I5 2500k vs Pentium g4560 in 2017

[man224]

I am in a position where a used 2500k build would cost the same as a new kaby lake g4560 build. Which one should I go for? Both would be paired with 8gb ram and an r9 290x. For now I will be playing at 1080p

 

[Supernova1138]

I'd go for the Pentium simply because it's on a much more modern platform and gives you better upgrade options down the road. The i5 2500k might be the better performer, but you need to track down an LGA 1155 motherboard for it. Those boards have been out of production for years now, and are missing a lot of more modern connectivity features. There is also the risk that the used 2500k will not have a long life ahead of it, as the previous owner may have run a lot of voltage through it to get a high overclock, significantly shortening the CPU's life. The 2500k and any LGA 1155 board will not be under warranty anymore, so if you run into hardware failure, you're pretty much right back to where you started and will be looking at the Pentium G4560 again.

 

[nikoli707]

at stock speeds they will trade blows with the g4560 speeding past in games that dont need high core count. the 2500k overclocked to 4.4ghz like it should be will destroy the g4560, especially in a heavy workload. but performance is not everything. the g4560s native chipset has many little features that they may turn the tide for some in its favor. things like m.2, usb3.0, faster boot times, etc. but purely from a performance and gaming standpoint, especially considering a 290x which would likely be bottlenecked by a g4560 in some games, the 2500k is the clear winner.

 

[man224]

So on one hand the g4560 is new with an upgrade path, but an overclocked 2500k will massively outperform it?

 

[Supernova1138]

So on one hand the g4560 is new with an upgrade path, but an overclocked 2500k will massively outperform it?

Yes, though to overclock the 2500k you would need a motherboard with a P67, Z68 or Z77 chipset. Most 2500ks could get to 4.5GHz back in the day, but there's no guarantee the processor you get will achieve that due to the fact that if the previous owner overclocked it and ran a high voltage through it it may have suffered some degradation and is no longer stable at higher clockspeeds. With the 2500k you're buying 6 year old hardware, and that increases the risk of running into problems.

 

[man224]

How about newer ivy bridge i5's?

 

[Joshua French]

Yea Pentiums are decent for budget gaming. The 2500k will definitely bottleneck . I had a 2400 and a gtx 760TI nearly bottle-necked it. you can get a I7 3770 for like 250 in a SFF dell or like 150 by it's self. DDR3 ram is cheap, but it has limited support and any 7 series mobo is hard to find, especially with more than 2 back usb 3 ports. Anything haswell is still expensive. You could wait for ryzen 5 or 3, but i'd say if you want more HP, you can get a ivy bridge i7 or i5, else you can get the pentium and save up for a i7 6700 or something. Plus, you can sell the pentium for like 50 USD on ebay when your done. Just be sure to get a 3MB cache skylake or kabylake pentium if you choose that, since IPC inprovements are your friend there. As far as an i5 3570 or i7 3770, there are some used mobos on ebay if you dont buy a prebuilt dell or something, and even though they are mostly all used, most of them work great. Every mobo I've bought has worked well.

 

[surya13]

How about newer ivy bridge i5's?

i5-3570K is better than G4560 in heavily threaded workloads but G4560 has an edge in single threaded tasks.

Other Ivy Bridge i5 processors are not worth buying.

Overclock the 3570K to 4.2 or 4.5 GHz and it will crush the G4560 in single threaded performance too..

Indeed you get new platform features with G4560 but I personally don't care about them. Others' opinion may vary in this regard.

 

[man224]

I think I go with an older i5, because of true quad cores and overclock potential. Thanks for all of the help people

 

[surya13]

I think I go with an older i5, because of true quad cores and overclock potential. Thanks for all of the help people

Buy only unused older processors. You can't be sure of the longevity of used processors.

 

[_Division_]

I currently own a g4560 with sapphire r9 290 tri-x and 8GB DDR4 2133mhz. I also own the i5 2500 and the i7 2600. It really depends on the games you play. I play allot of gta5 and its very cpu intensive. But with the g4560 i get 8FPS more then with the i5 2500. and with the i7 its pretty much the same.

As they were saying here above u need a differant motherboard to overclock that i5 2500. But i wouldnt invest in old architec anymore it only supports ddr3 1333 mhz memory and there is no upgrade path for in future.. With my own experience i say go for the g4560 its a great cpu for its price. And it doesnt bottleneck the r9 290. And u can Always upgrade in the future to a i5 or i7 kabylake.

And dont forget u also get warrenty when u buy new. U never know what previous owners has done with the parts.