Intel Core i5-2500k vs AMD Athlon II X4 860K

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CPU comparison with benchmarks


Intel Core i5-2500k CPU1 vs CPU2 AMD Athlon II X4 860K
Intel Core i5-2500k AMD Athlon II X4 860K

CPU comparison

Intel Core i5-2500k or AMD Athlon II X4 860K - which processor is faster? In this comparison we look at the differences and analyze which of these two CPUs is better. We compare the technical data and benchmark results.

The Intel Core i5-2500k has 4 cores with 4 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 3.70 GHz. Up to 32 GB of memory is supported in 2 memory channels. The Intel Core i5-2500k was released in Q1/2011.

The AMD Athlon II X4 860K has 4 cores with 4 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 4.00 GHz. The CPU supports up to 32 GB of memory in 2 memory channels. The AMD Athlon II X4 860K was released in Q4/2014.
Intel Core i5 Family AMD Athlon II
Intel Core i 2000 CPU group AMD Athlon II X4 (Kaveri)
2 Generation 5
Sandy Bridge S Architecture Kaveri
Desktop / Server Segment Desktop / Server
-- Predecessor --
-- Successor --

CPU Cores and Base Frequency

The Intel Core i5-2500k has 4 CPU cores and can calculate 4 threads in parallel. The clock frequency of the Intel Core i5-2500k is 3.30 GHz (3.70 GHz) while the AMD Athlon II X4 860K has 4 CPU cores and 4 threads can calculate simultaneously. The clock frequency of the AMD Athlon II X4 860K is at --.

4 Cores 4
4 Threads 4
normal Core architecture normal
No Hyperthreading No
Yes Overclocking ? Yes
3.30 GHz Frequency 3.70 GHz
3.70 GHz Turbo Frequency (1 Core) 4.00 GHz
3.70 GHz Turbo Frequency (All Cores) 4.00 GHz

Internal Graphics

The Intel Core i5-2500k or AMD Athlon II X4 860K has integrated graphics, called iGPU for short. The iGPU uses the system's main memory as graphics memory and sits on the processor's die.

Intel HD Graphics 3000 GPU no iGPU
0.85 GHz GPU frequency
1.10 GHz GPU (Turbo)
6 GPU Generation
32 nm Technology
2 Max. displays
12 Execution units
96 Shader
2 GB Max. GPU Memory
10.1 DirectX Version

Hardware codec support

A photo or video codec that is accelerated in hardware can greatly accelerate the working speed of a processor and extend the battery life of notebooks or smartphones when playing videos.

No Codec h265 / HEVC (8 bit) No
No Codec h265 / HEVC (10 bit) No
Decode / Encode Codec h264 No
No Codec VP9 No
No Codec VP8 No
No Codec AV1 No
Decode / Encode Codec AVC No
Decode Codec VC-1 No
No Codec JPEG No

Memory & PCIe

The Intel Core i5-2500k can use up to 32 GB of memory in 2 memory channels. The maximum memory bandwidth is 21.3 GB/s. The AMD Athlon II X4 860K supports up to 32 GB of memory in 2 memory channels and achieves a memory bandwidth of up to 34.1 GB/s.

DDR3-1333 Memory DDR3-2133
32 GB Max. Memory 32 GB
2 (Dual Channel) Memory channels 2 (Dual Channel)
21.3 GB/s Bandwidth 34.1 GB/s
No ECC Yes
L2 Cache 4.00 MB
6.00 MB L3 Cache
2.0 PCIe version 3.0
16 PCIe lanes 16

Thermal Management

The thermal design power (TDP for short) of the Intel Core i5-2500k is 95 W, while the AMD Athlon II X4 860K has a TDP of 95 W. The TDP specifies the necessary cooling solution that is required to cool the processor sufficiently.

95 W TDP (PL1 / PBP) 95 W
-- TDP (PL2) --
-- TDP up --
-- TDP down --
-- Tjunction max. --

Technical details

The Intel Core i5-2500k is manufactured in 32 nm and has 6.00 MB cache. The AMD Athlon II X4 860K is manufactured in 32 nm and has a 6.00 MB cache.

32 nm Technology 32 nm
Monolithic Chip design Unknown
x86-64 (64 bit) Instruction set (ISA) x86-64 (64 bit)
SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AVX ISA extensions MMX, 3DNow!, SSE3, SSE4a
LGA 1155 Socket FM2+
VT-x, VT-x EPT Virtualization AMD-V
Yes AES-NI No
Windows 10, Linux Operating systems Windows 10, Linux
Q1/2011 Release date Q4/2014
-- Release price 70 $
show more data show more data



Cinebench R23 (Single-Core)

Cinebench R23 is the successor of Cinebench R20 and is also based on the Cinema 4 Suite. Cinema 4 is a worldwide used software to create 3D forms. The single-core test only uses one CPU core, the amount of cores or hyperthreading ability doesn't count.

Intel Core i5-2500k Intel Core i5-2500k
4C 4T @ 3.70 GHz
697 (100%)
AMD Athlon II X4 860K AMD Athlon II X4 860K
4C 4T @ 4.00 GHz
517 (74%)
Show all Cinebench R23 (Single-Core) results



Cinebench R23 (Multi-Core)

Cinebench R23 is the successor of Cinebench R20 and is also based on the Cinema 4 Suite. Cinema 4 is a worldwide used software to create 3D forms. The multi-core test involves all CPU cores and taks a big advantage of hyperthreading.

Intel Core i5-2500k Intel Core i5-2500k
4C 4T @ 3.70 GHz
2450 (100%)
AMD Athlon II X4 860K AMD Athlon II X4 860K
4C 4T @ 4.00 GHz
1677 (68%)
Show all Cinebench R23 (Multi-Core) results



Cinebench R20 (Single-Core)

Cinebench R20 is the successor of Cinebench R15 and is also based on the Cinema 4 Suite. Cinema 4 is a worldwide used software to create 3D forms. The single-core test only uses one CPU core, the amount of cores or hyperthreading ability doesn't count.

Intel Core i5-2500k Intel Core i5-2500k
4C 4T @ 3.70 GHz
262 (100%)
AMD Athlon II X4 860K AMD Athlon II X4 860K
4C 4T @ 4.00 GHz
0 (0%)
Show all Cinebench R20 (Single-Core) results



Cinebench R20 (Multi-Core)

Cinebench R20 is the successor of Cinebench R15 and is also based on the Cinema 4 Suite. Cinema 4 is a worldwide used software to create 3D forms. The multi-core test involves all CPU cores and taks a big advantage of hyperthreading.

Intel Core i5-2500k Intel Core i5-2500k
4C 4T @ 3.70 GHz
894 (100%)
AMD Athlon II X4 860K AMD Athlon II X4 860K
4C 4T @ 4.00 GHz
670 (75%)
Show all Cinebench R20 (Multi-Core) results



Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)

Geekbench 6 is a benchmark for modern computers, notebooks and smartphones. What is new is an optimized utilization of newer CPU architectures, e.g. based on the big.LITTLE concept and combining CPU cores of different sizes. The single-core benchmark only evaluates the performance of the fastest CPU core, the number of CPU cores in a processor is irrelevant here.

Intel Core i5-2500k Intel Core i5-2500k
4C 4T @ 3.70 GHz
651 (100%)
AMD Athlon II X4 860K AMD Athlon II X4 860K
4C 4T @ 4.00 GHz
0 (0%)
Show all Geekbench 6 (Single-Core) results



Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)

Geekbench 6 is a benchmark for modern computers, notebooks and smartphones. What is new is an optimized utilization of newer CPU architectures, e.g. based on the big.LITTLE concept and combining CPU cores of different sizes. The multi-core benchmark evaluates the performance of all of the processor's CPU cores. Virtual thread improvements such as AMD SMT or Intel's Hyper-Threading have a positive impact on the benchmark result.

Intel Core i5-2500k Intel Core i5-2500k
4C 4T @ 3.70 GHz
1948 (100%)
AMD Athlon II X4 860K AMD Athlon II X4 860K
4C 4T @ 4.00 GHz
0 (0%)
Show all Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core) results



Geekbench 5, 64bit (Single-Core)

Geekbench 5 is a cross plattform benchmark that heavily uses the systems memory. A fast memory will push the result a lot. The single-core test only uses one CPU core, the amount of cores or hyperthreading ability doesn't count.

Intel Core i5-2500k Intel Core i5-2500k
4C 4T @ 3.70 GHz
760 (100%)
AMD Athlon II X4 860K AMD Athlon II X4 860K
4C 4T @ 4.00 GHz
539 (71%)
Show all Geekbench 5, 64bit (Single-Core) results



Geekbench 5, 64bit (Multi-Core)

Geekbench 5 is a cross plattform benchmark that heavily uses the systems memory. A fast memory will push the result a lot. The multi-core test involves all CPU cores and taks a big advantage of hyperthreading.

Intel Core i5-2500k Intel Core i5-2500k
4C 4T @ 3.70 GHz
2537 (100%)
AMD Athlon II X4 860K AMD Athlon II X4 860K
4C 4T @ 4.00 GHz
1586 (63%)
Show all Geekbench 5, 64bit (Multi-Core) results



iGPU - FP32 Performance (Single-precision GFLOPS)

The theoretical computing performance of the internal graphics unit of the processor with simple accuracy (32 bit) in GFLOPS. GFLOPS indicates how many billion floating point operations the iGPU can perform per second.

Intel Core i5-2500k Intel Core i5-2500k
Intel HD Graphics 3000 @ 1.10 GHz
211 (100%)
AMD Athlon II X4 860K AMD Athlon II X4 860K
@ 0.00 GHz
0 (0%)
Show all iGPU - FP32 Performance (Single-precision GFLOPS) results



Estimated results for PassMark CPU Mark

Some of the CPUs listed below have been benchmarked by CPU-monkey. However the majority of CPUs have not been tested and the results have been estimated by a CPU-monkey’s secret proprietary formula. As such they do not accurately reflect the actual Passmark CPU mark values and are not endorsed by PassMark Software Pty Ltd.

Intel Core i5-2500k Intel Core i5-2500k
4C 4T @ 3.70 GHz
4155 (100%)
AMD Athlon II X4 860K AMD Athlon II X4 860K
4C 4T @ 4.00 GHz
3410 (82%)
Show all Estimated results for PassMark CPU Mark results



Blender 2.81 (bmw27)

Blender is a free 3D graphics software for rendering (creating) 3D bodies, which can also be textured and animated in the software. The Blender benchmark creates predefined scenes and measures the time (s) required for the entire scene. The shorter the time required, the better. We selected bmw27 as the benchmark scene.

Intel Core i5-2500k Intel Core i5-2500k
4C 4T @ 3.70 GHz
778.7 (100%)
AMD Athlon II X4 860K AMD Athlon II X4 860K
4C 4T @ 4.00 GHz
0 (0%)
Show all Blender 2.81 (bmw27) results



CPU-Z Benchmark 17 (Single-Core)

The CPU-Z benchmark measures a processor's performance by measuring the time it takes the system to complete all benchmark calculations. The faster the benchmark is completed, the higher the score.

Intel Core i5-2500k Intel Core i5-2500k
4C 4T @ 3.70 GHz
372 (100%)
AMD Athlon II X4 860K AMD Athlon II X4 860K
4C 4T @ 4.00 GHz
0 (0%)
Show all CPU-Z Benchmark 17 (Single-Core) results



CPU-Z Benchmark 17 (Multi-Core)

The CPU-Z benchmark measures a processor's performance by measuring the time it takes the system to complete all benchmark calculations. The faster the benchmark is completed, the higher the score.

Intel Core i5-2500k Intel Core i5-2500k
4C 4T @ 3.30 GHz
1336 (100%)
AMD Athlon II X4 860K AMD Athlon II X4 860K
4C 4T @ 3.70 GHz
747 (56%)
Show all CPU-Z Benchmark 17 (Multi-Core) results



Cinebench R15 (Single-Core)

Cinebench R15 is the successor of Cinebench 11.5 and is also based on the Cinema 4 Suite. Cinema 4 is a worldwide used software to create 3D forms. The single-core test only uses one CPU core, the amount of cores or hyperthreading ability doesn't count.

Intel Core i5-2500k Intel Core i5-2500k
4C 4T @ 3.70 GHz
127 (100%)
AMD Athlon II X4 860K AMD Athlon II X4 860K
4C 4T @ 4.00 GHz
94 (74%)
Show all Cinebench R15 (Single-Core) results



Cinebench R15 (Multi-Core)

Cinebench R15 is the successor of Cinebench 11.5 and is also based on the Cinema 4 Suite. Cinema 4 is a worldwide used software to create 3D forms. The multi-core test involves all CPU cores and taks a big advantage of hyperthreading.

Intel Core i5-2500k Intel Core i5-2500k
4C 4T @ 3.70 GHz
461 (100%)
AMD Athlon II X4 860K AMD Athlon II X4 860K
4C 4T @ 4.00 GHz
295 (64%)
Show all Cinebench R15 (Multi-Core) results



Geekbench 3, 64bit (Single-Core)

Geekbench 3 is a cross plattform benchmark that heavily uses the systems memory. A fast memory will push the result a lot. The single-core test only uses one CPU core, the amount of cores or hyperthreading ability doesn't count.

Intel Core i5-2500k Intel Core i5-2500k
4C 4T @ 3.70 GHz
3158 (100%)
AMD Athlon II X4 860K AMD Athlon II X4 860K
4C 4T @ 4.00 GHz
2500 (79%)
Show all Geekbench 3, 64bit (Single-Core) results



Geekbench 3, 64bit (Multi-Core)

Geekbench 3 is a cross plattform benchmark that heavily uses the systems memory. A fast memory will push the result a lot. The multi-core test involves all CPU cores and taks a big advantage of hyperthreading.

Intel Core i5-2500k Intel Core i5-2500k
4C 4T @ 3.70 GHz
9970 (100%)
AMD Athlon II X4 860K AMD Athlon II X4 860K
4C 4T @ 4.00 GHz
8155 (82%)
Show all Geekbench 3, 64bit (Multi-Core) results



Cinebench R11.5, 64bit (Single-Core)

Cinebench 11.5 is based on the Cinema 4D Suite, a software that is popular to generate forms and other stuff in 3D. The single-core test only uses one CPU core, the amount of cores or hyperthreading ability doesn't count.

Intel Core i5-2500k Intel Core i5-2500k
4C 4T @ 3.70 GHz
1.54 (100%)
AMD Athlon II X4 860K AMD Athlon II X4 860K
4C 4T @ 4.00 GHz
1.03 (67%)
Show all Cinebench R11.5, 64bit (Single-Core) results



Cinebench R11.5, 64bit (Multi-Core)

Cinebench 11.5 is based on the Cinema 4D Suite, a software that is popular to generate forms and other stuff in 3D. The multi-core test involves all CPU cores and taks a big advantage of hyperthreading.

Intel Core i5-2500k Intel Core i5-2500k
4C 4T @ 3.70 GHz
5.42 (100%)
AMD Athlon II X4 860K AMD Athlon II X4 860K
4C 4T @ 4.00 GHz
3.97 (73%)
Show all Cinebench R11.5, 64bit (Multi-Core) results



Cinebench R11.5, 64bit (iGPU, OpenGL)

Cinebench 11.5 is based on the Cinema 4D Suite, a software that is popular to generate forms and other stuff in 3D. The iGPU test uses the CPU internal graphic unit to execute OpenGL commands.

Intel Core i5-2500k Intel Core i5-2500k
Intel HD Graphics 3000 @ 1.10 GHz
22.4 (100%)
AMD Athlon II X4 860K AMD Athlon II X4 860K
@ 0.00 GHz
0 (0%)
Show all Cinebench R11.5, 64bit (iGPU, OpenGL) results



Devices using this processor

Intel Core i5-2500k AMD Athlon II X4 860K
Unknown Unknown

Leaderboards

In our leaderboards, we have clearly compiled the best processors for specific categories for you. The leaderboards are always up to date and are regularly updated by us. The best processors are selected according to popularity and speed in benchmarks as well as the price-performance ratio.


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