Pentium G630 express review

Software:

• Windows 7 x64 SP1

• CPU-Z 1.62

• CineBench 9.5 x64

• CineBench 11.5 x64

• Light Work - Renderbench

• 3DMark 2006 v1.2.0 (CPU test only)

• 3DMark Vantage v1.1.1 (CPU test only)

• Hot CPU tester PRO

• AMD Catalyst 11.9

• wPrime v1.55

• Fritz Chess Benchmark

• SuperPi 1.4

• FRAPS v3.1.0

In-game graphics settings:

GTA IV:

• Resolution - 1280x1024

• Textures - high

• Reflection resolution - high

• Water quality - very high

• Shadow quality - high

• Filtering quality - x16

• View distance - 100

• Detail depth - 100

• Vehicle density - 100

• Depth of field - on/on

• Vertical synchronization - off/off

Prototype:

• Resolution - 1280x1024

• Textures - high

• Shadows - high

• Anti-aliasing - 0x

Rendering

The Pentium G630 truly shines. It significantly raised the performance bar compared to its younger sibling, the Celeron G530. While the '530' could only catch up to older, overclocked chips, the '630' now fully competes with them!

Overall performance

Here, the G630's advantage over the G530 isn't as pronounced. Still, the increased clock speed and larger L3 cache did make a difference.

Calculations

In computational speed tests, the Pentium significantly outperformed the Celeron, further challenging the 'old guard' E8400.

Archiving

In archiving, the G630 performed quite sluggishly. Its results look weak compared to the younger G530, and even a win over the E8400 and Phenom II X2 doesn't salvage it here.

Gaming: Synthetic benchmarks

While the overclocked Core 2 Duo E8400 wasn't defeated, the Pentium G630 managed to catch up to the Phenom II X2 545, overclocked to 3810 MHz! That's an excellent result!

Gaming

Here, the results are simply astounding. In GTA IV, the G630 is hot on the heels of the E8400, which is overclocked to 4050 MHz! All while running at a modest 2700 MHz! Only Prototype managed to slightly temper this feisty little chip's enthusiasm! But look at the minimum FPS — that's what truly matters in games. It takes second place in this metric, trailing the 4050 MHz E8400 by just a single frame!

Despite its obvious shortcomings, the Pentium G630 left a positive impression. If not for competitors like the Athlon II X4, the 'six-thirty Pentium' could be confidently recommended for purchase.

But competitors do exist, and at just over $60, the Pentium G630 can't really compete with them.