UserBenchmark: Intel Core i5-2500K vs i5-8600K

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Real World Speed

Performance profile from 407,844 user samples

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264,837 User Benchmarks

Best Bench: 101% Base clock 3.6 GHz, turbo 4.95 GHz (avg)
Worst Bench: 79% Base clock 3.6 GHz, turbo 4.05 GHz (avg)

Poor: 79% Great: 101%

SPEED RANK: 154^th / 1468

Gaming 91%

Nuclear submarine

Desktop 92%

Nuclear submarine

Workstation 74%

Battleship

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: 505^th / 1468

Gaming 66%

Battle cruiser

Desktop 72%

Battleship

Workstation 49%

Yacht


Effective Speed Effective CPU Speed		90.7 %	Much faster effective speed. +38%		65.9 %


Memory Avg. Memory Latency	90.1 Pts	Slightly lower memory latency. +8%	83.1 Pts
1-Core Avg. Single Core Speed	129 Pts	Much faster single-core speed. +46%	88.4 Pts
2-Core Avg. Dual Core Speed	257 Pts	Much faster dual-core speed. +48%	174 Pts
4-Core Avg. Quad Core Speed	502 Pts	Much faster quad-core speed. +79%	281 Pts
8-Core Avg. Octa Core Speed	656 Pts	Hugely faster octa-core speed. +119%	300 Pts


Memory OC Memory Latency	96.5 Pts	+2%	94.9 Pts
1-Core OC Single Core Speed	151 Pts	Much faster OC single-core speed. +32%	114 Pts
2-Core OC Dual Core Speed	302 Pts	Much faster OC dual-core speed. +33%	227 Pts
4-Core OC Quad Core Speed	594 Pts	Much faster OC quad-core speed. +56%	380 Pts
8-Core OC Octa Core Speed	798 Pts	Hugely faster OC octa-core speed. +100%	399 Pts

Market Share

Based on 68,929,768 CPUs tested

See market share leaders


Market Share Market Share (trailing 30 days)	0.47 %	Hugely higher market share. +327%	0.11 %
Value Value For Money	110 %	Much better value. +61%	68.2 %
User Rating UBM User Rating	77 %	+1%	76 %
Price Price (score)	$140	Much cheaper. +43%	$246


Age Newest	85 Months	Much more recent. +49%	166 Months
TDP Thermal Design Power (TDP)	95 Watts		95 Watts
Cores CPU Processing Cores	6 cores	Much higher core count. +50%	4 cores
Threads CPU Processing Threads	6 threads	Much higher thread count. +50%	4 threads
Lithography Manufacturing process	14 nm	Much newer manufacturing. +56%	32 nm
Base Clock Base Clock Speed	3.6 GHz	Slightly faster base frequency. +9%	3.3 GHz
Turbo Clock Turbo Clock Speed	4.3 GHz	Faster turbo frequency. +16%	3.7 GHz
64-Core OC Multi Core Speed	828 Pts	Hugely faster OC 64-core speed. +103%	407 Pts
64-Core Avg. Multi Core Speed	681 Pts	Hugely faster 64-core speed. +124%	304 Pts


Series CPU Architecture	Coffee Lake	Sandy Bridge
Socket Motherboard Socket	FCLGA1151	LGA1155
Graphics Integrated Graphics	UHD 630	HD 3000
Launch Date Launch Date	Q4'17	Q1'11
Cache Cache	9 MB	6 MB SmartCache
Instruction Set Extensions Instruction Set Extensions	SSE4.1/4.2, AVX2	SSE4.1/4.2, AVX
Lithography Lithography	14 nm	32 nm
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)	64 GB	32 GB
Memory Types Memory Types	DDR4-2666	DDR3 1066/1333
Processor Graphics Processor Graphics ‡	Intel® UHD Graphics 630	Intel® HD Graphics 3000
Graphics Base Frequency Graphics Base Frequency	350 MHz	850 MHz
# of Displays Supported # of Displays Supported ‡	3	2
Graphics Max Dynamic Frequency Graphics Max Dynamic Frequency	1.15 GHz	1.1 GHz
Virtualization for Directed I/O (VT-d) Intel® Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (VT-d) ‡	Yes	No
vPro Tech Intel® vPro™ Technology ‡	Yes	No
Trusted Execution Tech Intel® Trusted Execution Technology ‡	Yes	No
PCI Express Revision PCI Express Revision	3.0	2.0
	More specs »	More specs »

The unlocked hex-core i5-8600K from Intel’s latest Coffee Lake generation of processors is the new flagship of the i5 series, succeeding the Kaby Lake quad-core i5-7600K. The 8th generation of processors brings the largest performance uplift since Sandy Bridge by adding more cores at each of the i3, i5 and i7 product lines. Like the other Coffee Lake processors, the i5-8600K is built upon optimized 14nm architecture, marginally improved upon from Kaby Lake and Skylake. The 8600K has a 95W TDP and a nominal stock clock of 3.6 GHz, which boosts to 4.1 GHz for all six cores, 4.2 GHz for dual/quad and 4.3 GHz for single core. Early benchmarks put the i5-8600K’s effective speed 15% ahead of the i5-7600K. A 50% increase in multi-core speed is explained by two additional cores and thanks to the quad-core clock bump from 4 GHz on the 7600K to 4.2 GHz on the 8600K there is also an additional 5% performance boost across all workloads. All Coffee Lake processors require a 300-series chipset, making a straight CPU upgrade unfeasible despite sharing the same socket as their Z270 predecessors. Even though most games still use less than 4 cores simultaneously, the i5-8600K is a great choice for gamers but for $80 less, the 8350K which is faster than last years 7600K and only marginally weaker for gaming than the 8600K is certainly well worth considering as well. ^{[Oct '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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CPU	GPU	SSD
Intel Core i5-12600K $169	Nvidia RTX 4060 $298	WD Black SN850X M.2 2TB $135
Intel Core i5-12400F $111	Nvidia RTX 4060-Ti $345	WD Black SN850X M.2 1TB $80
Intel Core i5-13600K $225	Nvidia RTX 4070 $500	Crucial T700 M.2 4TB $350

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