lighter test tasks are also represented by tests in a web browser – Speedometer and Octane. Other tests usually represent higher load or are aimed at advanced users.

We test the 3D rendering performance in Cinebench. In R20, where the results are more widespread, but mainly in R23. Rendering in this version takes longer with each processor, cycles of at least ten minutes. We also test 3D rendering in Blender, with the Cycles render in the BMW and Classroom projects. You can also compare the latter with the test results of graphics cards (contains the same number of tiles).

We test how processors perform in video editing in Adobe Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve Studio 17. We use a PugetBench plugin, which deals with all the tasks you may encounter when editing videos. We also use PugetBench services in Adobe After Effects, where the performance of creating graphic effects is tested. Some subtasks use GPU acceleration, but we never turn it off, as no one will do it in practice. Some things don’t even work without GPU acceleration, but on the contrary, it’s interesting to see that the performance in the tasks accelerated by the graphics card also varies as some operations are still serviced by the CPU.

We test video encoding under SVT-AV1, in HandBrake and benchmarks (x264 HD and HWBot x265). x264 HD benchmark works in 32-bit mode (we did not manage to run 64-bit consistently on W10 and in general on newer OS’s it may be unstable and show errors in video). In HandBrake we use the x264 processor encoder for AVC and x265 for HEVC. Detailed settings of individual profiles can be found in the corresponding chapter 25. In addition to video, we also encode audio, where all the details are also stated in the chapter of these tests. Gamers who record their gameplay on video can also have to do with the performance of processor encoders. Therefore, we also test the performance of “processor broadcasting” in two popular applications OBS Studio and Xsplit.
We also have two chapters dedicated to photo editing performance. Adobe has a separate one, where we test Photoshop via PugetBench. However, we do not use PugetBench in Lightroom, because it requires various OS modifications for stable operation, and overall we rather avoided it (due to the higher risk of complications) and create our own test scenes. Both are CPU intensive, whether it’s exporting RAW files to 16-bit TIFF with ProPhotoRGB color space or generating 1:1 thumbnails of 42 lossless CR2 photos.
However, we also have several alternative photo editing applications in which we test CPU performance. These include Affinity Photo, in which we use a built-in benchmark, or XnViewMP for batch photo editing or ZPS X. Of the truly modern ones, there are three Topaz Labz applications that use AI algorithms. DeNoise AI, Gigapixel AI and Sharpen AI. Topaz Labs often and happily compares its results with Adobe applications (Photoshop and Lightroom) and boasts of better results. So we’ll see, maybe we’ll get into it from the image point of view sometime. In processor tests, however, we are primarily focused on performance.

We test compression and decompression performance in WinRAR, 7-Zip and Aida64 (Zlib) benchmarks, decryption in TrueCrypt and Aida64, where in addition to AES there are also SHA3 tests. In Aida64, we also test FPU in the chapter of mathematical calculations. From this category you may also be interested in the results of Stockfish 13 and the number of chess combinations achieved per unit time. We perform many tests that can be included in the category of mathematics in SPECworkstation 3.1. It is a set of professional applications extending to various simulations, such as LAMMPS or NAMD, which are molecular simulators. A detailed description of the tests from SPECworkstation 3.1 can be found at spec.org. We do not test 7-zip, Blender and HandBrake from the list for redundancy, because we test performance in them separately in applications. A detailed listing of SPECWS results usually represents times or fps, but we graph “SPEC ratio”, which represents gained points—higher means better.

Processor settings…

We test processors in the default settings, without active PBO2 (AMD) or ABT (Intel) technologies, but naturally with active XMP 2.0.

… and app updates

The tests should also take into account that, over time, individual updates may affect performance comparisons. Some applications are used in portable versions, which are not updated or can be kept on a stable version, but this is not the case for some others. Typically, games update over time. On the other hand, even intentional obsolescence (and testing something out of date that already behaves differently) would not be entirely the way to go.

In short, just take into account that the accuracy of the results you are comparing decreases a bit over time. To make this analysis easier for you, we indicate when each processor was tested. You can find this in the dialog box, where there is information about the test date of each processor. This dialog box appears in interactive graphs, just hover the mouse cursor over any bar.

From the top, we gradually worked our way down to the class of the iconic Pentium. Its design is quite conservative by today’s standards. The performance of the dual-core processor is at the limit, which begins to complicate the actual execution of the tests. One of the biggest appeals is the low power draw, but that may not be worth much if your processor can’t handle your demands in real time. Or can it?

Methodology: how we measure power draw

Measuring CPU power consumption is relatively simple, much easier than with graphics cards. All power goes through one or two EPS cables. We also use two to increase the cross-section, which is suitable for high performance AMD processors up to sTR(X)4 or for Intel HEDT, and in fact almost for mainstream processors as well. We have Prova 15 current probes to measure current directly on the wires. This is a much more accurate and reliable way of measuring than relying on internal sensors.

The only limitation of our current probes may be when testing the most powerful processors. These already exceed the maximum range of 30 A, at which high accuracy is guaranteed. For most processors, the range is optimal (even for measuring a lower load, when the probes can be switched to a lower and more accurate range of 4 A), but we will test models with power consumption over 360 W on our own device, a prototype of which we have already built. Its measuring range will no longer be limiting, but for the time being we will be using the Prova probes in the near future.

The probes are properly set to zero and connected to a UNI-T UT71E multimeter before each measurement. It records samples of current values during the tests via the IR-USB interface and writes them in a table at one-second intervals. We can then create bar graphs with power consumption patterns. But we always write average values in bar graphs. Measurements take place in various load modes. The lowest represents an idle Windows 10 desktop. This measurement takes place on a system that had been idle for quite some time.

   

Audio encoding (FLAC) represents a higher load, but processors use only one core or one thread for this. Higher loads, where more cores are involved, are games. We test power consumption in F1 2020, Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Total War Saga: Troy in 1920 × 1080 px. In this resolution, the power consumption is usually the highest or at least similar to that in lower or higher resolutions, where in most cases the CPU power draw rather decreases due to its lower utilization.

Like most motherboard manufacturers, we too ignore the time limit for “Tau”, after which the power consumption is to be reduced from the PL2 boost limit (when it exceeds the TDP) to the TDP/PL1 value, recommended by Intel, in our tests. This means that neither the power draw nor the clock speed after 56 seconds of higher load does not decrease and the performance is kept stable with just small fluctuations. We had been considering whether or not to respect the Tau. In the end, we decided not to because the vast majority of users won’t either, and therefore the results and comparisons would be relatively uninteresting. The solution would be to test with and without a power limit, but this is no longer possible due to time requirements. We will pay more attention to the behavior of PL2 in motherboard tests, where it makes more sense.

We always use motherboards with extremely robust, efficient VRM, so that the losses on MOSFETs distort the measured results as little as possible and the test setups are powered by a high-end 1200 W BeQuiet! Dark Power Pro 12 power supply. It is strong enough to supply every processor, even with a fully loaded GeForce RTX 3080, and at the same time achieves above-standard efficiency even at lower load. For a complete overview of test setup components, see Chapter 5 of this article.

From the top, we gradually worked our way down to the class of the iconic Pentium. Its design is quite conservative by today’s standards. The performance of the dual-core processor is at the limit, which begins to complicate the actual execution of the tests. One of the biggest appeals is the low power draw, but that may not be worth much if your processor can’t handle your demands in real time. Or can it?

Methodology: temperature and clock speed tests

When choosing a cooler, we eventually opted for Noctua NH-U14S. It has a high performance and at the same time there is also the TR4-SP3 variant designed for Threadripper processors. It differs only by the base, the radiator is otherwise the same, so it will be possible to test and compare all processors under the same conditions. The fan on the NH-U14S cooler is set to a maximum speed of 1,535 rpm during all tests.

Measurements always take place on a bench-wall in a wind tunnel which simulates a computer case, with the difference that we have more control over it.

System cooling consists of four Noctua NF-S12A PWM fans, which are in an equilibrium ratio of two at the inlet and two at the outlet. Their speed is set at a fixed 535 rpm, which is a relatively practical speed that is not needed to be exceeded. In short, this should be the optimal configuration based on our tests of various system cooling settings.

It is also important to maintain the same air temperature around the processors. Of course, this also changes with regard to how much heat a particular processor produces, but at the inlet of the tunnel it must always be the same for accurate comparisons. In our air-conditioned test lab, it is currently in the range of 21–21.3 °C.

Maintaining a constant inlet temperature is necessary not only for a proper comparison of processor temperatures, but especially for unbiased performance comparisons. Trend of clock speed and especially single-core boost depends on the temperature. In the summer at higher temperatures, processors may be slower in living spaces than in the winter.

For Intel processors, we register the maximum core temperature for each test, usually of all cores. These maximum values are then averaged and the result is represented by the final value in the graph. From the outputs of single-threaded load, we only pick the registered values from active cores (these are usually two and alternate during the test). It’s a little different with AMD processors. They don’t have temperature sensors for every core. In order for the procedure to be as methodically as possible similar to that applied on Intel processors, the average temperature of all cores is defined by the highest value reported by the CPU Tdie sensor (average). For single-threaded load, however, we already use a CPU sensor (Tctl/Tdie), which usually reports a slightly higher value, which better corresponds to the hotspots of one or two cores. But these values as well as the values from all internal sensors must be taken with a grain of salt, the accuracy of the sensors varies across processors.

Clock speed evaluation is more accurate, each core has its own sensor even on AMD processors. Unlike temperatures, we plot average clock speed values during tests in graphs. We monitor the temperature and clock speed of the processor cores in the same tests, in which we also measure the power consumption. And thus, gradually from the lowest load level on the desktop of idle Windows 10, through audio encoding (single-threaded load), gaming load in three games (F1 2020, Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Total War Saga: Troy), to a 10-minute load in Cinebench R23 and the most demanding video encoding with the x264 encoder in HandBrake.

To record the temperatures and clock speed of the processor cores, we use HWiNFO, in which sampling is set to two seconds. With the exception of audio encoding, the graphs always show the averages of all processor cores in terms of temperatures and clock speed. During audio encoding, the values from the loaded core are given.

We recently enjoyed the pleasing results of the Core i3-10105F here, and that processor already has a successor – the 12100F. It presents an option in the Alder Lake family for users on a budget. But that doesn’t mean it will limit you in performance. Plus, in target environments (especially simpler gaming PC builds), the latest Core i3 is nicely power-efficient without breaking your bank account.

Test setup

 

* We use the following BIOSes on motherboards. For MSI MEG Z590 Ace v1.14, for MSI MEG X570 Ace v1E and for MSI MEG Z490 Ace v17.

Note: Graphics drivers used at the time of testing: Nvidia GeForce 466.77 and OS Windows 10 build 19043.

Older CPUs are tested on the MSI MEG Z590 Ace, X570 Ace and Z490 Ace motherboards. With MSI MEG Z690 Unify, the memory used is DDR5 Kingston Fury Beast (2× 16 GB, 5200 MHz/CL40):

     

     

From the top, we gradually worked our way down to the class of the iconic Pentium. Its design is quite conservative by today’s standards. The performance of the dual-core processor is at the limit, which begins to complicate the actual execution of the tests. One of the biggest appeals is the low power draw, but that may not be worth much if your processor can’t handle your demands in real time. Or can it?

3DMark

We use 3DMark Professional for the tests and the following tests: Night Raid (DirectX 12), Fire Strike (DirectX 11) and Time Spy (DirectX 12). In the graphs you will find partial CPU scores, combined scores, but also graphics scores. You can find out to what extent the given processor limits the graphics card.

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From the top, we gradually worked our way down to the class of the iconic Pentium. Its design is quite conservative by today’s standards. The performance of the dual-core processor is at the limit, which begins to complicate the actual execution of the tests. One of the biggest appeals is the low power draw, but that may not be worth much if your processor can’t handle your demands in real time. Or can it?

Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla

Test environment: resolution 1280 × 720 px; graphics settings preset Low; API DirectX 12; no extra settings; test scene: built-in benchmark.

   

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Test environment: resolution 1920 × 1080 px; graphics settings preset Low; API DirectX 12; extra settings Anti-Aliasing: low; test scene: built-in benchmark.

   

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Test environment: resolution 2560 × 1440 px; graphics settings preset High; API DirectX 12; no extra settings; test scene: built-in benchmark.

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Test environment: resolution 3840 × 2160 px; graphics settings preset Ultra High; API DirectX 12; no extra settings; test scene: built-in benchmark.

   

From the top, we gradually worked our way down to the class of the iconic Pentium. Its design is quite conservative by today’s standards. The performance of the dual-core processor is at the limit, which begins to complicate the actual execution of the tests. One of the biggest appeals is the low power draw, but that may not be worth much if your processor can’t handle your demands in real time. Or can it?

Borderlands 3

Test environment: resolution 1280 × 720 px; graphics settings preset Very Low; API DirectX 12; no extra settings; test scene: built-in benchmark.

   

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Test environment: resolution 1920 × 1080 px; graphics settings preset High; API DirectX 12; extra settings Anti-Aliasing: None; test scene: built-in benchmark.

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Test environment: resolution 2560 × 1440 px; graphics settings preset High; API DirectX 12; no extra settings; test scene: built-in benchmark.

   

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Test environment: resolution 3840 × 2160 px; graphics settings preset Ultra; API DirectX 12; no extra settings; test scene: built-in benchmark.

   

From the top, we gradually worked our way down to the class of the iconic Pentium. Its design is quite conservative by today’s standards. The performance of the dual-core processor is at the limit, which begins to complicate the actual execution of the tests. One of the biggest appeals is the low power draw, but that may not be worth much if your processor can’t handle your demands in real time. Or can it?

Counter-Strike: GO

Test environment: resolution 1280 × 720 px; lowest graphics settings and w/o Anti-Aliasing, API DirectX 9; test platform script with Dust 2 map tour.

   

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Test environment: resolution 1920 × 1080 px; high graphics settings and w/o Anti-Aliasingu, API DirectX 9; test platform script with Dust 2 map tour.

   

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Test environment: resolution 2560 × 1440 px; high graphics settings; 4× MSAA, API DirectX 9; test platform script with Dust 2 map tour.

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Test environment: resolution 3840 × 2160 px; very high graphics settings; 4× MSAA, API DirectX 9; test platform script with Dust 2 map tour.

   

From the top, we gradually worked our way down to the class of the iconic Pentium. Its design is quite conservative by today’s standards. The performance of the dual-core processor is at the limit, which begins to complicate the actual execution of the tests. One of the biggest appeals is the low power draw, but that may not be worth much if your processor can’t handle your demands in real time. Or can it?

Cyberpunk 2077

Test environment: resolution 1280 × 720 px; graphics settings preset Low; API DirectX 12; no extra settings; test scene: custom (Little China).

   

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Test environment: resolution 1920 × 1080 px; graphics settings preset High; API DirectX 12; no extra settings; test scene: custom (Little China).

   

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Test environment: resolution 2560 × 1440 px; graphics settings preset High; API DirectX 12; no extra settings; test scene: custom (Little China).

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Test environment: resolution 3840 × 2160 px; graphics settings preset Ultra; API DirectX 12; no extra settings; test scene: custom (Little China).

   

From the top, we gradually worked our way down to the class of the iconic Pentium. Its design is quite conservative by today’s standards. The performance of the dual-core processor is at the limit, which begins to complicate the actual execution of the tests. One of the biggest appeals is the low power draw, but that may not be worth much if your processor can’t handle your demands in real time. Or can it?

DOOM Eternal

Test environment: resolution 1280 × 720 px; graphics settings preset Low; API Vulkan; extra settings Present From Compute: off, Motion Blur: Low, Depth of Field Anti-Aliasing: off; test scene: custom.

   

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Test environment: resolution 1920 × 1080 px; graphics settings preset High; API Vulkan; extra settings Present From Compute: on, Motion Blur: High, Depth of Field Anti-Aliasing: off; test scene: custom.

   

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Test environment: resolution 2560 × 1440 px; graphics settings preset High; API Vulkan; extra settings Present From Compute: on, Motion Blur: High, Depth of Field Anti-Aliasing: on; test scene: custom.

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Test environment: resolution 3840 × 2160 px; graphics settings preset Ultra Nightmare; API Vulkan; extra settings Present From Compute: on, Motion Blur: High, Depth of Field Anti-Aliasing: on; test scene: custom.

   

From the top, we gradually worked our way down to the class of the iconic Pentium. Its design is quite conservative by today’s standards. The performance of the dual-core processor is at the limit, which begins to complicate the actual execution of the tests. One of the biggest appeals is the low power draw, but that may not be worth much if your processor can’t handle your demands in real time. Or can it?

F1 2020

Test environment: resolution 1280 × 720 px; graphics settings preset Ultra Low; API DirectX 12; extra settings Anti-Aliasing: off, Anisotropic Filtering: off; test scene: built-in benchmark (Australia, Clear/Dry, Cycle).

   

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Test environment: resolution 1920 × 1080 px; graphics settings preset High; API DirectX 12; extra settings Anti-Aliasing: off, Skidmarks Blending: off; test scene: built-in benchmark (Australia, Clear/Dry, Cycle).

   

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Test environment: resolution 2560 × 1440 px; graphics settings preset High; API DirectX 12; extra settings Anti-Aliasing: TAA, Skidmarks Blending: off; test scene: built-in benchmark (Australia, Clear/Dry, Cycle).

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Test environment: resolution 3840 × 2160 px; graphics settings preset Ultra High; API DirectX 12; extra settings Anti-Aliasing: TAA, Skidmarks Blending: off; test scene: built-in benchmark (Australia, Clear/Dry, Cycle).

From the top, we gradually worked our way down to the class of the iconic Pentium. Its design is quite conservative by today’s standards. The performance of the dual-core processor is at the limit, which begins to complicate the actual execution of the tests. One of the biggest appeals is the low power draw, but that may not be worth much if your processor can’t handle your demands in real time. Or can it?

Metro Exodus

Test environment: resolution 1280 × 720 px; graphics settings preset Low; API DirectX 12; no extra settings test scene: built-in benchmark.

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Test environment: resolution 1920 × 1080 px; graphics settings preset High; API DirectX 12; no extra settings; test scene: built-in benchmark.

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Test environment: resolution 2560 × 1440 px; graphics settings preset High; API DirectX 12; no extra settings; test scene: built-in benchmark.

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Test environment: resolution 3840 × 2160 px; graphics settings preset Extreme; API DirectX 12; no extra settings; test scene: built-in benchmark.

From the top, we gradually worked our way down to the class of the iconic Pentium. Its design is quite conservative by today’s standards. The performance of the dual-core processor is at the limit, which begins to complicate the actual execution of the tests. One of the biggest appeals is the low power draw, but that may not be worth much if your processor can’t handle your demands in real time. Or can it?

Microsoft Flight Simulator

Disclaimer: The performance of this game changes and improves frequently due to continuous updates. We verify the consistency of the results by re-testing the Ryzen 9 5900X processor before each measurement. In case of significant deviations, we discard the older results and start building the database from scratch. Due to the incompleteness of the MFS results, we do not use MFS to calculate the average gaming performance of the processors.

Test environment: resolution 1280 × 720 px; graphics settings preset Low; API DirectX 11; extra settings Anti-Aliasing: off; test scene: custom (Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Air Traffic: AI, February 14, 9:00) autopilot: from 1000 m until hitting the terrain.

   

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Test environment: resolution 1920 × 1080 px; graphics settings preset Low; API DirectX 11; extra settings Anti-Aliasing: off; test scene: custom (Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Air Traffic: AI, February 14, 9:00) autopilot: from 1000 m until hitting the terrain.

   

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Test environment: resolution 2560 × 1440 px; graphics settings preset High; API DirectX 11; extra settings Anti-Aliasing: TAA; test scene: custom (Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Air Traffic: AI, February 14, 9:00) autopilot: from 1000 m until hitting the terrain.

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Test environment: resolution 3840 × 2160 px; graphics settings preset Ultra; API DirectX 11; extra settings Anti-Aliasing: TAA; test scene: custom (Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Air Traffic: AI, February 14, 9:00) autopilot: from 1000 m until hitting the terrain.

   

From the top, we gradually worked our way down to the class of the iconic Pentium. Its design is quite conservative by today’s standards. The performance of the dual-core processor is at the limit, which begins to complicate the actual execution of the tests. One of the biggest appeals is the low power draw, but that may not be worth much if your processor can’t handle your demands in real time. Or can it?

Shadow of the Tomb Raider

Test environment: resolution 1280 × 720 px; graphics settings preset Lowest; API DirectX 12; extra settings Anti-Aliasing: off; test scene: built-in benchmark.

   

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Test environment: resolution 1920 × 1080 px; graphics settings preset High; API DirectX 12; extra settings Anti-Aliasing: off; test scene: built-in benchmark.

   

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Test environment: resolution 2560 × 1440 px; graphics settings preset High; API DirectX 12; extra settings Anti-Aliasing: TAA; test scene: built-in benchmark.

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Test environment: resolution 3840 × 2160 px; graphics settings preset Highest; API DirectX 12; extra settings Anti-Aliasing: TAA; test scene: built-in benchmark.

From the top, we gradually worked our way down to the class of the iconic Pentium. Its design is quite conservative by today’s standards. The performance of the dual-core processor is at the limit, which begins to complicate the actual execution of the tests. One of the biggest appeals is the low power draw, but that may not be worth much if your processor can’t handle your demands in real time. Or can it?

Total War Saga: Troy

Test environment: resolution 1280 × 720 px; graphics settings preset Low; API DirectX 11; no extra settings; test scene: built-in benchmark.

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Test environment: resolution 1920 × 1080 px; graphics settings preset High; API DirectX 11; no extra settings; test scene: built-in benchmark.

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Test environment: resolution 2560 × 1440 px; graphics settings preset High; API DirectX 11; no extra settings; test scene: built-in benchmark.

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Test environment: resolution 3840 × 2160 px; graphics settings preset Ultra; API DirectX 11; no extra settings; test scene: built-in benchmark.

From the top, we gradually worked our way down to the class of the iconic Pentium. Its design is quite conservative by today’s standards. The performance of the dual-core processor is at the limit, which begins to complicate the actual execution of the tests. One of the biggest appeals is the low power draw, but that may not be worth much if your processor can’t handle your demands in real time. Or can it?

Overall gaming performance

To calculate average gaming performance, we normalized the Intel Core i7-11900K processor. The percentage differences of all other processors are based on this, with each of the games contributing an equal weight to the final result. To see exactly what the formula we use to arrive at each value looks like, see „New average CPU score measuring method“.

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From the top, we gradually worked our way down to the class of the iconic Pentium. Its design is quite conservative by today’s standards. The performance of the dual-core processor is at the limit, which begins to complicate the actual execution of the tests. One of the biggest appeals is the low power draw, but that may not be worth much if your processor can’t handle your demands in real time. Or can it?

Gaming performance per euro

From the top, we gradually worked our way down to the class of the iconic Pentium. Its design is quite conservative by today’s standards. The performance of the dual-core processor is at the limit, which begins to complicate the actual execution of the tests. One of the biggest appeals is the low power draw, but that may not be worth much if your processor can’t handle your demands in real time. Or can it?

PCMark

Geekbench

From the top, we gradually worked our way down to the class of the iconic Pentium. Its design is quite conservative by today’s standards. The performance of the dual-core processor is at the limit, which begins to complicate the actual execution of the tests. One of the biggest appeals is the low power draw, but that may not be worth much if your processor can’t handle your demands in real time. Or can it?

Speedometer (2.0) and Octane (2.0)

Test environment: We’re using a portable version of Google Chrome (91.0.472.101) 64-bit so that real-time results are not affected by browser updates. GPU hardware acceleration is enabled as each user has in the default settings.

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Note: The values in the graphs represent the average of the points obtained in the subtasks, which are grouped according to their nature into seven categories (Core language features, Memory and GC, Strings and arrays, Virtual machine and GC, Loading and Parsing, Bit and Math operations and Compiler and GC latency).

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From the top, we gradually worked our way down to the class of the iconic Pentium. Its design is quite conservative by today’s standards. The performance of the dual-core processor is at the limit, which begins to complicate the actual execution of the tests. One of the biggest appeals is the low power draw, but that may not be worth much if your processor can’t handle your demands in real time. Or can it?

Cinebench R20

Cinebench R23

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Blender@Cycles

Test environment: We use well-known projects BMW (510 tiles) and Classroom (2040 tiles) and renderer Cycles. Render settings are set to None, with which all the work falls on the CPU.

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LuxRender (SPECworkstation 3.1)

From the top, we gradually worked our way down to the class of the iconic Pentium. Its design is quite conservative by today’s standards. The performance of the dual-core processor is at the limit, which begins to complicate the actual execution of the tests. One of the biggest appeals is the low power draw, but that may not be worth much if your processor can’t handle your demands in real time. Or can it?

Adobe Premiere Pro (PugetBench)

Test environment: set of PugetBench tests. App version of Adobe Premiere Pro is 15.2.

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From the top, we gradually worked our way down to the class of the iconic Pentium. Its design is quite conservative by today’s standards. The performance of the dual-core processor is at the limit, which begins to complicate the actual execution of the tests. One of the biggest appeals is the low power draw, but that may not be worth much if your processor can’t handle your demands in real time. Or can it?

DaVinci Resolve Studio (PugetBench)

Test environment: set of PugetBench tests, test type: standard. App version of DaVinci Resolve Studio is 17.2.1 (build 12).

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From the top, we gradually worked our way down to the class of the iconic Pentium. Its design is quite conservative by today’s standards. The performance of the dual-core processor is at the limit, which begins to complicate the actual execution of the tests. One of the biggest appeals is the low power draw, but that may not be worth much if your processor can’t handle your demands in real time. Or can it?

Graphics effects: Adobe After Effects

Test environment: set of PugetBench tests. App version of Adobe After Effects is 18.2.1.

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From the top, we gradually worked our way down to the class of the iconic Pentium. Its design is quite conservative by today’s standards. The performance of the dual-core processor is at the limit, which begins to complicate the actual execution of the tests. One of the biggest appeals is the low power draw, but that may not be worth much if your processor can’t handle your demands in real time. Or can it?

HandBrake

   

Test environment: For video conversion we’re using a 4K video LG Demo Snowboard with a 43,9 Mb/s bitrate. AVC (x264) and HEVC (x265) profiles are set for high quality and encoder profiles are “slow”. HandBrake version is 1.3.3 (2020061300).

x264 and x265 benchmarks

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SVT-AV1

Test environment: We are encoding a short, publicly available sample park_joy_2160p50.y4m: uncompressed video 4096 × 2160 px, 8bit, 50 fps. Length is 500 frames with encoding quality set to 6 which makes the encoding still relatively slow. This test can make use of the AVX2 i AVX-512 instructions.

Version: SVT-AV1 Encoder Lib v0.8.7-61-g685afb2d via FFMpeg N-104429-g069f7831a2-20211026 (64bit)
Build from: https://github.com/BtbN/FFmpeg-Builds/releases
Command line: ffmpeg.exe -i “park_joy_2160p50.y4m” -c:v libsvtav1 -rc 0 -qp 55 -preset 6 -f null output.webm

From the top, we gradually worked our way down to the class of the iconic Pentium. Its design is quite conservative by today’s standards. The performance of the dual-core processor is at the limit, which begins to complicate the actual execution of the tests. One of the biggest appeals is the low power draw, but that may not be worth much if your processor can’t handle your demands in real time. Or can it?

Audio encoding

Test environment: Audio encoding is done using command line encoders, we measure the time it takes for the conversion to finish. The same 42-minute long 16-bit WAV file (stereo) with 44.1 kHz is always used (Love Over Gold by Dire Straits album rip in a single audio file).

Encoder settings are selected to achieve maximum or near maximum compression. The bitrate is relatively high, with the exception of lossless FLAC of about 200 kb/s.

Note: These tests measure single-thread performance.

FLAC: reference encoder 1.3.2, 64-bit build. Launch options: flac.exe -s -8 -m -e -p -f

MP3: encoder lame3.100.1, 64-bit build (Intel 19 Compiler) from RareWares. Launch options: lame.exe -S -V 0 -q 0

AAC: uses Apple QuickTime libraries, invoked through the application from the command line, QAAC 2.72, 64-bit build, Intel 19 Compiler (does not require installation of the whole Apple package). Launch options: qaac64.exe -V 100 -s -q 2

Opus: reference encoder 1.3.1, Launch options: opusenc.exe –comp 10 –quiet –vbr –bitrate 192

From the top, we gradually worked our way down to the class of the iconic Pentium. Its design is quite conservative by today’s standards. The performance of the dual-core processor is at the limit, which begins to complicate the actual execution of the tests. One of the biggest appeals is the low power draw, but that may not be worth much if your processor can’t handle your demands in real time. Or can it?

Broadcasting

Test environment: Applications OBS Studio and Xsplit. We’re using the built-in benchmark (scene Australia, Clear/Dry, Cycle) in F1 2020, in a resolution of 2560 × 1440 px and the same graphics settings, as with standard game performance tests. Thanks to this, we can measure the performance decrease if you record your gameplay with the x264 software encoder while playing. The output is 2560 × 1440 px at 60 fps.

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From the top, we gradually worked our way down to the class of the iconic Pentium. Its design is quite conservative by today’s standards. The performance of the dual-core processor is at the limit, which begins to complicate the actual execution of the tests. One of the biggest appeals is the low power draw, but that may not be worth much if your processor can’t handle your demands in real time. Or can it?

Adobe Photoshop (PugetBench)

Test environment: set of PugetBench tests. App version of Adobe Photoshop is 22.4.2.

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Adobe Lightroom Classic

Test environment: With the settings above, we export 42 uncompressed .CR2 (RAW Canon) photos with a size of 20 Mpx. Then we create 1:1 previews from them, which also represent one of the most processor intensive tasks in Lightroom. The version of Adobe Lightroom Classic is 10.3

From the top, we gradually worked our way down to the class of the iconic Pentium. Its design is quite conservative by today’s standards. The performance of the dual-core processor is at the limit, which begins to complicate the actual execution of the tests. One of the biggest appeals is the low power draw, but that may not be worth much if your processor can’t handle your demands in real time. Or can it?

Affinity Photo (benchmark)

Test environment: built-in benchmark.

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Topaz Labs AI apps

Topaz DeNoise AI, Gigapixel AI and Sharpen AI. These single-purpose applications are used for restoration of low-quality photos. Whether it is high noise (caused by higher ISO), raster level (typically after cropping) or when something needs extra focus. The AI performance is always used.

Test environment: As part of batch editing, 42 photos with a lower resolution of 1920 × 1280 px are processed, with the settings from the images above. DeNoise AI is in version 3.1.2, Gigapixel in 5.5.2 and Sharpen AI in 3.1.2.

XnViewMP

Test environment: XnViewMP is finally a photo-editor for which you don’t have to pay. At the same time, it uses hardware very efficiently. In order to achieve more reasonable comparison times, we had to create an archive of up to 1024 photos, where we reduce the original resolution of 5472 × 3648 px to 1980 × 1280 px and filters with automatic contrast enhancement and noise reduction are also being applied during this process. We use 64-bit portable version 0.98.4.

Zoner Photo Studio X

Test environment: In Zoner Photo Studio X we convert 42 .CR2 (RAW Canon) photos to JPEG while keeping the original resolution (5472 × 3648 px) at the lowest possible compression, with the ZPS X profile ”high quality for archival”.

From the top, we gradually worked our way down to the class of the iconic Pentium. Its design is quite conservative by today’s standards. The performance of the dual-core processor is at the limit, which begins to complicate the actual execution of the tests. One of the biggest appeals is the low power draw, but that may not be worth much if your processor can’t handle your demands in real time. Or can it?

WinRAR 6.01

7-Zip 19.00

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From the top, we gradually worked our way down to the class of the iconic Pentium. Its design is quite conservative by today’s standards. The performance of the dual-core processor is at the limit, which begins to complicate the actual execution of the tests. One of the biggest appeals is the low power draw, but that may not be worth much if your processor can’t handle your demands in real time. Or can it?

TrueCrypt 7.1a

Aida64 (AES, SHA3)

From the top, we gradually worked our way down to the class of the iconic Pentium. Its design is quite conservative by today’s standards. The performance of the dual-core processor is at the limit, which begins to complicate the actual execution of the tests. One of the biggest appeals is the low power draw, but that may not be worth much if your processor can’t handle your demands in real time. Or can it?

Y-cruncher

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Stockfish 13

Test environment: Host for the Stockfish 13 engine is a chess app Arena 2.0.1, build 2399.

Aida64, FPU tests

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FSI (SPECworkstation 3.1)

Kirchhoff migration (SPECworkstation 3.1)

Python36 (SPECworkstation 3.1)

SRMP (SPECworkstation 3.1)

Octave (SPECworkstation 3.1)

FFTW (SPECworkstation 3.1)

Convolution (SPECworkstation 3.1)

CalculiX (SPECworkstation 3.1)

From the top, we gradually worked our way down to the class of the iconic Pentium. Its design is quite conservative by today’s standards. The performance of the dual-core processor is at the limit, which begins to complicate the actual execution of the tests. One of the biggest appeals is the low power draw, but that may not be worth much if your processor can’t handle your demands in real time. Or can it?

RodiniaLifeSci (SPECworkstation 3.1)

WPCcfd (SPECworkstation 3.1)

Poisson (SPECworkstation 3.1)

LAMMPS (SPECworkstation 3.1)

NAMD (SPECworkstation 3.1)

From the top, we gradually worked our way down to the class of the iconic Pentium. Its design is quite conservative by today’s standards. The performance of the dual-core processor is at the limit, which begins to complicate the actual execution of the tests. One of the biggest appeals is the low power draw, but that may not be worth much if your processor can’t handle your demands in real time. Or can it?

Memory tests…

… and cache (L1, L2, L3)

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From the top, we gradually worked our way down to the class of the iconic Pentium. Its design is quite conservative by today’s standards. The performance of the dual-core processor is at the limit, which begins to complicate the actual execution of the tests. One of the biggest appeals is the low power draw, but that may not be worth much if your processor can’t handle your demands in real time. Or can it?

Processor power draw curve

From the top, we gradually worked our way down to the class of the iconic Pentium. Its design is quite conservative by today’s standards. The performance of the dual-core processor is at the limit, which begins to complicate the actual execution of the tests. One of the biggest appeals is the low power draw, but that may not be worth much if your processor can’t handle your demands in real time. Or can it?

Average processor power draw

From the top, we gradually worked our way down to the class of the iconic Pentium. Its design is quite conservative by today’s standards. The performance of the dual-core processor is at the limit, which begins to complicate the actual execution of the tests. One of the biggest appeals is the low power draw, but that may not be worth much if your processor can’t handle your demands in real time. Or can it?

Performance per watt

From the top, we gradually worked our way down to the class of the iconic Pentium. Its design is quite conservative by today’s standards. The performance of the dual-core processor is at the limit, which begins to complicate the actual execution of the tests. One of the biggest appeals is the low power draw, but that may not be worth much if your processor can’t handle your demands in real time. Or can it?

Achieved CPU clock speed

From the top, we gradually worked our way down to the class of the iconic Pentium. Its design is quite conservative by today’s standards. The performance of the dual-core processor is at the limit, which begins to complicate the actual execution of the tests. One of the biggest appeals is the low power draw, but that may not be worth much if your processor can’t handle your demands in real time. Or can it?

CPU temperature

From the top, we gradually worked our way down to the class of the iconic Pentium. Its design is quite conservative by today’s standards. The performance of the dual-core processor is at the limit, which begins to complicate the actual execution of the tests. One of the biggest appeals is the low power draw, but that may not be worth much if your processor can’t handle your demands in real time. Or can it?

Conclusion

Don’t expect too much performance from the Pentium G7400. It’s a simple, cheap and economical processor for undemanding use. Eventually, it may be a suitable base for a beginner user, for office, HTPC and just enough for kids’ setup to fulfill school duties, but also to do gaming (for a reward).

However, it should be noted that the drop in performance for is really rapid compared to the higher end (Core i3). At Full HD resolution, the Pentium G7400 trails the Core i3-12100(F) by up to 42 % on average, behind the Core i3-10105F, it’s 27 %. There is also a slightly smaller but still significant loss in 1440p resolution. It’s pointless to detail that it’s different in 2160p (and it’s only in single digit percentages). A Pentium with a 4K monitor within a gaming PC would be a very rare configuration. Most often this processor will function with 1080p resolution, but lower resolutions may be under consideration here. Especially when pairing with older graphics cards that also lack the performance, and resolution and details will be greatly reduced with them.

Of the games tested, the Pentium is most tortured by Cyberpunk 2077. Achieved fps are half compared to the second weakest processor – Core i3-10105F – in 720p. It’s not much better in 1080p either, where the Pentium has a 46 % disadvantage. There’s also a very big difference compared to more powerful processors in DOOM Eternal or in F1 2020. By contrast, the low CPU performance is reflected the least in Metro Exodus. Of course, you also have to take into account that applications running in the background skew performance significantly more than on multi-core processors. So don’t rely too heavily on the fact that you’re getting by as well as we did in our tests – the reality may be worse. We have a clean system for consistency of measurements, and there’s nothing special running in the background that takes performance away from gaming. In practice, however, it may be different.

Recording video during a game on a processor of this class sounds crazy, but paradoxically it doesn’t completely ruin the processor even with the x264 encoder. Understandably though, it’s nothing comfortable, and even when gaming fps stays above 60, the running is accompanied by microstuttering (minor tearing at frame rates), more than with more powerful processors. And for example, the Microsoft Flight Simulator indicates possible errors at launch due to not meeting minimum requirements. We didn’t see any bugs in our tests, and ironically, the smoothness is higher than it was with the Ryzen 9 5900X before the big update last July. But now, of course, the situation is different, and the framerate with the Pentium is two-thirds that of the Ryzen 9.

The Pentium G7400 is not a bad processor, but don’t expect miracles from it. In addition to its low purchase price, its great advantage is its low power draw.It’s around 40 W, below TDP levels (even with CPU Lite Load at maximum), while clock speeds are relatively high – 3.7 GHz according to Intel’s specs. Naturally, temperatures are also low, allowing the use of very small coolers, which comes in handy in atypical designs in the vertical market. For kiosk use, however, keep in mind that the iGPU resolution stops at 4096×2160 px despite HDMI 2.1 support.

TL;DR: The Intel Pentium G7400 is an attractive processor for simple, typically single-purpose computers. Cost effective, economical, and in all respects superior to the first generation Core i3s that still survive in some organizations.

English translation and edit by Jozef Dudáš

Games for testing are from Jama levova

Special thanks to Blackmagic Design (for a DaVinci Resolve Studio license), Topaz Labs (for licenses for DeNoise AI, Gigapixel AI and Sharpen AI) and Zoner (for Photo Studio X license)

• Contents
• Intel Pentium G7400 in detail
• Methodology: performance tests
• Methodology: how we measure power draw
• Methodology: temperature and clock speed tests
• Test setup
• 3DMark
• Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla
• Borderlands 3
• Counter-Strike: GO
• Cyberpunk 2077
• DOOM Eternal
• F1 2020
• Metro Exodus
• Microsoft Flight Simulator
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider
• Total War Saga: Troy
• Overall gaming performance
• Gaming performance per euro
• PCMark and Geekbench
• Web performance
• 3D rendering: Cinebench, Blender, ...
• Video 1/2: Adobe Premiere Pro
• Video 2/2: DaVinci Resolve Studio
• Graphics effects: Adobe After Effects
• Video encoding
• Audio encoding
• Broadcasting (OBS and Xsplit)
• Photos 1/2: Adobe Photoshop a Lightroom
• Photos 2/2: Affinity Photo, AI aplikácie Topaz Labs, ZPS X, ...
• (De)compression
• (De)cryption
• Numerical computing
• Simulations
• Memory and cache tests
• Processor power draw curve
• Average processor power draw
• Performance per watt
• Achieved CPU clock speed
• CPU temperature
• Conclusion