CPU/Mobo The Sandy Bridge I7 2600K vs I5 2500K discussion thread

Lord Nemesis

Overlord
Keymaster
I know that this would be a point of discussion for many ( like for myself ) and would be raised again and again, so we might as well have single thread for it.

My own thoughts on it

So what does I7 2600k has over I5 2500k?

The primary differences b/w these cpu is hyper threading, 100MHz higher clock and 2 mb more cache in I7 2600k and it demands a 5.5k premium for the same.

Several reviews have already shown that there is no difference for gaming. At the same time these reviews also show a considerable diff in synthetic tests that cannot be explained by just the clock diff.

Its clear that for gaming alone there is absolutely no reason to go for the I7.

But what about people like me who also do heavy multi tasking, run heavy multi threaded apps as well as use virtalization via vmware, virtualbox.

I have personally never seen hyperthreading being anything more than a gimmick. No matter how people mention that an app is optimized it, I have never seen HT give a boost, at least not more than 3~5%.

Relation between cache quantity and performace is subjective. The is no guarentee that less cache means lower performance or vice versa. There were many instance since the celeron 333 Times where a cpu with lower cache performed better than its bigger brother. Personally I think that each cpu has a certain optimal cache quantity with which it works best, lower or higher would both result in less than ideal performance. So cache quantity does not make for a good deciding factor.

As for the higher clock, the only implication it might have is that the cpu may possibly have more oc potential.

So in the end who does the I7 2600k cater to? Is there any point why someone should go for it?

May be for possibly a higher oc potential, benching and bragging rights.

So do you guy's think? Post your own views.
 
5% difference in a professional situation may be equal to more than the price difference between platforms.

For home use, anything above 60fps in gaming is wasted by your display dropping frames.

For every other application, I doubt you'll even notice the differences between these (or most) CPUs once you cross the basic performance thresholds.
 
From all the reviews i have read so far, i think the 2500k is undoubtedly the best choice. Personally i am only going to be gaming and maybe a bit of encoding,etc so for me the choice is clear cut. For 5.5k more the 2600k is just not worth it.

The cache isnt going to make much difference IMO. Even with the i5-750 the cache was disabled but performance was not too far off. And since most people will disable the graphics, there will be no sharing of the cache by the graphics. I think both should overclock to roughly the same levels, im thinking around 4.8 ghz would be a nice stable overclock?
 
ty lord nemesis for starting this thread ... I went thru reviews again ... and yes .. I have changed my mind and buying 2500K instead of 2600k ... its just not worth the extra 6k .... :/ ....
 
I have personally never seen hyperthreading being anything more than a gimmick. No matter how people mention that an app is optimized it, I have never seen HT give a boost, at least not more than 3~5%.

HT today, ain't what it used to be. There's quite a big difference between a HyperThreaded Dual Core and a HyperThreaded Quad Core. Any game that uses more than two threads is going to use hyper-threading on an Core i3. Most games simply aren't designed to take advantage of more than four threads.

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Feature Test: Hyper-Threading (HT) - i7-2600K HT Off vs i7-2600K HT On

I agree there is not very big difference in Hyper-Threading technology efficiency between two generations of Intel products. We did'nt notice the benefits of HT on Pentium 4 because basic performance was far too off. Most software or games can support multi-threaded very well now.

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Pentium XE VS Core i3 Hyper-Threading review

Its clear that for gaming alone there is absolutely no reason to go for the I7.

For gaming alone not worth the 1/3 price difference.

Is there any point why someone should go for it?

Probably not, unless you want the very best 1155 processor there is.
 
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