Kaby Lake Pentium Processors Get Hyper-Threading

Megalith

24-bit/48kHz
Staff member
Joined
Aug 20, 2006
Messages
13,000
The obvious relevance here is that older Pentiums did not have hyper-threading. With HT enabled, these processors could very well perform on par with an i3 and would make them a great choice for budget systems. We can only speculate why Intel allowed this, however.

Historically, last-generation Pentium processors only had two cores and never, ever had hyper-threading enabled. This new feature will make the 60-Euro ($63) processors behave and likely perform at Core i3-level performance. The one thing the Pentium will not support is the AVX2 instruction set, which mainly is handy and very fast with video editing/transcoding. It might be a terrific processor for a low-cost net PC. Hyper-threading has been verified with Intel. It is not a typo in the ARK processor database.
 
Were Pentiums like the G3258 designed from the ground up without HyperThreading, or were they Core i3s that had HT disabled in order to function properly?
 
The existing Pentiums likely have fully-functional HT, just switched-off.

Just like the i3 has support for 256-bit-wide AVX, while the Pentium falls back to 128-bit-wide SSE. They both still execute vector instructions, so I'm not sure they could sever broken vector units like that so cleanly.

Likely, they're just disabled for product segmentation.

I'd say the only things that might actually be disabled due to yield issues are L3 cache blocks. But even then if the process gets older and higher-yield, Intel may just cut good cache lines to continue the segmentation.

But yeah, this Pentium gets HT thing is long-overdue. AMD's been pricing their Steamroller/Excavator quads below $100, so Intel needs four threads to be competitive. Their Celeron at $45 is still unmatched by AMD's crappy dual-cores, and the Core i3 6100 is pretty powerful, but Intel's Pentium has been lacking since the Haswell refresh, leaving a huge gap.
 
Last edited:
The existing Pentiums likely have fully-functional HT, just switched-off.

Just like the i3 has support for 256-bit-wide AVX, while the Pentium falls back to 128-bit-wide SSE. They both still execute vector instructions, so I'm not sure they could sever broken vector units like that so cleanly.

Likely, they're just disabled for product segmentation.

I'd say the only things that might actually be disabled due to yield issues are cache blocks. But even then if the process gets older and higher-yield, Intel may just cut good cache lines to continue the segmentation.

But yeah, this Pentium gets HT thing is long-overdue. AMD's been pricing their Steamroller quads below $100, so Intel needs four threads to be competitive. Their Celeron at $45 is still unmatched by AMD, and the Core i3 6100 is pretty powerful, but Intel's Pentium has been lacking since the Haswell refresh, leaving a huge gap.

That makes sense. AMD is pushing more cores/threads again, so its all marketing at this point.
 
Acknowledgement that 2 threads just isn't enough any more?

Great news in any event...$64 for 4 threads with Intel IPC? Yes, please.
 
I get it.
Intel are doing HT squared for the i5 and higher processors, so lower processors get ye basic HT now.
All i5+ cores and HT units will get another level of HT, just cos.
:p
 
Nothing to do with AMD's impending launch of course. ;)
Who knows? AMD hasn't even given a launch date for Ryzen, and details of lower end products are still completely unknown (no clock speed, cache sizes, release dates, whether or not SMT will be enabled on all models, etc).

CPUs can have various specs and prices tweaked to improve competitiveness, but HT coming back to Pentiums was leaked way back in early October from engineering samples out in the wild, and the decision to enable it would have been made at least months prior to that. IOW, while AMD was still dodging questions about whether Zen had finished tape out or not, a decision was already made to release Pentiums with Hyperthreading. :p
 
looking into prices it seems like i kinda do love those pentiums getting HT they would be nice for small acceleration boxes. if the price can be keept low
 
I get it.
Intel are doing HT squared for the i5 and higher processors, so lower processors get ye basic HT now.
All i5+ cores and HT units will get another level of HT, just cos.
:p

I dunno man, there's nothing set in stone. When Intel came up with the Core i naming system nine years back, they left a lot up in the air. I mean, there were quad core i5s without HT, and dual-core i5s WITH HT and integrated graphics.

The product lines change as the performance needs increase. Unfortunately, there's been a dearth of 6-core capable software, aside from video transcode.
 
Last edited:
Who knows? AMD hasn't even given a launch date for Ryzen, and details of lower end products are still completely unknown (no clock speed, cache sizes, release dates, whether or not SMT will be enabled on all models, etc).

CPUs can have various specs and prices tweaked to improve competitiveness, but HT coming back to Pentiums was leaked way back in early October from engineering samples out in the wild, and the decision to enable it would have been made at least months prior to that. IOW, while AMD was still dodging questions about whether Zen had finished tape out or not, a decision was already made to release Pentiums with Hyperthreading. :p

I think it would be naive to think Intel doesn't know how AMD performs as soon as they do.
 
I dunno man, there's nothing set in stone. When Intel came up with the Core i naming system nine years back, they left a lot up in the air. I mean, there were quad core i5s without HT, and dual-core i5s WITH HT and integrated graphics.

The product lines change as the performance needs increase. Unfortunately, there's been a dearth of 6-core capable software, aside from video transcode.
I tried to make it absurd enough so nobody could possibly think I was serious.
Oh well :)
 
Unlike AMD, Intel are jerks for cutting features out of CPU offerings.. I get it, no real competition.. I hope AMD doesn't do the same crap with Ryzen, I don't think they will, they are not in the position to do so, even if their CPU is that much better.
 
I think it would be naive to think Intel doesn't know how AMD performs as soon as they do.
It's even more naïve to assume that Intel knows AMD CPU performance before there's even silicon made, because that's what I was pointing out.
 
Unlike AMD, Intel are jerks for cutting features out of CPU offerings.. I get it, no real competition.. I hope AMD doesn't do the same crap with Ryzen, I don't think they will, they are not in the position to do so, even if their CPU is that much better.

WRONG. AMD has disabled cores on their 6 core dies for product segmentation thousands of times for their Phenom II X4 cpu lineup Don't lie.
 
The real question is are mobo makers going to be able to sneak past intel that sweet non k OC potential from skylake onto these? Pushing one of these to 5ghz would make paying for the i-3 k chip a joke!
 
Might be something to do with a couple of high profile games requiring more than two threads.
 
Back
Top