i5-2400S for Gaming?

[Joseph_123]

So being that I work in IT I am able to get my hands on some decent equipment at no cost to me. Usually I get outdated pieces of junk that get thrown out but some turn out to be okay and I picked up a few i5-2400S processors, which aren't too bad from what I've used of them, however I've never tried to use one for gaming and it appears a bit underpowered but I was curious if anyone else has used one for this before? I picked up a dvr server that can use this processor which is a decent upgrade and I've got a geforce gtx960 I can put in it, as well as a clean copy of windows 7. It also can hold up to 32GB in four slots and I have a minimum of 8GB to put in it. I've got everything I need to build a very nice system, my only concern being that the processor might be a little under powered. If it turns out not to work so well I will put the 960 back into its current machine or another computer I can use for gaming and add the ge force 430 that came in the server. So to reiterate my question, has anyone tried using one of these processors for gaming before? I've done some reading and I've seen where some believe it to be find and others saying it will be under powered. I've got zero dollars into this build so far and two other computer at home that have i7's (i7-6700 and i7-4790) so it is not like this is a must have gaming rig. At worst I will dedicate it to running my security system and/ or for web development, video/ sound production, etc.

 

[burgessanthony]

It's ok. CLock speeds aren't too good (I think 3.1 across all cores when boosting) and its older architecture so somewhat behind current chips. BUT it should be fine with the 960 if you are looking for 1080p60 gameplay.

 

[jaguarskx]

It's fine for playing games despite being a 2nd gen CPU. The only issue you are having is the clockspeed (which is actually fine) and probably somewhat high expectations.

Click the following link to thread started by someone who wants to upgrade from a 2nd gen Core i5 to a 3rd gen Core CPU. Read my response where I compared the performance of the nVidia GTX 980 Ti in Fallout 4 (which is somewhat dependent on the CPU) when paired with the Core i5-2500k and Core i7-6700k.

http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-3209932/upgrade-2nd-gen-3rd-gen-cpu.html

 

[Joseph_123]

It's ok. CLock speeds aren't too good (I think 3.1 across all cores when boosting) and its older architecture so somewhat behind current chips. BUT it should be fine with the 960 if you are looking for 1080p60 gameplay.

As far as gameplay goes, that is all that is desired. The speeds are lacking but it is a second generation i5 so that is to be somewhat expected I suppose. It is 3.3 GHz fully boosted; you can find all of it's information here: http://ark.intel.com/products/52208/Intel-Core-i5-2400S-Processor-6M-Cache-up-to-3_30-GHz?q=Intel®%20Core™%20i5-2400S%20Processor%20(6M%20Cache,%20up%20to%203.30%20GHz)
I can definitely play lower end or older games or do web design, etc. and it will do fine, which isn't all bad.

 

[burgessanthony]

Up to 3.3 is likely single core...always less across all 4 cores at max boost, usually 3.3, 3.3, 3.2, 3.1 depending on loaded cores.

Agree totally, I suppose I'm just point out that there will be some CPU heavy games you may start to see an issue. Some games even my 3570k at 4ghz couldn't manage 60fps, but depends what u will play

Give it a go!