Intel Pentium and Celeron CPUs are finally retiring
Intel just announced plans to retire Pentium and Celeron – two iconic CPU brands that first arrived back in the ’90s. While both longstanding labels will depart in Q1 2023, the tech giant says it’ll implement a replacement that’ll simplfy its entry-level range.
In a press release, Intel says it’ll replace Pentium and Celeron with a simplified CPU range called dubbed ‘Intel Processor’. Can’t get any simpler than that, right? Well, the company claims ditching the brand identifiers will help consumers choose the “right processor for their needs.”
That’s not to say branding won’t be a blue team thing, as Intel Core, Evo, and vPro are here to stay. Instead, the move is seemingly designed to give each term more authority in their respective spaces. In other words, with Pentium and Celeron out of the picture, it’ll be potentially easier to differentiate the best gaming CPU from one that caters to light usage based on name alone.
Pentium and Celeron are now considered entry-level, but both used to be further up the CPU food chain. The Pentium Pro in particular changed the best gaming PC scene by including full-speed L2 cache, while the Celeron 300a offered impressive overclocking abilities at an affordable price.
If anything, the fact Intel Pentium and Celeron are only just heading to the rig retirement home is a testament to their legacy. You could argue that a new high-end chip bearing either name would invoke more excitement than a Raptor Lake SKU with a numbered Core tier label, but ditching Greek terms will perhaps make choosing an entry-level CPU easier in the long run (grumble, grumble).
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