Intel Core i5-4590 vs Intel Core i5-2500k

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CPU comparison with benchmarks


Intel Core i5-4590 CPU1 vs CPU2 Intel Core i5-2500k
Intel Core i5-4590 Intel Core i5-2500k

CPU comparison

In this CPU comparison, we compare the Intel Core i5-4590 and the Intel Core i5-2500k and use benchmarks to check which processor is faster.

We compare the Intel Core i5-4590 4 core processor released in Q3/2014 with the Intel Core i5-2500k which has 4 CPU cores and was introduced in Q1/2011.
Intel Core i5 (328) Family Intel Core i5 (328)
Intel Core i 4000 (64) CPU group Intel Core i 2000 (28)
4 Generation 2
Haswell S Architecture Sandy Bridge S
Desktop / Server Segment Desktop / Server
-- Predecessor --
-- Successor --

CPU Cores and Base Frequency

The Intel Core i5-4590 is a 4 core processor with a clock frequency of 3.30 GHz (3.70 GHz). The processor can compute 4 threads at the same time. The Intel Core i5-2500k clocks with 3.30 GHz (3.70 GHz), has 4 CPU cores and can calculate 4 threads in parallel.

Intel Core i5-4590 Characteristic Intel Core i5-2500k
4 Cores 4
4 Threads 4
normal Core architecture normal
No Hyperthreading No
No Overclocking ? Yes
3.30 GHz Frequency 3.30 GHz
3.70 GHz Turbo Frequency (1 Core) 3.70 GHz
3.50 GHz Turbo Frequency (All Cores) 3.70 GHz

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Processors with the support of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) can process many calculations, especially audio, image and video processing, much faster than classic processors. Algorithms for ML improve their performance the more data they have collected via software. ML tasks can be processed up to 10,000 times faster than with a classic processor.

Intel Core i5-4590 Characteristic Intel Core i5-2500k
-- AI hardware --
-- AI specifications --

Internal Graphics

Graphics (iGPU) integrated into the processor not only enable image output without having to rely on a dedicated graphics solution, but can also efficiently accelerate video playback.

Intel HD Graphics 4600 GPU Intel HD Graphics 3000
0.35 GHz GPU frequency 0.85 GHz
1.10 GHz GPU (Turbo) 1.10 GHz
7.5 GPU Generation 6
22 nm Technology 32 nm
3 Max. displays 2
20 Compute units 12
160 Shader 96
No Hardware Raytracing No
No Frame Generation No
2 GB Max. GPU Memory 2 GB
11.1 DirectX Version 10.1

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.

Intel HD Graphics 4600 GPU Intel HD Graphics 3000
No Codec h265 / HEVC (8 bit) No
No Codec h265 / HEVC (10 bit) No
Decode / Encode Codec h264 Decode / Encode
No Codec VP9 No
No Codec VP8 No
No Codec AV1 No
Decode / Encode Codec AVC Decode / Encode
Decode Codec VC-1 Decode
Decode Codec JPEG No

Memory & PCIe

Up to 32 GB of memory in a maximum of 2 memory channels is supported by the Intel Core i5-4590, while the Intel Core i5-2500k supports a maximum of 32 GB of memory with a maximum memory bandwidth of 21.3 GB/s enabled.

Intel Core i5-4590 Characteristic Intel Core i5-2500k
DDR3-1600 Memory DDR3-1333
32 GB Max. Memory 32 GB
2 (Dual Channel) Memory channels 2 (Dual Channel)
25.6 GB/s Max. Bandwidth 21.3 GB/s
No ECC No
-- L2 Cache --
6.00 MB L3 Cache 6.00 MB
3.0 PCIe version 2.0
16 PCIe lanes 16
15.8 GB/s PCIe Bandwidth 8.0 GB/s

Thermal Management

The Intel Core i5-4590 has a TDP of 84 W. The TDP of the Intel Core i5-2500k is 95 W. System integrators use the TDP of the processor as a guide when dimensioning the cooling solution.

Intel Core i5-4590 Characteristic Intel Core i5-2500k
84 W TDP (PL1 / PBP) 95 W
-- TDP (PL2) --
-- TDP up --
-- TDP down --
-- Tjunction max. --

Technical details

The Intel Core i5-4590 has 6.00 MB cache and is manufactured in 22 nm. The cache of Intel Core i5-2500k is at 6.00 MB. The processor is manufactured in 32 nm.

Intel Core i5-4590 Characteristic Intel Core i5-2500k
22 nm Technology 32 nm
Monolithic Chip design Monolithic
x86-64 (64 bit) Instruction set (ISA) x86-64 (64 bit)
SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AVX2 ISA extensions SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AVX
LGA 1150 Socket LGA 1155
VT-x, VT-x EPT, VT-d Virtualization VT-x, VT-x EPT
Yes AES-NI Yes
Windows 10, Linux Operating systems Windows 10, Linux
Q3/2014 Release date Q1/2011
202 $ Release price --
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Average performance in benchmarks

⌀ Single core performance in 6 CPU benchmarks
⌀ Multi core performance in 8 CPU benchmarks

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 i5-4590 Intel Core i5-4590
4C 4T @ 3.70 GHz
811 (100%)
Intel Core i5-2500k Intel Core i5-2500k
4C 4T @ 3.70 GHz
697 (86%)

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 i5-4590 Intel Core i5-4590
4C 4T @ 3.50 GHz
3167 (100%)
Intel Core i5-2500k Intel Core i5-2500k
4C 4T @ 3.70 GHz
2450 (77%)

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 i5-4590 Intel Core i5-4590
4C 4T @ 3.70 GHz
877 (100%)
Intel Core i5-2500k Intel Core i5-2500k
4C 4T @ 3.70 GHz
760 (87%)

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 i5-4590 Intel Core i5-4590
4C 4T @ 3.50 GHz
2819 (100%)
Intel Core i5-2500k Intel Core i5-2500k
4C 4T @ 3.70 GHz
2537 (90%)

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 i5-4590 Intel Core i5-4590
4C 4T @ 3.70 GHz
1137 (100%)
Intel Core i5-2500k Intel Core i5-2500k
4C 4T @ 3.70 GHz
651 (57%)

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 i5-4590 Intel Core i5-4590
4C 4T @ 3.50 GHz
3276 (100%)
Intel Core i5-2500k Intel Core i5-2500k
4C 4T @ 3.70 GHz
1948 (59%)

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 i5-4590 Intel Core i5-4590
4C 4T @ 3.70 GHz
319 (100%)
Intel Core i5-2500k Intel Core i5-2500k
4C 4T @ 3.70 GHz
262 (82%)

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 i5-4590 Intel Core i5-4590
4C 4T @ 3.50 GHz
1227 (100%)
Intel Core i5-2500k Intel Core i5-2500k
4C 4T @ 3.70 GHz
894 (73%)

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 i5-4590 Intel Core i5-4590
Intel HD Graphics 4600 @ 1.10 GHz
352 (100%)
Intel Core i5-2500k Intel Core i5-2500k
Intel HD Graphics 3000 @ 1.10 GHz
211 (60%)

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 i5-4590 Intel Core i5-4590
4C 4T @ 3.50 GHz
5353 (100%)
Intel Core i5-2500k Intel Core i5-2500k
4C 4T @ 3.70 GHz
4155 (78%)

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 i5-4590 Intel Core i5-4590
4C 4T @ 3.50 GHz
677.5 (87%)
Intel Core i5-2500k Intel Core i5-2500k
4C 4T @ 3.70 GHz
778.7 (100%)

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 i5-4590 Intel Core i5-4590
4C 4T @ 3.50 GHz
386 (100%)
Intel Core i5-2500k Intel Core i5-2500k
4C 4T @ 3.70 GHz
372 (96%)

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 i5-4590 Intel Core i5-4590
4C 4T @ 3.30 GHz
1496 (100%)
Intel Core i5-2500k Intel Core i5-2500k
4C 4T @ 3.30 GHz
1336 (89%)

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 i5-4590 Intel Core i5-4590
4C 4T @ 3.70 GHz
144 (100%)
Intel Core i5-2500k Intel Core i5-2500k
4C 4T @ 3.70 GHz
127 (88%)

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 i5-4590 Intel Core i5-4590
4C 4T @ 3.50 GHz
505 (100%)
Intel Core i5-2500k Intel Core i5-2500k
4C 4T @ 3.70 GHz
461 (91%)

Cinebench 2024 (Single-Core)

The Cinebench 2024 benchmark is based on the Redshift rendering engine, which is also used in Maxon's 3D program Cinema 4D. The benchmark runs are each 10 minutes long to test whether the processor is limited by its heat generation.
Intel Core i5-4590 Intel Core i5-4590
4C 4T @ 3.70 GHz
52 (100%)
Intel Core i5-2500k Intel Core i5-2500k
4C 4T @ 3.70 GHz
0 (0%)

Cinebench 2024 (Multi-Core)

The Multi-Core test of the Cinebench 2024 benchmark uses all cpu cores to render using the Redshift rendering engine, which is also used in Maxons Cinema 4D. The benchmark run is 10 minutes long to test whether the processor is limited by its heat generation.
Intel Core i5-4590 Intel Core i5-4590
4C 4T @ 3.70 GHz
198 (100%)
Intel Core i5-2500k Intel Core i5-2500k
4C 4T @ 3.70 GHz
0 (0%)

Devices using this processor

Intel Core i5-4590 Intel Core i5-2500k
Unknown Unknown

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