Intel Pentium G870 Review

The Pentium G870 is one of Intel's entry-level Desktop processors. It was released in 2012 with 2 cores and 2 threads. With base clock at 3.1GHz, max speed at 3.1GHz, and a 65W power rating. The Pentium G870 is based on the Sandy Bridge 32nm family and is part of the Pentium series.

As the higher-priced version of the Pentium G860, the Pentium G870 has higher base and Boost frequencies of 3.1 and 3.1 GHz, respectively. That's an increase in base frequency and a bump to boost clocks, but the real advantage should lay in the higher Package Power Tracking (PPT) envelope, which is a measurement of the maximum amount of power delivered to the socket. The Pentium G860's PPT tops out at 65W, while the motherboard can pump up to 142W to the Pentium G870 at peak performance. That opens up much more aggressive boost behavior, on both single and multiple cores, that could widen the performance gap beyond what we see on the spec sheet.

So which should you buy? Let's get that out of the way. Before this comparison review we updated our Best CPU feature and we said you should go with the A8-3870K as it comes with a better stock cooler, can be overclocked, and the FM1 platform offers a significantly better upgrade path.

Moving beyond games, it’s an easy win for the A8-3870K. The A8 upgrade path on A55, A75 motherboards, all support upcoming K10 processors. So if you buy a nice A55, A75 board now with the A8-3870K, you’ll be able to slap a Sandy Bridge processor on there later in the year, or whenever you deem it necessary.

One of the nice things about the Intel Pentium G870 processors is that the retail boxed models come with a CPU cooler. So, you can pick something like the Intel Pentium G870 up for $97 and don’t need to spend any extra money on CPU cooling.

The Intel Pentium G870 retail boxed processor comes with the traditional ‘pancake’ CPU cooler. Nothing fancy, but it gets the job done on this processor which is rated at 65W TDP. You do not need to have an aftermarket cooling solution unless you want to.

The Intel Pentium G870 seems to be a decent performing chip that is readily available for $97 at your favorite retailer. The main competition for this processor is the A8-3870K 4-Core unlocked desktop processor with Radeon HD 6550D graphics ($243.57 shipped).

If extended overclocking and boost frequencies are trivial matters to you, Intel also offers the Pentium G860 at $75. It’s still outfitted with 2-cores and 2-threads, but clocks in at a slower 3GHz and maxes out at only 3GHz.

That said, to squeeze out all the potential of this surprisingly potent entry-level chip, you’ll want (and need) to splurge on an enthusiast-grade Z68, Z75, Z77 motherboard.

Fresh from a successful roll-out of mainstream Pentium CPUs, Intel's attack on AMD now extends down into the entry-level with its Pentium G870 processors, which the company is making available as of Sep 2012.