Intel Core i5-2500K vs Intel Core i7-2600

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

Benchmark Score
Other Benchmarks
Specifications
Comments (0)
Popular Comparisons

CPU Comparison

Quickly search and compare processors

Intel Core i7-2600

Price

The cheapest price from our partner retailers

$ 133.55

$ 92.82 significantly less expensive

$ 226.37

Benchmark Score

Overall Score

A combined score of all workloads

2325 points

2539 points

9% slightly better overall score

Gaming Score

The raw gaming performance with a fast GPU

4281 points

7% slightly better gaming score

3984 points

Multitasking Score

Performance in workloads using up to 8 cores

1776 points

2108 points

18% slightly better multitasking score

Heavy Workload Score

Performance in workloads using up to 16 cores

1704 points

2031 points

19% slightly better heavy workload score

Free CPU Benchmark

Want to compare your processor against the Core i5-2500K and the Core i7-2600? Download our free and quick PC Performance Test.

Download CPU Benchmark

Other Benchmarks

3DMark Physics score

Physics simulation benchmark

2748 points

3013 points

9% slightly higher 3DMark Physics score

Blender score

Cycles Render (Samples per minute)

34.51 points

38.63 points

11% slightly higher Blender score

Geekbench 5 (multi) score

Multi threaded benchmark

1893 points

2047 points

8% slightly higher Geekbench 5 (multi) score

Geekbench 5 (single) score

Single threaded benchmark

629 points

3% slightly higher Geekbench 5 (single) score

608 points

Geekbench 6 (multi) score

Multi threaded benchmark

1910 points

2040 points

6% slightly higher Geekbench 6 (multi) score

Geekbench 6 (single) score

Single threaded benchmark

650 points

6% slightly higher Geekbench 6 (single) score

610 points

Specifications

Cores

Number of physical processing units

Identical

Threads

Number of logical processing units

100% significantly more threads

Clock Speed

Base frequency at which the chip operates

3.3 GHz

3.4 GHz

3% slightly higher clock speed

Turbo Speed

Higher frequency used for heavy workloads

3.7 GHz

3.8 GHz

2% slightly higher turbo speed

TDP

Thermal Design Power: Measure of heat generated by the CPU

95 W

Identical

95 W

PCIe Lanes

Number of physical connections between the CPU and expansion slots

Identical

Memory Channels

Lanes for simultaneous memory access

Identical

Supported Memory

Maximum amount of RAM supported by this CPU

32 GiB

Identical

32 GiB

Other details

Rank

Ranking in the hardwareDB database

654th of 1,089

619th of 1,089

Family

The product line

Core

Release date

The official date of release of this chip

2011 February

Memory Type

The type of memory used by this chip

DDR3-1066

Supports ECC memory

Does this CPU support error correcting memory

Core i5-2500K vs Core i7-2600 specs and performance

Our benchmark analysis concludes that the Core i7-2600 performs better than the Core i5-2500K. Despite this, the Core i5-2500K has the advantage in our gaming benchmark.

Info from our database shows that they both have the same core count but the Core i7-2600 has more threads. Our comparison shows that the Core i7-2600 has a slightly higher clock speed compared to the Core i5-2500K. Also, the Core i7-2600 has a slightly higher turbo speed. Both these chips have an identical TDP (Thermal Design Power). 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. For instance, the Core i5-2500K has the same number of threads as cores. This means the the CPU does not support hyperthreading.