2500K Or 2600K for gaming ?

Infinity · **Memory**: Corsair 8G 1866 9-10-9-28

Hi

My video card is GTX 580

Which is better for gaming system ?

tanks

CPC_RedDawn · 07-29-2011, 16:00 | posts: 4,444 | Location: Wolverhampton/United Kingdom

Either to be honest, they both overclock like crazy and with great ease from what Ive seen and heard.

If your a little strapped for cash then always go with the cheaper option, in this case the 2500K. But if not then go with the 2600K.

Infinity · **Memory**: Corsair 8G 1866 9-10-9-28

What is the value of purchases in 2600K than in 2500K ?

What is the difference in performance?(1~3FPS ?)

mmicrosysm · 07-29-2011, 16:16 | posts: 580 | Location: Box

If you are only gaming and only doing other minimal PC task go with the i7 2500K and focus the money you save (usually $100) towards a better GFX card.

As other stated both overclock well.

Xtreme1979 · 07-29-2011, 18:39 | posts: 1,227 | Location: Bay City, MI

I cant answer this poll cause I would be biased. If you have the money 2600K. If you don't 2500K. For budget gamers best video card you can afford and a 2500K. Those who have the dough best video card and best CPU i.e. 2600K.

Rebel975 · 07-29-2011, 19:21 | posts: 1,135 | Location: Oregon

Which is better? The 2600k, obviously. Is it worth the extra $100 for gaming? Not really.

2500K + $100 SSD will make you a lot happier.

Infinity · **Memory**: Corsair 8G 1866 9-10-9-28

ty all

The main job of my system is game !

I can overclock 2500K to 4.60~4.80GGHz ... this performance is enough for gaming and more ...

I thing 2500K is the best choice for Gaming system if i want to save money !
and 2500K p/p is more than 2600K ...

tanks .

Mufflore · 07-29-2011, 19:58 | posts: 9,543 | Location: UK

2500K unless you have plenty of cash.
If you got the cash though, wait for LGA 2011.

nsol · 07-29-2011, 20:46 | posts: 34 | Location: London

I got the i5 2500k and it works fine. I would spend the extra cash on a really good graphics card. I recommend the 560Ti twin Frozr. Really good card.

Rebel975 · 07-30-2011, 06:39 | posts: 1,135 | Location: Oregon

^He's already got a GTX580.

That $100 might as well go to a SSD, if he doesn't have one.

IcE · 07-30-2011, 09:15 | posts: 7,005 | Location: Toledo, Ohio

The 2500 is a better value for a gamer. Hyperthreading isn't useful for gaming application, and considering how blazing fast it is you're not going to notice the 2 megs less of L3.

Infinity · **Memory**: Corsair 8G 1866 9-10-9-28

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rebel975

^He's already got a GTX580.

That $100 might as well go to a SSD, if he doesn't have one.

I haven't SSD but i don't want to buy it i want to save money

I Don't want to spend vain money for nothing

What is the difference in performance between 2500K and 2600K ? ( Example : in money --> 100$ But in the performance What percentage? )

killer_939 · 07-30-2011, 13:18 | posts: 2,564 | Location: Australia

Quote:

Originally Posted by Infinity

I haven't SSD but i don't want to buy it i want to save money

I Don't want to spend vain money for nothing

What is the difference in performance between 2500K and 2600K ? ( Example : in money --> 100$ But in the performance What percentage? )

0-3% in games and 0-25% in ideal situation like video editing, rendering or something heavily multithreaded.

Infinity · **Memory**: Corsair 8G 1866 9-10-9-28

Quote:

Originally Posted by killer_939

0-3% in games and 0-25% in ideal situation like video editing, rendering or something heavily multithreaded.

So 0~3% Not significant improvement And not worth spending for gaming use ...

Gaming : 2500K

Other jobs : 2600K

tanks

shimyns · 07-30-2011, 22:50 | posts: 1,600 | Location: Boston

This is silly. Unless you sli or cfx monster cards an Oced 2500k would never possibly bottleneck so there is absolutely no advantage in gaming with a 2600k. Sheesh...

Elysianarcane · 07-30-2011, 23:33 | posts: 298

no game can use morethen 8 threads...

so 2500k... those 2xtra 4 threads of the 2600k will do jack ****... simple as this..

shimyns · 07-30-2011, 23:48 | posts: 1,600 | Location: Boston

I haven't seen a game use more than 4 threads simultaneously...

Sever · 07-31-2011, 01:59 | posts: 4,826 | Location: Land of the Great Downunder

Quote:

Originally Posted by killer_939

0-3% in games and 0-25% in ideal situation like video editing, rendering or something heavily multithreaded.

ive got a 2600k, and i can kinda agree with you.

with HT on, the gaming benefits are negligible since most games still dont use more than 4 cores. plus, my 2600k seems to disable some of the HT cores when it detects a gaming situation (i see 4 cores with 0 load and 4 with moderate to full load).

in video editing and rendering, there are some benefits. but even then, theyre minimal at best. handbrake can fully support all 8 HT cores, but even with that encoding a 2 hour long movie, there arent a lot of improvements over having HT disabled. a 2500k overclocked to the mid 4ghz range wouldnt have any problems keeping up here encoding wise.

so i'd say go for the 2500k.

deltatux · *Last edited by deltatux; 07-31-2011 at 05:52.*

Unless you have more money than sense, you are much better off with the 2500K than the 2600K. Most gamers don't need 2600K, it's more of an epeen/pride thing for most people to get the 2600K because it's the best available out there, but for the money spent, the returns are too small to justify it for most people.

The only time you need the 2600K is if you're using professional apps like CAD and professional media editing, then yes, the 2600K is beneficial, else it's just a shiny $100 more expensive barely any more useful CPU.

Lastly, Intel's "HyperThreading" (x86 implementation of SMT) is overhyped and doesn't perform as well as SMT on contemporary RISC architectures like POWER and SPARC, so once again, the "feature" doesn't do too much, it only helps in certain situations and completely useless in others to justify for the price increase.

deltatux

Infinity · **Memory**: Corsair 8G 1866 9-10-9-28

Thank you all friends

Brandon_34 · 07-31-2011, 06:24 | posts: 320 | Location: Basement

Quote:

Originally Posted by shimyns

I haven't seen a game use more than 4 threads simultaneously...

disable cpu core parking in windows 7 then you will

deltatux · 07-31-2011, 07:13 | posts: 18,785 | Location: Toronto, Canada

Quote:

Originally Posted by shimyns

I haven't seen a game use more than 4 threads simultaneously...

BFBC2 uses all 4 cores, though not very efficiently.

deltatux

ElementalDragon · 07-31-2011, 07:23 | posts: 8,249 | Location: Pennsylvania, USA

Yea.... 2500K vs. 2600K isn't really any different than the slightly older debate between Core 2 Quad and Core 2 Extreme. 9 times out of 10, the Extreme was just for people who couldn't think of anything else to blow their money on.

I was debating the same thing when i upgraded when the new chips came out... then i remembered that fact. It's not ALWAYS worth it to get the most expensive piece of hardware on the market.

delta: no offense... but i think his key words were "More than". There are some games that make decent use of 4 cores. an additional 4 is a different story.

shimyns · 07-31-2011, 08:47 | posts: 1,600 | Location: Boston

Quote:

Originally Posted by deltatux

BFBC2 uses all 4 cores, though not very efficiently.

deltatux

Dude, I said I haven't seen a game use more than 4 threads. When you say BFBC2 uses all 4 cores, do you mean 8 threads?

@Brandon_34, I'm not sure what core parking is but I'll check it out (out of curiosity). 4/8 threads is quite enough for any game anyway so I won't be disabling it.

Oh, and I just wanted to say that the wording of this pol is not at all good. The question is phrased as which one is better for gaming but there is no option that allows us to vote that, as far as games are concerned, both the 2500k and 2600k are virtually the same (which is what everyone here is saying). So most people end up voting for 2500k although of course it's not better for gaming; it just doesn't matter in gaming...

BLEH! · **Memory**: 24GB @ 1600 @ 9-10-9-27

Take into account what else you do too.

If video editing and transcoding is in there, get a 2600.