| Intel Core i5 3570K vs 2500K |
PC enthusiasts love the i5 series because it's a mainstream Quad Core that's fast and reliable. They especially favor the K series, because its unlocked multiplier can be overclocked for even better performance. But compared to the Sandy Bridge CPU, is the newer Ivy Bridge a compelling upgrade? For this matchup, we're comparing the Intel Core i5 3570K versus the Intel Core i5 2500K to find out.
The 3570K is newer by 15 months, and is based on Ivy Bridge's more efficient 22nm manufacturing process. It's a 3.4 GHz Quad Core with 4 threads and 6MB cache. Aside from being overclockable, it can also turbo boost up to 3.8 GHz which kicks in when demanding applications require extra processing power. This chip consumes only 77W TDP of power.
In contrast is the 2500K, clocked at 3.3 GHz with 4 threads and 6MB cache. It's also overclockable and it turbo boosts up to 3.7 GHz. Part of the Sandy Bridge architecture, it has a less efficient 32nm manufacturing process which outputs a more wasteful power consumption of 95W TDP.
Benchmarks show that the 3570K is dominant and consistently leads by 8-11% in the PassMark, Single Core and Cinebench tests. However, overclocking seems to favor the 2500K: it can reach 5.13 GHz on water cooling compared to only 4.83 GHz on the 3570K. But this overclock only resulted to a 2% lead in our test results.
Considering that both chips are priced similarly, there's no reason not to upgrade to the newer and more powerful Intel Core i5 3570K. But if overclocking's your thing, you'll reach higher speeds with the Intel Core i5 2500K.
Cast your vote Do you agree or disagree with CPUBoss?
Differences What are the advantages of each
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CPUBoss is not aware of any important advantages of the 3570K vs the 2500K. | |||||||
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CPUBoss is not aware of any important advantages of the 2500K vs the 3570K. | |||||||
Benchmarks Real world tests of Core i5 3570K vs 2500K
PCMark 8 Home 3.0 Accelerated Data courtesy FutureMark
GeekBench 3 (Multi-core) Data courtesy Primate Labs
GeekBench 3 (Single core) Data courtesy Primate Labs
GeekBench 3 (AES single core) Data courtesy Primate Labs
GeekBench (32-bit) Data courtesy Primate Labs
GeekBench (64-bit) Data courtesy Primate Labs
PassMark Data courtesy Passmark
PassMark (Single Core)
Reviews Word on the street
Core i5 3570K | vs | 2500K | ||
![]() | 8.0 | 9.0 | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | 9.0 | 9.8 | ||
Overall | 8.9 Out of 10 | 9.4 Out of 10 | ||
Specifications Full list of technical specs
summary | Core i5 3570K | vs | 2500K |
---|---|---|---|
Clock speed | 3.4 GHz | 3.3 GHz | |
Turbo clock speed | 3.8 GHz | 3.7 GHz | |
Cores | Quad core | Quad core | |
Socket type | |||
LGA 1155 | |||
Is unlocked | Yes | Yes | |
features | |||
Has a NX bit | Yes | Yes | |
Supports trusted computing | No | No | |
Has virtualization support | Yes | Yes | |
Instruction set extensions | |||
SSE2 | |||
MMX | |||
SSE4 | |||
AVX | |||
SSE3 | |||
EM64T | |||
SSE | |||
SSE4.1 | |||
SSE4.2 | |||
Supplemental SSE3 | |||
AES | |||
Supports dynamic frequency scaling | Yes | Yes | |
integrated graphics | |||
GPU | GPU | GPU | |
Label | Intel® HD Graphics 4000 | Intel® HD Graphics 3000 | |
Latest DirectX | 10.x | 10.1 | |
Number of displays supported | 3 | 2 | |
GPU clock speed | 650 MHz | 850 MHz | |
Turbo clock speed | 1,150 MHz | 1,100 MHz | |
3DMark06 | 5,339.9 | 5,275 | |
memory controller | |||
Memory controller | Built-in | Built-in | |
Memory type | |||
DDR3-1600 | |||
DDR3-1333 | |||
DDR3-1066 | |||
DDR3 | |||
Channels | Dual Channel | Dual Channel | |
Supports ECC | No | No | |
Maximum bandwidth | 25,600 MB/s | 21,333.32 MB/s | |
Maximum memory size | 32,768 MB | 32,768 MB |
details | Core i5 3570K | vs | 2500K |
---|---|---|---|
Architecture | x86-64 | x86-64 | |
Threads | 4 | 4 | |
L2 cache | 1 MB | 1 MB | |
L2 cache per core | 0.25 MB/core | 0.25 MB/core | |
L3 cache | 6 MB | 6 MB | |
L3 cache per core | 1.5 MB/core | 1.5 MB/core | |
Manufacture process | 22 nm | 32 nm | |
Transistor count | 1,400,000,000 | 1,160,000,000 | |
Max CPUs | 1 | 1 | |
Clock multiplier | 34 | 33 | |
Operating temperature | Unknown - 67.4°C | 5 - 72.6°C | |
overclocking | |||
Overclock popularity | 470 | 3,179 | |
Overclock review score | 4 | 5 | |
Overclocked clock speed | 4.59 GHz | 4.98 GHz | |
Overclocked clock speed (Water) | 4.71 GHz | 4.88 GHz | |
PassMark (Overclocked) | 5,406.6 | 5,433.6 | |
Overclocked clock speed (Air) | 4.59 GHz | 4.98 GHz | |
power consumption | |||
TDP | 77W | 95W | |
Annual home energy cost | 38.81 $/year | 41.29 $/year | |
Annual commercial energy cost | 106 $/year | 110.03 $/year | |
Performance per watt | 4.69 pt/W | 6.79 pt/W | |
Idle power consumption | 67W | 73.4W | |
Peak power consumption | 121W | 125.6W | |
Typical power consumption | 107.5W | 112.55W | |
bus | |||
Architecture | DMI | DMI | |
Number of links | 1 | 1 | |
Transfer rate | 5,000 MT/s | 5,000 MT/s |
Intel Core i5 3570K ![]() | Intel Core i5 2500K ![]() |
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