**A Look Back at the Now 5-Year-Old I5 2500k: Still Worth Every Penny?**
The Intel Core i5 2500K has been around for five years now, and it's still a very popular choice. Originally priced at $200 or £200, this processor offered great price to performance, which might have contributed to its initial popularity. Even with a new price tag of about £75 in the UK or $100 in the US, we'll explore whether this CPU is still worth every penny.
**A Closer Look at the I5 2500K's Potential**
To illustrate its potential, let's pair the i5 2500K with 8 GB of DDR3 RAM clocked to 1866 MHz and a GTX 1060. This configuration eliminates any possibility of a bottleneck, allowing us to showcase the CPU's capabilities without any interference from the GPU. We'll display the results from our CPU on screen at stock speeds but also overclock it to 4.5 GHz to see what kind of difference we can expect.
**Testing the I5 2500K: Far Cry Primal**
Our first test subject is Far Cry Primal, set to ultra preset with a resolution of 1080p. At stock speeds, we're seeing an average of 52 frames per second. However, when we overclock the CPU to 4.5 GHz, the results are impressive – we see an average of 68 FPS, with both minimum and average frame rates improved significantly. This kind of improvement is quite remarkable, especially considering this CPU is now five years old.
**Testing the I5 2500K: Fallout 4**
Next up, we put Fallout 4 to the test again, this time with the ultra preset enabled. The 2500K system manages to pull in 77 frames per second on average at 3.3 GHz, with some minor drops expected due to the game's nature. However, our overclock once again smooths out the experience, and we see an increase in frame rate – this time, averaging around 90 FPS.
**Testing the I5 2500K: Dirt Rally**
Dirt Rally is a well-optimized game that almost any system can run with minimal settings tweaks. We select the ultra preset and jump into a custom event to test its performance. With an average of 70 frames per second, this CPU holds its own against more modern processors. When we overclock it to 4.5 GHz, our results remain impressive, but not drastically improved – around 77 FPS.
**Testing the I5 2500K: GTA V and Dota 2**
Next up are Grand Theft Auto V and Dota 2. The former is CPU-intensive, with the high settings and MSAA * 2 enabled pushing the system to its limits. However, we still see an average of 65 frames per second at stock speeds, with some minor variation. When we overclock the CPU to 4.5 GHz, there isn't a significant difference in frame rates – around 75 FPS.
**The I5 2500K: Still Worth Every Penny?**
The reason this CPU is still worth every penny, despite its age and the introduction of newer models, lies in its overclocking potential. Even with a relatively high price tag of about £75 or $100, it offers a level of flexibility that many modern CPUs can't match. If you've got one of these processors in your system as you watch this video, I wouldn't recommend upgrading anytime soon – they're still capable and reliable.
**Conclusion**
In conclusion, the Intel Core i5 2500K is still an impressive CPU five years after its release. Its overclocking potential is a significant factor in its value proposition, making it worth every penny for those who want to push their system to the limit. While new models may have surpassed its performance, this CPU has proven itself time and again as a reliable performer, especially when paired with a powerful GPU like the GTX 1060.
"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhello everyone and welcome to another video now back in 2011 Intel introduced their Sandy Bridge lineup of CPUs among these was the I5 2500k now this was seen as something quite special and even today a lot of you guys ask me about it whether or not I can test it out so today we're going to be doing just that now even amongst its successes this is still a very popular choice it was originally quite popular maybe because of its $200 or £200 price tag which meant it offered great price to Performance or maybe it was because it could be overclocked to 4.5 GHz Straight Out of the Box on air whatever the reason I'm going to be discussing why I think this is still worth every single penny even with a price tag of about £75 here in the UK or $100 in the US now to do that we need to illustrate its potential with a few games so let's get into it today we've paired the I5 2500k with with 8 GB of DDR3 RAM clocked to 1866 MHz and a GTX 1060 to eliminate any possibility of a bottleneck we'll be displaying the results from our CPU on screen at stock but we'll also be discussing and displaying the results from an overclocked i5 2500k at the aforementioned 4.5 GHz to see what sort of difference you could expect so first up we have Far Cry Primal at 1080p with the ultra preset here with we're seeing an average of 52 frames per second this is of course with our CPU at stock speeds you'll see that both the minimum and average frame rate is improved quite drastically actually with a 4.5 GHz overclock to see about an average of 68 FPS whilst both results are very respectable that is quite the Improvement and I really wasn't expecting to see just that sort of difference it sort of helps reiterate my point as well that even on the first test just how capable this 5-year-old chip still is next up we put Fallout 4 to the test again with the ultra preset and nothing else changed the 2500k system managed to pull in 77 frames per second on average here at 3.3 with some drops here and there to be expected with this game Fallout 4 seems to run differently every time I open it up to be honest but at no point did it become unplayable our overclock once again smooth things out a little bit more with an increase to 8 8 the game again exhibited a few slowdowns but with close to 90 frames who can complain dirt rally up next and I've always considered this to be a very well optimized game seriously almost any system will run this if you turn the settings down enough in this case we simply selected the ultra preset once again at full HD and jumped into a custom event with other vehicles to see a steady 70 frames overall this shot up to over 100 in a few cases and solo events and you'd have no trouble with this title at 4 and 1/2 GHz yet again the gameplay was improved but not by that much here in fact 77 became the new average I guess this game is way more GPU dependent moving on to GTA 5 which seems to be my experience very CPU intensive we pushed things to the very high settings here and switched on msaa * 2 for something a little fancier in return seeing 65 frames per second on average or somewhere around that figure almost constantly an impressive result at stock and again like dirt rally and overclock didn't improve things all that much but the extra 10 frames or so that we did see was a nice bonus and it helped increase that minimum frame rate a little bit too finally we loaded up Dota 2 with the best looking graphical preset just to see what to expect and the game sat at 105 frames per second we knew what to expect to be honest in this case but it was interesting to check this title out nonetheless to see just how well it would play when we tried again at 4.5 GHz there really wasn't too big of a difference with the minimum and average FPS but this game is definitely more playable whether you choose to play on a stock I5 or an overclocked one over 5 years on and the I5 2500k is still kicking now the reason I meant it's worth every single penny is because I mean at $100 or pound I wouldn't really recommend paying any more for this CPU despite how good it is because we have found better Bargains for less money but it is still definitely worth a buy especially when you consider that overclocking potential overall this thing really is still quite impressive and if you've got one in your system as you watch this then I definitely would not suggest an upgrade anytime soon so guys thank you so much for watching I hope you've enjoyed this look back at the now 5-year-old I5 2500k it actually impressed me quite a bit and I hope you guys really did enjoy this video If You did leave a like on it leave a dislike if you didn't subscribe to the channel if you haven't done so already and as always I hope to see you in the next videohello everyone and welcome to another video now back in 2011 Intel introduced their Sandy Bridge lineup of CPUs among these was the I5 2500k now this was seen as something quite special and even today a lot of you guys ask me about it whether or not I can test it out so today we're going to be doing just that now even amongst its successes this is still a very popular choice it was originally quite popular maybe because of its $200 or £200 price tag which meant it offered great price to Performance or maybe it was because it could be overclocked to 4.5 GHz Straight Out of the Box on air whatever the reason I'm going to be discussing why I think this is still worth every single penny even with a price tag of about £75 here in the UK or $100 in the US now to do that we need to illustrate its potential with a few games so let's get into it today we've paired the I5 2500k with with 8 GB of DDR3 RAM clocked to 1866 MHz and a GTX 1060 to eliminate any possibility of a bottleneck we'll be displaying the results from our CPU on screen at stock but we'll also be discussing and displaying the results from an overclocked i5 2500k at the aforementioned 4.5 GHz to see what sort of difference you could expect so first up we have Far Cry Primal at 1080p with the ultra preset here with we're seeing an average of 52 frames per second this is of course with our CPU at stock speeds you'll see that both the minimum and average frame rate is improved quite drastically actually with a 4.5 GHz overclock to see about an average of 68 FPS whilst both results are very respectable that is quite the Improvement and I really wasn't expecting to see just that sort of difference it sort of helps reiterate my point as well that even on the first test just how capable this 5-year-old chip still is next up we put Fallout 4 to the test again with the ultra preset and nothing else changed the 2500k system managed to pull in 77 frames per second on average here at 3.3 with some drops here and there to be expected with this game Fallout 4 seems to run differently every time I open it up to be honest but at no point did it become unplayable our overclock once again smooth things out a little bit more with an increase to 8 8 the game again exhibited a few slowdowns but with close to 90 frames who can complain dirt rally up next and I've always considered this to be a very well optimized game seriously almost any system will run this if you turn the settings down enough in this case we simply selected the ultra preset once again at full HD and jumped into a custom event with other vehicles to see a steady 70 frames overall this shot up to over 100 in a few cases and solo events and you'd have no trouble with this title at 4 and 1/2 GHz yet again the gameplay was improved but not by that much here in fact 77 became the new average I guess this game is way more GPU dependent moving on to GTA 5 which seems to be my experience very CPU intensive we pushed things to the very high settings here and switched on msaa * 2 for something a little fancier in return seeing 65 frames per second on average or somewhere around that figure almost constantly an impressive result at stock and again like dirt rally and overclock didn't improve things all that much but the extra 10 frames or so that we did see was a nice bonus and it helped increase that minimum frame rate a little bit too finally we loaded up Dota 2 with the best looking graphical preset just to see what to expect and the game sat at 105 frames per second we knew what to expect to be honest in this case but it was interesting to check this title out nonetheless to see just how well it would play when we tried again at 4.5 GHz there really wasn't too big of a difference with the minimum and average FPS but this game is definitely more playable whether you choose to play on a stock I5 or an overclocked one over 5 years on and the I5 2500k is still kicking now the reason I meant it's worth every single penny is because I mean at $100 or pound I wouldn't really recommend paying any more for this CPU despite how good it is because we have found better Bargains for less money but it is still definitely worth a buy especially when you consider that overclocking potential overall this thing really is still quite impressive and if you've got one in your system as you watch this then I definitely would not suggest an upgrade anytime soon so guys thank you so much for watching I hope you've enjoyed this look back at the now 5-year-old I5 2500k it actually impressed me quite a bit and I hope you guys really did enjoy this video If You did leave a like on it leave a dislike if you didn't subscribe to the channel if you haven't done so already and as always I hope to see you in the next video\n"
