Intel Core i5-6500 vs Intel Core i5-2500K

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?

Benchmark Score
Other Benchmarks
Specifications
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CPU Comparison

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Intel Core i5-2500K

Price

The cheapest price from our partner retailers

$ 103.63

$ 29.92 slightly less expensive

$ 133.55

Benchmark Score

Overall Score

A combined score of all workloads

2289 points

2325 points

1% slightly better overall score

Gaming Score

The raw gaming performance with a fast GPU

4255 points

4281 points

0.61% slightly better gaming score

Multitasking Score

Performance in workloads using up to 8 cores

1743 points

1776 points

1% slightly better multitasking score

Heavy Workload Score

Performance in workloads using up to 16 cores

1675 points

1704 points

1% slightly better heavy workload score

Free CPU Benchmark

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Other Benchmarks

3DMark Physics score

Physics simulation benchmark

2113 points

2748 points

30% slightly higher 3DMark Physics score

Blender score

Cycles Render (Samples per minute)

44.07 points

27% slightly higher Blender score

34.51 points

Geekbench 5 (multi) score

Multi threaded benchmark

3159 points

66% significantly higher Geekbench 5 (multi) score

1893 points

Geekbench 5 (single) score

Single threaded benchmark

1147 points

82% significantly higher Geekbench 5 (single) score

629 points

Geekbench 6 (multi) score

Multi threaded benchmark

3287 points

72% significantly higher Geekbench 6 (multi) score

1910 points

Geekbench 6 (single) score

Single threaded benchmark

1202 points

84% significantly higher Geekbench 6 (single) score

650 points

Specifications

Cores

Number of physical processing units

Identical

Threads

Number of logical processing units

Identical

Clock Speed

Base frequency at which the chip operates

3.2 GHz

3.3 GHz

3% slightly higher clock speed

Turbo Speed

Higher frequency used for heavy workloads

3.6 GHz

3.7 GHz

2% 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

Identical

Memory Channels

Lanes for simultaneous memory access

Identical

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

663rd of 1,089

654th 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

Supports ECC memory

Does this CPU support error correcting memory

Core i5-6500 vs Core i5-2500K specs and performance

According to the hardwareDB Benchmark tool, the Core i5-6500 is faster than the Core i5-2500K. Furthermore, our gaming benchmark shows that it also outperforms the Core i5-2500K in all gaming tests too.

Our spec comparison shows that they have an identical amount of cores and the same number of threads. With our hardware info, we find that the Core i5-2500K has a slightly higher clock speed than the Core i5-6500. Also, the Core i5-2500K has a slightly higher turbo speed. A Core i5-6500 CPU outputs less heat than a Core i5-2500K 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. For instance, the Core i5-6500 has the same number of threads as cores. This means the the CPU does not support hyperthreading.