Intel Core i3-4160 vs Intel Core i5-2500

Compare Intel 4th Generation Core i3 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

$ 98.00
$ 37.87 significantly less expensive
$ 135.87

Benchmark Score

Overall Score

A combined score of all workloads

1444 points
1975 points
36% slightly better overall score

Gaming Score

The raw gaming performance with a fast GPU

2813 points
3663 points
30% slightly better gaming score

Multitasking Score

Performance in workloads using up to 8 cores

1081 points
1502 points
38% slightly better multitasking score

Heavy Workload Score

Performance in workloads using up to 16 cores

1038 points
1441 points
38% slightly better heavy workload score

Free CPU Benchmark

Want to compare your processor against the Core i3-4160 and the Core i5-2500? Download our free and quick PC Performance Test.

Other Benchmarks

Blender score

Blender score

Cycles Render (Samples per minute)

23.82 points
26.26 points
10% slightly higher Blender score
Geekbench 5 (multi) score

Geekbench 5 (multi) score

Multi threaded benchmark

1850 points
9% slightly higher Geekbench 5 (multi) score
1687 points
Geekbench 5 (single) score

Geekbench 5 (single) score

Single threaded benchmark

962 points
68% significantly higher Geekbench 5 (single) score
571 points
Geekbench 6 (multi) score

Geekbench 6 (multi) score

Multi threaded benchmark

2084 points
23% slightly higher Geekbench 6 (multi) score
1692 points
Geekbench 6 (single) score

Geekbench 6 (single) score

Single threaded benchmark

1076 points
81% significantly higher Geekbench 6 (single) score
592 points

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

3.6 GHz
9% slightly higher clock speed
3.3 GHz

TDP

Thermal Design Power: Measure of heat generated by the CPU

54 W
75% 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

823rd of 1,089
725th of 1,089

Family

The product line

4th Generation Core i3
Core

Release date

The official date of release of this chip

2014 August
2011 February

Memory Type

The type of memory used by this chip

DDR3-1333
DDR3-1066

Supports ECC memory

Does this CPU support error correcting memory

Yes
No

Core i3-4160 vs Core i5-2500 specs and performance

Our benchmark analysis concludes that the Core i5-2500 performs better than the Core i3-4160. Furthermore, our gaming benchmark shows that it also outperforms the Core i3-4160 in all gaming tests too.

When comparing core counts for these CPUs, we notice that the Core i5-2500 has significantly more cores with 4 cores compared to the Core i3-4160 that has 2 cores. But they both have the same number of threads. These CPUs have different clock speeds. Indeed, the Core i3-4160 has a slightly higher clock speed compared to the Core i5-2500. A Core i3-4160 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.

Most CPUs have more threads than cores. This technology, colloquially called hyperthreading, improves performance by splitting a core into multiple virtual ones. This provides more efficient utilisation of a core. Indeed, the Core i3-4160 has more threads than cores. Each physical core is split into multiple threads.

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