Intel Core i5-2500k Benchmarks

I got a new desktop, and it happened to have the Intel Core i5-2500k as the processor.  While it is the previous generation "Sandy Bridge" architecture, as opposed to the latest "Ivy Bridge," it still impressed.  This particular chip is certainly a favorite among budget conscious enthusiasts, and I quickly saw why.  This chip has been tested ad nauseum in the past, but I want to add the freely available benchmarks I use, and the comparisons to the older chips that few sites seem to test against these days.

For reference, the Core i5-2500k is a 4 core chip, with a clock speed of 3.4 GHz, that can Turbo Boost to 3.7 GHz.  It does not have Hyperthreading.  It has a healthy 6 megs of cache.

It certainly shines on the HyperPi 1 million calculation, that measures single core performance.  We can see the nice linear progression, and cut nearly a third of the time off my Phenom 2 time.  This is not surprising given the architecture changes, and that it also ties for the fastest clock speed on the chart.

The Core i5 most impressed on the multicore benchmarks.  Looking at Fritz Chess, and 7Zip, the numbers that it put up were even faster than I would have guessed, and show the 4 cores working together quite well.   On these benchmarks, we can seriously see how the dual core chips from a few years back get left in the dust.

In short, the Core i5-2500k is the fastest processor I have personally benchmarked to date.  It performs quite well across both the single and multi threaded benchmarks.  While I will still be keeping my AMD Phenom 2 quad core, if my fastest chip was a Core 2 Duo, or older/slower, I would give serious consideration for a main machine to upgrade to the Sandy Bridge part.  It is currently available for $219 on NewEgg.  While I have traditionally been an AMD fan, the benchmarks above make it increasingly difficult to remain loyal.