Goodbye Pentium and Celeron: Why Intel Retired Its Classic Budget CPUs

For decades, Pentium and Celeron processors powered millions of budget desktops and laptops. They were the go-to choice for students, office workers, and anyone who just needed an affordable PC. But starting in 2023, Intel officially retired the Pentium and Celeron brands. Instead, the company now simply calls its entry-level chips “Intel Processor.”

So why did Intel drop two of its most recognizable names? Let’s break it down.

The Problem: Overlapping Segments

Originally, the two brands had clear differences:

Pentium – better performance, slightly more expensive.

Celeron – cut-down features, cheapest option available.

But by the 2020s, the performance gap between them had become so small that most buyers couldn’t tell the difference. Both were marketed for low-cost laptops and basic PCs. This overlap created confusion instead of clarity.

Intel’s New Strategy: Simplicity

Intel announced in 2022 that starting in 2023, it would unify the branding:

Intel Processor → entry-level segment (successor to Pentium/Celeron)

Intel Core → mainstream to high-performance PCs

Intel Xeon → servers and workstations

This way, customers won’t have to guess whether a Pentium Silver is better than a Celeron N-series, or vice versa. The new Intel Processor N-series (like N100, N200, N300) has taken their place.

Market Shifts in the Low-End PC Space

Another reason for the change is competition. With AMD Ryzen Athlon, ARM-based chips (like Apple’s M-series and Qualcomm Snapdragon), and even budget Chromebooks gaining traction, Intel needed to refresh its entry-level branding to stay relevant.

The Last of the Line

The final processors to carry the classic names include:

●Celeron N5100 / N5095 (2021 Jasper Lake)

●Pentium Silver N6000 (2021 Jasper Lake)

●Pentium Gold G7400 (Alder Lake, 2022 desktop release)

After these, the branding officially ended.

A Bittersweet Goodbye

Pentium and Celeron shaped the personal computing landscape for decades. From the glory days of the Pentium in the 1990s to the widespread budget Celerons in netbooks and office PCs, these chips were household names.

Now, they live on spiritually in the Intel Processor N-series, but the branding itself has been laid to rest.

In short: Pentium and Celeron were discontinued because their product lines overlapped too much, and Intel wanted to simplify things. From 2023 onwards, entry-level CPUs are just called Intel Processor.