Intel 300 CPU Tested, a Budget Dual Core "14th Gen" Option

[T0@st]

A conglomerate of Japanese hardware outlets has tested Intel's latest batch of Raptor Lake Refresh desktop processors—their findings arrived in the form of a YouTube video (viewable below). The lowly Intel 300 CPU was sampled as part of PAD's lab tests—this 14th generation model serves as a natural successor to Team Blue's Pentium Gold G7400 processor. Pentium and Celeron brands were retired in the "essential product space" in 2022, along with the introduction of a replacement: simple "Intel Processor" in a light blue color scheme.

Expectations are not set very high for a two-core, 4-thread CPU in modern times—some news outlets believe that this an Alder Lake part (AKA a frequency tweaked Pentium Gold G7400), despite being launched alongside many Raptor Lake Refresh parts. The Intel 300 sports two Raptor Cove P-cores with hyper-threading capabilities—base performance is set at 3.9 GHz, with no provisions for boosting above that figure. The rest of its basic specs consist of a 46 W TDP and 6 MB of L3 cache (3 MB on each core). Team Blue's Core i3-14100 quad core CPU sits just above the 300 in the latest batch of 14th Gen—naturally, the former pulls ahead of the latter in synthetic benchmarks. PC Watch and Co. tests present a maximum 55% multi-core performance gap between the two lower end options, although the single-threaded difference was measured 13% (in Cinebench).




An analysis of gaming benchmarks labeled the i3-14100 as a budget clear winner—Tom's Hardware summarized the brutal scenario: "not a surprising result considering it has twice the cores, twice the cache, and a frequency about 20% higher. Even for gamers only targeting 60 FPS, the 14100 provides an objectively better gaming experience as its 1% low framerate was always at least 60 FPS, which means the framerate virtually never dropped below 60 FPS. By contrast, the 300 had 1% low framerates significantly lower than 60 FPS in the two games."

PC Watch: "Many new models with improved cost performance have been added to Intel's latest CPU, Core processor (14th generation). We will evaluate these models, including the new entry model Intel 300 that replaces the Pentium/Celeron."

About "PAD" channel
This is a specialized channel for PC hardware and related information jointly brought to you by PC Watch, AKIBA PC Hotline!, and DOS/V POWER REPORT.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source

 

[Assimilator]

Dual-core CPUs should not exist in 2024.

 

[R0H1T]

Maybe but it's better than to chuck them in the bin!

 

[BoggledBeagle]

Too bad that they have not tested the "baby Raptor" 14500, which could be the best bang for the buck of the whole refreshed Raptor series.

Dual-core CPUs should not exist in 2024.

It is enough for an office machine. You can even watch youtube videos on it!

 

[Onasi]

Since Intel doesn’t make any dual core dies anymore I am curious - what’s the die this thing is cut down from?

 

[JAB Creations]

Dual cores you say?

 

[AnotherReader]

Maybe but it's better than to chuck them in the bin!

I really doubt that they need to resort to this to salvage defective dies. This smells of classic product segmentation that Intel mastered a long time ago.

 

[Fouquin]

Since Intel doesn’t make any dual core dies anymore I am curious - what’s the die this thing is cut down from?

Most likely the ~163mm^2 6C/12T Alder Lake-S die with no E-Cores.

 

[R0H1T]

With fused(?) or BIOS locked AVX512, wonder if someone can try reenabling that if it's not properly gutted from these parts.

 

[BoggledBeagle]

Has Intel published somewhere what die versions they make? I thought that they just make the full 8+16 version.

 

[efikkan]

Why is it so hard to believe that someone could make use of a product like this?
There are people who choose to live with ultra low power laptops, which I find much harder to believe.

There are plenty of uses for this, especially for users who only need like a Linux distro to run spreadsheets, you can get a decent experience when you don't load it up with bloatdware. Or like a cheap "grandma PC". Or a PC to only run really old games in emulators, you don't need 16 cores to emulate C64, SNES or MS-DOS you know.

The only thing I would use something like this for would be software validation, but that's really niche.

 

[Tomgang]

Oh wow How generous of intel selling dual cores. But also very foolish.

I mean i am only selling single core cpu's with out ht/smt of cause. Only the very stupidly overpriced... Eh i mean the extremely resnable priced extreme core edition i give my costumers the choise of adding 1 more Thread to the cpu. To unlock it, you off cause have to pay ekstra to enable it via code. You could call it a payed cpu DLC.

Do you need two engines in your car? No
Then you neither need 2 or more cores in your pc. Its pretty logical.

More serious, i think there are people out there that have only a need for for dual core cpu. There people that only use there pc for some youtube and word typing and the general internet surfing. Or simply the most poor people can maybe only barely afford a cpu like this. There are people out there having a hard time economic, so they need to spend as little as possible on pc. So i think there still a need for a dirt cheap dual core cpu, all throw the need is deminishing for each year.

 

[pressing on]

Has Intel published somewhere what die versions they make? I thought that they just make the full 8+16 version.

There is an Alder Lake die that is P-cores only, another Alder Lake die that is P + E cores and the Raptor Lake die that is also P + E cores.

Some of the Raptor Lake Refresh CPUs are made on the second of these Alder Lake dies. Features that confirm this are 1.25 Mb L2 per P core and 2 Mb L2 for each cluster of E cores. CPUs made using the Raptor Lake die have 2Mb L2 per P core and 4Mb L2 for each cluster of E cores. For example the i5 14500 is Alder Lake based but the i5 14600K is made using the Raptor Lake die.

 

[wNotyarD]

Dual-core CPUs should not exist in 2024.

Would an ATM even need a dual-core?

 

[Assimilator]

Would an ATM even need a dual-core?

Would an ATM use a desktop CPU?

 

[BoggledBeagle]

There is an Alder Lake die that is P-cores only, another Alder Lake die that is P + E cores and the Raptor Lake die that is also P + E cores.

Some of the Raptor Lake Refresh CPUs are made on the second of these Alder Lake dies. Features that confirm this are 1.25 Mb L2 per P core and 2 Mb L2 for each cluster of E cores. CPUs made using the Raptor Lake die have 2Mb L2 per P

Thanks for reply, so there are 3 total Alder/Raptor lake dies?

First Alder P cores only (how many?)
Second 8+8 Alder
Third 8+16 Raptor?

 

[pressing on]

Thanks for reply, so there are 3 total Alder/Raptor lake dies?

First Alder P cores only (how many?)
Second 8+8 Alder
Third 8+16 Raptor?

The Alder P cores only die has a maximum of 6 cores. Used for the 12400, 12500 and 12600 (non-K) i5 6 P core CPUs. With 2 cores disabled, used for the 12100/13100/14100 4 P core processor and derivatives. The second Alder Lake die, as you note, allows up to 8 E cores. The Raptor Lake die is 13600K/14600K upwards.

 

[sLowEnd]

Would an ATM use a desktop CPU?

Yes, actually. A lot of ATMs use regular PC parts internally.

 

[Carillon]

At 46 watts this cpu is way more efficient than the core2duos 6000
Goodjob pat

 

[Eternit]

Back in the days, when they introduced Celerons, there were cheap motherboards so you could have cheap motherboard with cheap CPU. Today there are no cheap motherboards so there is no place for 2 core desktop CPU with 46W TDP. By the way I recently bought a tablet with Procesor N100. This CPU has 6W TDP, but the tablet with no active cooling is getting extremely hot. I did clean installation of Windows 10, as I hate 11it came with, by the time I installed all the drivers and updates, it was hard to hold it.

 

[Macro Device]

There are plenty of uses for this

...and even more CPUs that cost the same and are of 4 cores or even more than that. Wattage is configurable via BIOS, unless it's some obscure badly Chinese motherboard.

These 2C4T CPUs are atrocious performers, atrocious value and should not exist. Giving Intel 300 the same price and a bit higher clocks but 4 real cores, even if with no HT enabled, would be a good and reasonable thing to do.

 

[Chaitanya]

Too bad that they have not tested the "baby Raptor" 14500, which could be the best bang for the buck of the whole refreshed Raptor series.


It is enough for an office machine. You can even watch youtube videos on it!

Their own N100 is a quad core CPU and that serves cheapest entry level machines much better than this ewaste.

 

[thestryker6]

On one hand I understand why these exist (yay die harvesting), but they seem to be in a weird place. Quad core CPUs aren't significantly more money than these will be available for and these don't do anything special like support ECC. I suppose they're replacing the ADL Pentium/Celeron with them but I can't believe there's much of a market outside of OEM.

Their own N100 is a quad core CPU and that serves cheapest entry level machines much better than this ewaste.

These are faster than the N100 and have better connectivity options. The only thing the N100 does better is use less power.

edit: N100 also has a better IGP, but only single channel memory to feed it.

 

[[XC] Oj101]

Would an ATM use a desktop CPU?

I’ve seen ATMs stuck on the POST screen, I’ve seen them show the Windows XP login screen, and I’ve seen them throw BSODs. I think it’s very safe to say yes.

 

[R-T-B]

I’ve seen ATMs stuck on the POST screen, I’ve seen them show the Windows XP login screen, and I’ve seen them throw BSODs. I think it’s very safe to say yes.

There's a difference between running some embedded x86 thing and a "regular desktop cpu." ATMs tend to be sbcs with soldered on cpus as far as I know.