Intel Core i5-2500K vs Intel Core i7-2820QM

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

CPU Comparison

Quickly search and compare processors

Price

The cheapest price from our partner retailers

$ 133.55
$ 96.40 significantly less expensive
$ 229.95

Benchmark Score

Overall Score

A combined score of all workloads

2325 points
5% slightly better overall score
2212 points

Gaming Score

The raw gaming performance with a fast GPU

4281 points
23% slightly better gaming score
3474 points

Multitasking Score

Performance in workloads using up to 8 cores

1776 points
1842 points
3% slightly better multitasking score

Heavy Workload Score

Performance in workloads using up to 16 cores

1704 points
1774 points
4% slightly better heavy workload score

Free CPU Benchmark

Want to compare your processor against the Core i5-2500K and the Core i7-2820QM? Download our free and quick PC Performance Test.

Other Benchmarks

Blender score

Blender score

Cycles Render (Samples per minute)

34.51 points
28% slightly higher Blender score
26.94 points
Geekbench 5 (multi) score

Geekbench 5 (multi) score

Multi threaded benchmark

1893 points
57% significantly higher Geekbench 5 (multi) score
1202 points
Geekbench 5 (single) score

Geekbench 5 (single) score

Single threaded benchmark

629 points
20% slightly higher Geekbench 5 (single) score
520 points
Geekbench 6 (multi) score

Geekbench 6 (multi) score

Multi threaded benchmark

1910 points
17% slightly higher Geekbench 6 (multi) score
1622 points
Geekbench 6 (single) score

Geekbench 6 (single) score

Single threaded benchmark

650 points
25% slightly higher Geekbench 6 (single) score
519 points

Specifications

Cores

Number of physical processing units

4
Identical
4

Threads

Number of logical processing units

4
8
100% significantly more threads

Clock Speed

Base frequency at which the chip operates

3.3 GHz
43% significantly higher clock speed
2.3 GHz

Turbo Speed

Higher frequency used for heavy workloads

3.7 GHz
8% slightly higher turbo speed
3.4 GHz

TDP

Thermal Design Power: Measure of heat generated by the CPU

95 W
45 W
111% significantly lower TDP

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

654th of 1,089
680th 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
No

Core i5-2500K vs Core i7-2820QM specs and performance

Our benchmark analysis concludes that the Core i5-2500K performs better than the Core i7-2820QM. Furthermore, our gaming benchmark shows that it also outperforms the Core i7-2820QM in all gaming tests too.

Info from our database shows that they both have the same core count but the Core i7-2820QM has more threads. These CPUs have different clock speeds. Indeed, the Core i5-2500K has a significantly higher clock speed compared to the Core i7-2820QM. Also, the Core i5-2500K has a slightly higher turbo speed. The Core i7-2820QM outputs less heat than Core i5-2500K thanks to a 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. For instance, the Core i5-2500K has the same number of threads as cores. This means the the CPU does not support hyperthreading.

Comments

No comments yet! Be the first to leave a comment using the form below.

Keep comments on topic and be polite. Comments are subject to moderation before they are published.

Popular CPU Comparisons