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Intel Celeron G470

Intel Celeron G470: Review and Practical Guide for Budget Builds (2025)

Introduction

Intel Celeron processors have always occupied a niche for affordable solutions aimed at basic tasks. The G470 model, released as part of the Sandy Bridge architecture (2011), is still found on the second-hand market and in specific builds. Despite its age, this chip can still be relevant for narrow use cases. Let's explore who should consider it and why in 2025.

1. Key Specifications: Modest, but Fit for Purpose

Architecture and Process Technology

- Codename: Sandy Bridge (2nd Generation Intel Core).

- Process Node: 32 nm — an outdated standard, but it ensures low thermal output.

- Cores and Threads: 1 physical core, 2 threads thanks to Hyper-Threading.

- Base Clock Frequency: 1.8 GHz, no turbo boost.

- Cache: 1.5 MB L3.

- TDP: 35 W — energy efficiency as a key advantage.

Performance

- Geekbench 6: 248 (Single-Core), 340 (Multi-Core).

For comparison: the modern Celeron G6900 (2023) scores about 1500/2500 points.

- Real-world Tasks:

- Office applications (Word, Excel) — functional, but with delays for complex spreadsheets.

- Full HD video playback — possible, but 4K or streaming services may cause stuttering.

- Web browsing — handles up to 5-7 tabs in Chrome (with 8 GB RAM).

Key Features

- Low Cost: $10–15 on the second-hand market (new units are not available).

- Passive Cooling: Due to the 35 W TDP, it can easily be managed with a fanless heatsink.

- VT-x Support: Virtualization capabilities for running lightweight operating systems or Docker containers.

2. Compatible Motherboards: Searching the Second-Hand Market

Socket and Chipsets

- Socket: LGA 1155 — an outdated standard, new motherboards are no longer produced.

- Chipsets: H61, B65, Q67, H67.

- Recommendation: Look for models with USB 3.0 (e.g., ASUS P8H61-M/USB3) for comfortable USB flash drive usage.

- Limitations: No NVMe support, SATA III only available on select boards.

Selection Features

- BIOS: Check for the latest version for compatibility with Windows 11 (requires UEFI and Secure Boot, but not all boards support this).

- Example Models:

- Gigabyte GA-H61M-S2PV — compact micro-ATX, 2 DDR3 slots.

- ASRock H61M-VG4 — budget-friendly option with HDMI.

3. Memory: Only DDR3

- Type: DDR3-1066/1333 MHz.

- Maximum Size: 16–32 GB (depending on motherboard).

- Tips:

- Utilize dual-channel mode (2×4 GB instead of 1×8 GB) for a 10–15% performance increase in multi-threaded tasks.

- Avoid memory with frequencies above 1333 MHz — the processor does not support XMP.

4. Power Supply: Minimum Requirements

- Power: Even a 300 W PSU is sufficient (e.g., FSP Hyper 300).

- Recommendations:

- For passive builds, choose a PSU with at least 80+ Bronze efficiency.

- Avoid cheap noname units — they pose a risk to system stability.

- Example Configuration:

- Celeron G470: 35 W.

- SSD: 5 W.

- Motherboard: 20 W.

- Total: ~60 W. A reserve of 300 W is more than enough.

5. Pros and Cons: Who Should Care?

Pros

- Price: Cheaper than a cup of coffee on the second-hand market.

- Energy Efficiency: Ideal for a home NAS or router.

- Compactness: Can be built in a mini-ITX case about the size of a book.

Cons

- Performance: Slower than modern Raspberry Pi 5.

- Outdated Standards: No USB 3.1, HDMI 2.0, or M.2 support.

- Upgrade: No sense — the platform is dead.

6. Use Cases: Where is the G470 Still Relevant?

- Office PC: Only for Word, Excel, and document printing.

- Home Server: Service for file storage (OpenMediaVault) or Pi-hole for ad blocking.

- Retro Gaming: Running early 2000s games (Half-Life 2, GTA: San Andreas) via Windows XP.

- Educational Projects: Teaching PC assembly or basic programming concepts for children.

7. Comparison with Competitors: What Else to Buy?

- Intel Celeron J4125 (2020):

- 4 cores, 10 W TDP, DDR4 support.

- Price: $120 (new). Better in every way except price.

- AMD Athlon 3000G (2019):

- 2 cores, Vega 3 GPU, DDR4.

- Price: $80 (new). Suitable for light gaming.

- Raspberry Pi 5:

- ARM architecture, 8 GB RAM, HDMI 2.0.

- Price: $80. More energy-efficient, but trickier with software.

8. Practical Assembly Tips

- SSD Required: Even a Kingston A400 120 GB ($20) will speed up the system by 3–4 times.

- Cooling: A heatsink from an old laptop (e.g., from ThinkPad X220) will work.

- Operating System: Linux (Lubuntu) or Windows 10 LTSC.

- Case: Use a chassis from a used office PC (Dell OptiPlex 3010).

- Sample Build:

- CPU: Celeron G470 ($10).

- Motherboard: $20 (used).

- RAM: 8 GB DDR3 ($15).

- SSD: 240 GB ($25).

- PSU: 300 W ($30).

- Total: ~$100.

9. Final Conclusion: Who is the Celeron G470 For?

This processor is a choice for enthusiasts and specific tasks:

- IT Educators: For teaching PC assembly without risking expensive components.

- Retro Tech Enthusiasts: Creating a "time machine" on Windows 98/XP.

- Budget Servers: File storage or VPN gateway.

But remember: For $100–150, you can build a system based on the Raspberry Pi 5 or a used mini-PC with Intel 8th generation components — they will be faster, more modern, and more economical. The G470 is a niche solution for those who value the process of "reviving" old hardware over practicality.

Basic

Label Name

Intel

Platform

Desktop

Launch Date

April 2013

Model Name

The Intel processor number is just one of several factors - along with processor brand, system configurations, and system-level benchmarks - to be considered when choosing the right processor for your computing needs.

G470

Code Name

Sandy Bridge

CPU Specifications

Total Cores

Cores is a hardware term that describes the number of independent central processing units in a single computing component (die or chip).

Total Threads

Where applicable, Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology is only available on Performance-cores.

Basic Frequency

2.00 GHz

Intel Hyper-Threading Technology

Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology (Intel® HT Technology) delivers two processing threads per physical core. Highly threaded applications can get more work done in parallel, completing tasks sooner.

Yes

Intel Turbo Boost Technology

Intel® Turbo Boost Technology dynamically increases the processor's frequency as needed by taking advantage of thermal and power headroom to give you a burst of speed when you need it, and increased energy efficiency when you don’t.

CPU Socket

The socket is the component that provides the mechanical and electrical connections between the processor and motherboard.

FCLGA1155

Technology

Lithography refers to the semiconductor technology used to manufacture an integrated circuit, and is reported in nanometer (nm), indicative of the size of features built on the semiconductor.

32 nm

TDP

35 W

PCI Express Version

PCI Express Revision is the supported version of the PCI Express standard. Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (or PCIe) is a high-speed serial computer expansion bus standard for attaching hardware devices to a computer. The different PCI Express versions support different data rates.

2.0

Instruction Set

The instruction set is a hard program stored inside the CPU that guides and optimizes CPU operations. With these instruction sets, the CPU can run more efficiently. There are many manufacturers that design CPUs, which results in different instruction sets, such as the 8086 instruction set for the Intel camp and the RISC instruction set for the ARM camp. x86, ARM v8, and MIPS are all codes for instruction sets. Instruction sets can be extended; for example, x86 added 64-bit support to create x86-64. Manufacturers developing CPUs that are compatible with a certain instruction set need authorization from the instruction set patent holder. A typical example is Intel authorizing AMD, enabling the latter to develop CPUs compatible with the x86 instruction set.

64-bit

Intel 64

Intel® 64 architecture delivers 64-bit computing on server, workstation, desktop and mobile platforms when combined with supporting software.¹ Intel 64 architecture improves performance by allowing systems to address more than 4 GB of both virtual and physical memory.

Yes

Memory Specifications

Memory Type

Intel® processors come in four different types: Single Channel, Dual Channel, Triple Channel, and Flex Mode. Maximum supported memory speed may be lower when populating multiple DIMMs per channel on products that support multiple memory channels.

DDR3 1066/1333

Max Memory Size

Max memory size refers to the maximum memory capacity supported by the processor.

32 GB

Memory Channels

The number of memory channels refers to the bandwidth operation for real world application.

Bus Speed

5 GT/s

Max Memory Bandwidth

Max Memory bandwidth is the maximum rate at which data can be read from or stored into a semiconductor memory by the processor (in GB/s).

17 GB/s

GPU Specifications

GPU Name

Intel® HD Graphics for 2nd Generation Intel® Processors

Graphics Base Frequency

Graphics Base frequency refers to the rated/guaranteed graphics render clock frequency in MHz.

650 MHz

Graphics Frequency

Graphics max dynamic frequency refers to the maximum opportunistic graphics render clock frequency (in MHz) that can be supported using Intel® HD Graphics with Dynamic Frequency feature.

1.00 GHz

Number of Displays Supported

Miscellaneous

Intel Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (VT-d)

Intel® Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (VT-d) continues from the existing support for IA-32 (VT-x) and Itanium® processor (VT-i) virtualization adding new support for I/O-device virtualization. Intel VT-d can help end users improve security and reliability of the systems and also improve performance of I/O devices in virtualized environments.

Intel Virtualization Technology (VT-x)

Intel® Virtualization Technology (VT-x) allows one hardware platform to function as multiple “virtual” platforms. It offers improved manageability by limiting downtime and maintaining productivity by isolating computing activities into separate partitions.

Yes

Instruction Set Extensions

Intel® SSE4.1 | Intel® SSE4.2

Enhanced Intel SpeedStep Technology

Enhanced Intel SpeedStep® Technology is an advanced means of enabling high performance while meeting the power-conservation needs of mobile systems. Conventional Intel SpeedStep® Technology switches both voltage and frequency in tandem between high and low levels in response to processor load. Enhanced Intel SpeedStep® Technology builds upon that architecture using design strategies such as Separation between Voltage and Frequency Changes, and Clock Partitioning and Recovery.

Yes

Execute Disable Bit

Execute Disable Bit is a hardware-based security feature that can reduce exposure to viruses and malicious-code attacks and prevent harmful software from executing and propagating on the server or network.

Yes

Cache

CPU Cache is an area of fast memory located on the processor. Intel® Smart Cache refers to the architecture that allows all cores to dynamically share access to the last level cache.

1.5 MB Intel® Smart Cache

Intel AES New Instructions

Intel® AES New Instructions (Intel® AES-NI) are a set of instructions that enable fast and secure data encryption and decryption. AES-NI are valuable for a wide range of cryptographic applications, for example: applications that perform bulk encryption/decryption, authentication, random number generation, and authenticated encryption.

Intel Clear Video HD Technology

Intel® Clear Video HD Technology, like its predecessor, Intel® Clear Video Technology, is a suite of image decode and processing technologies built into the integrated processor graphics that improve video playback, delivering cleaner, sharper images, more natural, accurate, and vivid colors, and a clear and stable video picture. Intel® Clear Video HD Technology adds video quality enhancements for richer color and more realistic skin tones.

Intel VT-x with Extended Page Tables (EPT)

Intel® VT-x with Extended Page Tables (EPT), also known as Second Level Address Translation (SLAT), provides acceleration for memory intensive virtualized applications. Extended Page Tables in Intel® Virtualization Technology platforms reduces the memory and power overhead costs and increases battery life through hardware optimization of page table management.

Yes

Intel InTru 3D Technology

Intel Flex Memory Access

Yes

Intel Quick Sync Video

Intel® Quick Sync Video delivers fast conversion of video for portable media players, online sharing, and video editing and authoring.

Benchmarks

Geekbench 6

Single Core Score

248

Geekbench 6

Multi Core Score

340

Geekbench 5

Single Core Score

339

Geekbench 5

Multi Core Score

436

Passmark CPU

Single Core Score

844

Passmark CPU

Multi Core Score

568

Compared to Other CPU

Geekbench 6 Single Core

Pentium B980

357 +44%

A4-4300M

313 +26.2%

A8-3520M

257 +3.6%

Celeron G470

248

Xeon E7-4809 v2

32 -87.1%

Geekbench 6 Multi Core

Celeron 3865U

693 +103.8%

Pentium B980

601 +76.8%

Core i3-2377M

500 +47.1%

Celeron G470

340

Xeon E7-4809 v2

58 -82.9%

Geekbench 5 Single Core

Xeon E5-4610 v3

409 +20.6%

Core i3-2310M

371 +9.4%

Celeron G470

339

Celeron 807

300 -11.5%

Celeron 2961Y

252 -25.7%

Geekbench 5 Multi Core

A6-5400B

688 +57.8%

A4-6320

588 +34.9%

Pentium U5600

471 +8%

Celeron G470

436

Atom Z2480

94 -78.4%

Passmark CPU Single Core

Xeon E5-2450L

1002 +18.7%

Xeon E5606

942 +11.6%

Celeron G470

844

Celeron G440

743 -12%

Opteron 2222

618 -26.8%

Passmark CPU Multi Core

Celeron G550T

1102 +94%

Celeron 1017U

888 +56.3%

A4-3320M

668 +17.6%

Celeron G470

568

Celeron B710

106 -81.3%