UserBenchmark: Intel Core i5-2500K vs i7-5960X

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IntelBX80648I75960X

BUY • $400

IntelBX80623I52500K

$246

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Real World Speed

Performance profile from 158,475 user samples

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15,468 User Benchmarks

Best Bench: 94% Base clock 3 GHz, turbo 4.8 GHz (avg)
Worst Bench: 70% Base clock 3 GHz, turbo 1.2 GHz (avg)

Poor: 70% Great: 94%

SPEED RANK: 235^th / 1456

Gaming 80%

Aircraft carrier

Desktop 80%

Aircraft carrier

Workstation 77%

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: 494^th / 1456

Gaming 66%

Battle cruiser

Desktop 72%

Battleship

Workstation 49%

Yacht


Effective Speed Effective CPU Speed		80.5 %	Faster effective speed. +22%		65.9 %


Memory Avg. Memory Latency	87 Pts	+5%	83.1 Pts
1-Core Avg. Single Core Speed	100 Pts	Faster single-core speed. +13%	88.4 Pts
2-Core Avg. Dual Core Speed	201 Pts	Faster dual-core speed. +16%	174 Pts
4-Core Avg. Quad Core Speed	398 Pts	Much faster quad-core speed. +42%	281 Pts
8-Core Avg. Octa Core Speed	718 Pts	Hugely faster octa-core speed. +139%	300 Pts


Memory OC Memory Latency	95.3 Pts	+0%	94.9 Pts
1-Core OC Single Core Speed	128 Pts	Faster OC single-core speed. +12%	114 Pts
2-Core OC Dual Core Speed	254 Pts	Faster OC dual-core speed. +12%	227 Pts
4-Core OC Quad Core Speed	502 Pts	Much faster OC quad-core speed. +32%	380 Pts
8-Core OC Octa Core Speed	920 Pts	Hugely faster OC octa-core speed. +131%	399 Pts

Market Share

Based on 68,106,242 CPUs tested

See market share leaders


Market Share Market Share (trailing 30 days)	0.05 %		0.09 %	Hugely higher market share. +80%
Value Value For Money	72.8 %	Slightly better value. +7%	68.2 %
User Rating UBM User Rating	56 %		76 %	Much more popular. +36%
Price Price (score)	$400		$246	Much cheaper. +38%


Age Newest	118 Months	More recent. +27%	161 Months
TDP Thermal Design Power (TDP)	140 Watts		95 Watts	Much more energy efficient. +32%
Cores CPU Processing Cores	8 cores	Hugely higher core count. +100%	4 cores
Threads CPU Processing Threads	16 threads	Hugely higher thread count. +300%	4 threads
Lithography Manufacturing process	22 nm	Much newer manufacturing. +31%	32 nm
Base Clock Base Clock Speed	3 GHz		3.3 GHz	Slightly faster base frequency. +10%
Turbo Clock Turbo Clock Speed	3.5 GHz		3.7 GHz	Slightly faster turbo frequency. +6%
64-Core OC Multi Core Speed	1353 Pts	Hugely faster OC 64-core speed. +232%	407 Pts
64-Core Avg. Multi Core Speed	1075 Pts	Hugely faster 64-core speed. +254%	304 Pts


Series CPU Architecture	Haswell-E	Sandy Bridge
Socket Motherboard Socket	LGA2011-V3	LGA1155
Graphics Integrated Graphics	None	HD 3000
Launch Date Launch Date	Q3'14	Q1'11
Cache Cache	20 MB SmartCache	6 MB SmartCache
Instruction Set Extensions Instruction Set Extensions	SSE4.2, AVX 2.0, AES	SSE4.1/4.2, AVX
Lithography Lithography	22 nm	32 nm
Recommended Price Recommended Customer Price	$999.00 - $1059.00	N/A
Max Turbo Frequency Max Turbo Frequency	3.5 GHz	3.7 GHz
Bus Speed Bus Speed	0 GT/s	5 GT/s DMI
Max Memory Size Max Memory Size (dependent on memory type)	64 GB	32 GB
Memory Types Memory Types	DDR4 1333/1600/2133	DDR3 1066/1333
Memory Channels Max # of Memory Channels	4	2
Memory Bandwidth Max Memory Bandwidth	68 GB/s	21 GB/s
Processor Graphics Processor Graphics ‡	None	Intel® HD Graphics 3000
Package Size Package Size	52.5mm x 45.0mm	37.5mm x 37.5mm
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	40	16
	More specs »	More specs »

The Intel 5960X sports eight cores and sixteen threads. That's two more cores than we have ever seen on a consumer processor before and as such this $1,000 processor offers record breaking multi-threaded CPU horsepower. Unfortunately the 5960X is clocked at just 3 GHz base and 3.5 GHz turbo which, for single and dual-core workloads, renders it around 15% slower than a $69 G3258 on stock clocks! The 5960X is only compatible with Intel's new X99 chipset which requires new DDR4 RAM and is currently far more expensive, with little consumer benefit, than DDR3. All in all the i7-5960X processor is largely irrelevant for consumers as it's far far too expensive. ^{[Sep '14 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 $163	Nvidia RTX 4060 $290	WD Black SN850X M.2 2TB $160
Intel Core i5-13600K $249	Nvidia RTX 4060-Ti $385	WD Black SN850X M.2 1TB $79
Intel Core i5-12400F $110	Nvidia RTX 4070 $520	Crucial T700 M.2 4TB $383

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