Intel Core i3-2100 vs Intel Core i5-2500

Compare Intel Core 2 core CPU vs Intel Core 4 core processor, specs and benchmark score. Which is the better CPU for gaming?

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Price

The cheapest price from our partner retailers

$ 49.00
$ 86.87 significantly less expensive
$ 135.87

Benchmark Score

Overall Score

A combined score of all workloads

1270 points
1975 points
55% significantly better overall score

Gaming Score

The raw gaming performance with a fast GPU

2433 points
3663 points
50% significantly better gaming score

Multitasking Score

Performance in workloads using up to 8 cores

956 points
1502 points
57% significantly better multitasking score

Heavy Workload Score

Performance in workloads using up to 16 cores

918 points
1441 points
56% significantly better heavy workload score

Free CPU Benchmark

Want to compare your processor against the Core i3-2100 and the Core i5-2500? Download our free and quick PC Performance Test.

Other Benchmarks

Blender score

Blender score

Cycles Render (Samples per minute)

15.20 points
26.26 points
72% significantly higher Blender score
Geekbench 5 (multi) score

Geekbench 5 (multi) score

Multi threaded benchmark

990 points
1687 points
70% significantly higher Geekbench 5 (multi) score
Geekbench 5 (single) score

Geekbench 5 (single) score

Single threaded benchmark

475 points
571 points
20% slightly higher Geekbench 5 (single) score
Geekbench 6 (multi) score

Geekbench 6 (multi) score

Multi threaded benchmark

947 points
1692 points
78% significantly higher Geekbench 6 (multi) score
Geekbench 6 (single) score

Geekbench 6 (single) score

Single threaded benchmark

465 points
592 points
27% slightly higher Geekbench 6 (single) score

Specifications

Cores

Number of physical processing units

2
4
100% significantly more cores

Threads

Number of logical processing units

4
Identical
4

Clock Speed

Base frequency at which the chip operates

3.1 GHz
3.3 GHz
6% slightly higher clock speed

TDP

Thermal Design Power: Measure of heat generated by the CPU

65 W
46% significantly lower TDP
95 W

PCIe Lanes

Number of physical connections between the CPU and expansion slots

16
Identical
16

Memory Channels

Lanes for simultaneous memory access

2
Identical
2

Supported Memory

Maximum amount of RAM supported by this CPU

32 GiB
Identical
32 GiB

Other details

Rank

Ranking in the hardwareDB database

878th of 1,089
725th of 1,089

Family

The product line

Core
Core

Release date

The official date of release of this chip

2011 February
2011 February

Memory Type

The type of memory used by this chip

DDR3-1066
DDR3-1066

Supports ECC memory

Does this CPU support error correcting memory

-
No

Core i3-2100 vs Core i5-2500 specs and performance

In our benchmarks, the Core i5-2500 beats the Core i3-2100 in overall performance. Furthermore, our gaming benchmark shows that it also outperforms the Core i3-2100 in all gaming tests too.

In terms of the number of cores of each of these CPUs, the Core i5-2500 has significantly more cores than the Core i3-2100. Indeed, the Core i5-2500 has 4 cores compared to 2 cores found in the Core i3-2100. But they both have the same number of threads. These CPUs have different clock speeds. Indeed, the Core i5-2500 has a slightly higher clock speed compared to the Core i3-2100. A Core i3-2100 CPU outputs less heat than a Core i5-2500 CPU because of its significantly lower TDP. This measures the amount of heat they output and can be used to estimate power consumption.

The more cores a CPU has, the better the overall performance will be in parallel workloads such as multitasking. Many CPUs have more threads than cores, this means that each physical core is split into multiple logical cores, making them more efficient. Indeed, the Core i3-2100 has more threads than cores. Each physical core is split into multiple threads.

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