Intel Core i5-6400 vs Intel Core i7-2600K

Compare Intel 6th Generation Core i5 4 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

$ 99.99
$ 84.99
$ 15.00 slightly less expensive

Benchmark Score

Overall Score

A combined score of all workloads

2127 points
2571 points
20% slightly better overall score

Gaming Score

The raw gaming performance with a fast GPU

3959 points
4067 points
2% slightly better gaming score

Multitasking Score

Performance in workloads using up to 8 cores

1617 points
2123 points
31% slightly better multitasking score

Heavy Workload Score

Performance in workloads using up to 16 cores

1551 points
2039 points
31% slightly better heavy workload score

Free CPU Benchmark

Want to compare your processor against the Core i5-6400 and the Core i7-2600K? Download our free and quick PC Performance Test.

Other Benchmarks

3DMark Physics score

3DMark Physics score

Physics simulation benchmark

2971 points
3342 points
12% slightly higher 3DMark Physics score
Blender score

Blender score

Cycles Render (Samples per minute)

39.92 points
44.04 points
10% slightly higher Blender score
Geekbench 5 (multi) score

Geekbench 5 (multi) score

Multi threaded benchmark

2948 points
28% slightly higher Geekbench 5 (multi) score
2292 points
Geekbench 5 (single) score

Geekbench 5 (single) score

Single threaded benchmark

1079 points
62% significantly higher Geekbench 5 (single) score
665 points
Geekbench 6 (multi) score

Geekbench 6 (multi) score

Multi threaded benchmark

3046 points
33% slightly higher Geekbench 6 (multi) score
2289 points
Geekbench 6 (single) score

Geekbench 6 (single) score

Single threaded benchmark

1116 points
67% significantly higher Geekbench 6 (single) score
665 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

2.7 GHz
3.4 GHz
25% slightly higher clock speed

Turbo Speed

Higher frequency used for heavy workloads

3.3 GHz
3.8 GHz
15% slightly higher turbo 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

64 GiB
100% significantly more supported memory
32 GiB

Other details

Rank

Ranking in the hardwareDB database

699th of 1,089
612th of 1,089

Family

The product line

6th Generation Core i5
Core

Release date

The official date of release of this chip

2015 August
2011 February

Memory Type

The type of memory used by this chip

DDR4-1866
DDR3-1066

Is Unlocked

Can this CPU can be overclocked

No
-

Supports ECC memory

Does this CPU support error correcting memory

No
No

Core i5-6400 vs Core i7-2600K specs and performance

Our benchmark analysis concludes that the Core i7-2600K performs better than the Core i5-6400. Despite this, the Core i5-6400 has the advantage in our gaming benchmark.

Info from our database shows that they both have the same core count but the Core i7-2600K has more threads. With our hardware info, we find that the Core i7-2600K has a slightly higher clock speed than the Core i5-6400. Also, the Core i7-2600K has a slightly higher turbo speed. A Core i5-6400 CPU outputs less heat than a Core i7-2600K 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. For instance, the Core i5-6400 has the same number of threads as cores. This means the the CPU does not support hyperthreading.

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