Core i7-2600K and Core i5-2500K Radeon HD 7970 Gaming-Performance-Difference
Category : 2012
Published by Marc Büchel on 22.02.12
In this article we're going to check gaming performance of Intels LGA 1155 Sandy Bridge CPUs when they're being supported by a Radeon HD 7970 graphics card from XFX. We're curious if there will be a measurable performance gaps between these two CPUs regarding modern games or if the 100 MHz and the absence of hyperthreading on the Core i5-2500K don't even have an influence on gaming performance.
Specifications
| i7-2600K | i5-2500K | |
| Codename | Sandy Bridge | Sandy Bridge |
| Socket | LGA 1155 | LGA 1155 |
| Manufacturing | 32 nm | 32 nm |
| Transistors | 995 Million | 995 Million |
| Die-size | 265 mm2 | 265 mm2 |
| Clock | 3.40 GHz (Turbo 3.80 GHz) | 3.30 GHz (Turbo 3.70 GHz) |
| Cores / Threads | 4C / 8T | 4C / 4T |
| Turbo | Yes (2.0) | Yes (2.0) |
| Bus Speed | 100 MHz | 100 MHz |
| Memory | DDR3 | DDR3 |
| Memory controller | Dual Channel | Dual Channel |
| QPI | -- GT/s | -- GT/s |
| L1 Execution Cache | 32 KByte | 32 KByte |
| L1 Data Cache | 32 KByte | 32 KByte |
| L2 Cache | 256 KByte | 256 KByte |
| L3 Cache | 8 MB shared | 6 MB shared |
| TDP | 95 Watt | 95 Watt |
| C1E technology | Yes | Yes |
| Enhanced Intel Speed Step | Yes | Yes |
| Virtualisation | Vanderpool | Vanderpool |
| Instruction sets | MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3 SSE4.2, AVX, EM64T |
MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3 SSE4.2, AVX, EM64T |
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Test setup
| Motherboard | ASRock Z68 Extreme 7 |
| Processors | |
| Memory | Kingston HyperX H2O @ 1'600 MHz CL 9-9-9-24 |
| Grapics Cards | |
| Storage | Corsair Force 3 120 Gigabyte |
| Power Supply | Enermax Max Revo 1350 Watt |
Software
- Futuremark 3DMark 11
- Performance
- Performance
- 1920 x 1080
- Shaders High
- Tessellation Extreme
- Max AA
- Max AF
- 1920 x 1080
- Tessellation High
- 1920 x 1080
- Max Details
- Max AA
- DX10
- 1920 x 1080
- Max Details
- Max AA
- Max AF
- 1920 x 1080
- Max Details
- Max AA
- 1920 x 1080
- Max Details
- Max AA
- 1920 x 1080
- Max Details
- Max AA
- Max AF
- 1920 x 1080
- Max Details
- Max AA
- Max AF
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3DMark 11 - 3DMark Vantage
| 3DMark 11 Total | 3DMark 11 - Graphics | 3DMark 11 - Physics | |
| Core i7-2600K | 7'836 | 7'773 | 8'705 |
| Core i5-2500K | 7'459 | 6'683 | 6'644 |
| % difference | 5.05 % | 16.31 % | 31.02 % |
| 3DMark Vantage Total | 3DMark Vantage - Graphics | 3DMark Vantage - CPU | |
| Core i7-2600K | 28'368 | 30'589 | 23'293 |
| Core i5-2500K | 25'441 | 29'915 | 17'561 |
| % difference | 11.51 % | 2.25 % | 32.64 % |
Discuss this article in the forums. [pagebreak]
Unigine Heaven - Furmark - Stone Giant
| Unigine Heaven - Points | Unigine Heaven - fps | |
| Core i7-2600K | 1038 | 41.2 |
| Core i5-2500K | 1032 | 41.0 |
| % difference | 0.58 % | 0.49 % |
| Furmark - Points | Furmark - fps | |
| Core i7-2600K | 2'585 | 43 |
| Core i5-2500K | 2584 | 43 |
| % difference | 0.04 % | 0.00 % |
| Stone Giant - fps | |
| Core i7-2600K | 85 |
| Core i5-2500K | 85 |
| % difference | 0.00 % |
Discuss this article in the forums. [pagebreak]
Crysis - Resident Evil 5
| Crysis - fps | |
| Core i7-2600K | 50.665 |
| Core i5-2500K | 50.625 |
| % difference | 0.08 % |
| Resident Evil 5 - fps | |
| Core i7-2600K | 146.8 |
| Core i5-2500K | 138.1 |
| % difference | 6.30 % |
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Call of Juarez - Far Cry 2
| Call of Juarez - fps | |
| Core i7-2600K | 68.3 |
| Core i5-2500K | 68.3 |
| % difference | 0.00 % |
| Far Cry 2 - fps | |
| Core i7-2600K | 90.04 |
| Core i5-2500K | 89.11 |
| % difference | 1.04 % |
Discuss this article in the forums.
Street Fighter 4 - World in Conflict
| Street Fighter 4 - fps | |
| Core i7-2600K | 185.50 |
| Core i5-2500K | 182.22 |
| % difference | 1.80 % |
| World in Conflict - fps | |
| Core i7-2600K | 87 |
| Core i5-2500K | 87 |
| % difference | 0.00 % |
Discuss this article in the forums. [pagebreak]
Conclusion
In general it is particularly noticeable that on average there is almost no difference between the performance of these two CPUs. If there is a bottleneck in recent games, then it is the graphics card, even if it is a high end Radeon HD 7970. With these test series we see the biggest performance differences when running Futuremark benchmarks. We were quite surprised to see that in 3D Mark Vantage there is an almost twelve percent advantage for the Core i7-2600K concerning the overall score. Looking at the 3D Mark 11 number we still see a significant five percent advantage for the CPU that supports hyper threading. Therefore it seems like the CPU test has quite an influence on the overall result in Futuremark benchmarks.In real world games things look a bit different. Except in Resident Evil 5 there is no game that showed a significant benefit from one or the other CPU. Looking at World in Conflict (0.00 %), Street Fighter 4 (1.80 %), Far Cry 2 (1.04 %), Call of Juarez (0.00 %) as well as Crysis (0.08 %) we see that there is no noticeable performance gab between the Core i7-2600K and the Core i5-2500K.
Should you be thinking about building a gaming PC and you are asking yourself
if the Core i5-2500K or the Core i7-2600K is the better choice for you, then we
can say that you better save CHF 100.- (est. EUR 80.-) and go for the cheaper
CPU. If you want to spend these CHF 100.- (est. EUR 80.-) anyway, then you
should go for a better graphics card, which really gives you a measurable
performance boost.
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