UserBenchmark: Intel Core i5-2500K vs i9-7900X

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IntelBX80673I97900X

BUY • $413

IntelBX80623I52500K

$246

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Real World Speed

Performance profile from 162,439 user samples

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19,432 User Benchmarks

Best Bench: 92% Base clock 3.3 GHz, turbo 4.95 GHz (avg)
Worst Bench: 72% Base clock 3.3 GHz, turbo 0.7 GHz (avg)

Poor: 72% Great: 92%

SPEED RANK: 209^th / 1442

Gaming 82%

Aircraft carrier

Desktop 83%

Aircraft carrier

Workstation 89%

Aircraft carrier

143,007 User Benchmarks

Best Bench: 79% Base clock 3.3 GHz, turbo 4.6 GHz (avg)
Worst Bench: 44% Base clock 3.3 GHz, turbo 0.5 GHz (avg)

Poor: 44% Great: 79%

SPEED RANK: 484^th / 1442

Gaming 66%

Battle cruiser

Desktop 72%

Battleship

Workstation 49%

Yacht


Effective Speed Effective CPU Speed		81.9 %	Faster effective speed. +24%		65.9 %


Memory Avg. Memory Latency	76.1 Pts		83.1 Pts	Slightly lower memory latency. +9%
1-Core Avg. Single Core Speed	123 Pts	Much faster single-core speed. +39%	88.4 Pts
2-Core Avg. Dual Core Speed	243 Pts	Much faster dual-core speed. +40%	174 Pts
4-Core Avg. Quad Core Speed	470 Pts	Much faster quad-core speed. +67%	281 Pts
8-Core Avg. Octa Core Speed	898 Pts	Hugely faster octa-core speed. +199%	300 Pts


Memory OC Memory Latency	87.6 Pts		94.9 Pts	Slightly lower OC memory latency. +8%
1-Core OC Single Core Speed	138 Pts	Faster OC single-core speed. +21%	114 Pts
2-Core OC Dual Core Speed	276 Pts	Faster OC dual-core speed. +22%	227 Pts
4-Core OC Quad Core Speed	548 Pts	Much faster OC quad-core speed. +44%	380 Pts
8-Core OC Octa Core Speed	1069 Pts	Hugely faster OC octa-core speed. +168%	399 Pts

Market Share

Based on 67,760,203 CPUs tested

See market share leaders


Market Share Market Share (trailing 30 days)	0.05 %		0.17 %	Hugely higher market share. +240%
Value Value For Money	73.4 %	Slightly better value. +8%	68.2 %
User Rating UBM User Rating	55 %		76 %	Much more popular. +38%
Price Price (score)	$413		$246	Much cheaper. +40%


Age Newest	82 Months	Much more recent. +48%	159 Months
TDP Thermal Design Power (TDP)	140 Watts		95 Watts	Much more energy efficient. +32%
Cores CPU Processing Cores	10 cores	Hugely higher core count. +150%	4 cores
Threads CPU Processing Threads	20 threads	Hugely higher thread count. +400%	4 threads
Lithography Manufacturing process	14 nm	Much newer manufacturing. +56%	32 nm
Base Clock Base Clock Speed	3.8 GHz	Faster base frequency. +15%	3.3 GHz
Turbo Clock Turbo Clock Speed	4.3 GHz	Faster turbo frequency. +16%	3.7 GHz
64-Core OC Multi Core Speed	1853 Pts	Hugely faster OC 64-core speed. +355%	407 Pts
64-Core Avg. Multi Core Speed	1589 Pts	Hugely faster 64-core speed. +423%	304 Pts


Series CPU Architecture	Skylake-X	Sandy Bridge
Socket Motherboard Socket	LGA2066	LGA1155
Graphics Integrated Graphics	None	HD 3000
Launch Date Launch Date	Q2'17	Q1'11
Cache Cache	13.75 MB L3	6 MB SmartCache
Instruction Set Extensions Instruction Set Extensions	SSE4.1/4.2, AVX2, AVX-512	SSE4.1/4.2, AVX
Lithography Lithography	14 nm	32 nm
Recommended Price Recommended Customer Price	$989.00 - $999.00	N/A
Max Turbo Frequency Max Turbo Frequency	4.30 GHz	3.7 GHz
Bus Speed Bus Speed	8 GT/s DMI3	5 GT/s DMI
Max Memory Size Max Memory Size (dependent on memory type)	128 GB	32 GB
Memory Types Memory Types	DDR4-2666	DDR3 1066/1333
Memory Channels Max # of Memory Channels	4	2
Hyper-Threading Tech Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology ‡	Yes	No
Virtualization for Directed I/O (VT-d) Intel® Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (VT-d) ‡	Yes	No
PCI Express Revision PCI Express Revision	3.0	2.0
Max # of PCI Express Lanes Max # of PCI Express Lanes	44	16
	More specs »	More specs »

Intel’s core i9-7900X, from the Skylake-X series, is Intel’s latest 10-core, 20-thread flagship processor. It's the first to bear the i9 moniker and utilize the new X299 (Basin Falls) chipset/motherboard. The 7900X is the fastest CPU on the market today, however, imminent competition from AMD’s 16-core, 32-thread Ryzen Threadripper CPUs and the forthcoming release of more Intel Core X series mean that its reign will be a short one. The i9-7900X supersedes the 10-core Broadwell-E core i7-6950X that held the crown for little over a year. Both are extremely powerful and pricey high end desktop processors (HEDTs) which excel in multi-threaded tasks such as media encoding. However, despite the same power draw (TDP 140W), the newer i9-7900X betters the i7-6950X in terms of peak overclocked performance by 10% mostly thanks to increased clock speeds from 3.0GHz/4.0GHz to 3.3GHz/4.3GHz for base/turbo. It also betters the i7-6950X on price by around 28%. This all translates to the i9-7900X offering around 20% more value for money, even despite its eye-watering $999 price tag. The more accessible pricing (albeit not accessible for the majority) and hurried release of the i9-7900k to market is widely perceived as a reaction to AMD’s Ryzen Threadripper CPUs, rumoured for release towards the end of July 2017. So if you want to own the fastest consumer CPU in the world, it would be wise to wait for the dust to settle. ^{[Jul '17 CPUPro]}

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The i5-2500K is a second generation Sandy Bridge processor which is currently two generations old and nearly three years out of date. The many users that had the good sense to purchase this processor should feel in no hurry to upgrade as it's still no slouch, even by today's standards. The benchmark figures indicate that, even at stock clock rates, in terms of real-world performance this processor is approximately 20% slower than the best currently available, not bad considering its age. Given that the 2500K has an unlocked multiplier upping its performance by 10% with stock cooling should not pose much of a problem for the majority of owners. Here is a detailed performance comparison of the 2500K vs 4670K. ^{[Jul '13 CPUPro]}

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We calculate effective speed which measures real world performance for typical users. Effective speed is adjusted by current prices to yield a value for money rating. Our calculated values are checked against thousands of individual user ratings. The customizable table below combines these factors to bring you the definitive list of top CPUs. ^[CPUPro]

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CPU	GPU	SSD
Intel Core i5-13600K $273	Nvidia RTX 4060 $295	Crucial MX500 250GB $40
Intel Core i5-12400F $133	Nvidia RTX 4060-Ti $385	Samsung 850 Evo 120GB $80
Intel Core i5-12600K $184	Nvidia RTX 4070 $539	Samsung 860 Evo 250GB $52

HDD	RAM	USB
Seagate Barracuda 1TB (2016) $39	Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 3200 C16 2x8GB $45	SanDisk Extreme 64GB $72
WD Blue 1TB (2012) $37	Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 3000 C15 2x8GB $43	SanDisk Extreme 32GB $28
Seagate Barracuda 2TB (2016) $51	G.SKILL Trident Z DDR4 3200 C14 4x16GB $351	SanDisk Ultra Fit 32GB $16

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