Processors/Comparison
15 specifications
Intel Core i5-2500K vs Intel Core i5-750
On paper, the Intel Core i5-2500K boosts higher, and the Intel Core i5-750 carries more L3 cache. Specifications describe what each chip is designed to do; how much of that either one holds under continuous load is a separate question.
Intel Core i5-2500K
Intel · Core 2nd generation · Desktop
Intel Core i5-750
Intel · Intel · Desktop
Cores and clocks
Cache and power
Platform
A check marks the higher figure only on rows where higher is unambiguously better. Rows without one are not ties; they are specifications where “better” has no meaning.
Reading the table
What the difference means.
Boost clock
The Core i5-2500K boosts to 3.7 GHz against 3.2 GHz, 16 percent higher. Across generations it is not a guide to speed on its own, for the reason above. Boost is also a peak: it is held for seconds to minutes, on one or two cores, while the cooling and the power limit allow. What either chip settles at under a long load is lower, and it depends on the cooler and the motherboard as much as the chip.
Cache
The Core i5-750 carries 8 MB of L3 cache against 6 MB. Cache is fast memory on the chip, and a larger one means the cores wait on main memory less often. Games, large spreadsheets and compiling respond to it; rendering and video export, which stream through data in order, respond much less.
Power and cooling
Both are rated at 95 W, so they ask the same of a cooler and a power supply. The rating is the heat to be moved for the chip to hold its speed; both draw above it in short bursts, and either one slows down rather than fails when the cooling falls short.
Platform
They use different sockets, LGA1155 and LGA1156, so moving from one to the other means a new motherboard. For an upgrade, that cost belongs in the comparison; for a new build, the newer platform is the one with later chips still to come.
Manufacturing process
The Core i5-2500K is built on a 32 nm process against 45 nm. A finer process generally does the same work for less power. The names are marketing labels rather than measurements, though, and they are not comparable between manufacturers, so treat the row as a sign of how recent the design is and no more.
What no table says
How much of its speed a processor keeps after the first minute depends on the cooling and the power limit of the machine it is in. If you own one of these, measure it: the test is free and runs in this browser.
Questions
- Is the Core i5-2500K better than the Core i5-750?
- On the specifications they are closely matched. No specification says how much speed either one keeps under a long load; that depends on the cooling and the power limit of the machine it is in, and it is what a sustained test measures.
- Do the Core i5-2500K and the Core i5-750 use the same socket?
- No. The Core i5-2500K uses LGA1155 and the Core i5-750 uses LGA1156, so switching means a new motherboard.
More comparisons
- Intel Core i5-2500K vs AMD FX-4100
- Intel Core i5-2500K vs Intel Core i5-4690
- Intel Core i5-2500K vs Intel Core i5-6600
- Intel Core i5-2500K vs Intel Core i5-6600K
- Intel Core i5-2500K vs AMD Ryzen 3 1200
- Intel Core i5-2500K vs AMD Ryzen 5 1400
- Intel Core i5-750 vs Intel Core i5-4430
- Intel Core i5-750 vs AMD Ryzen 3 1200
- Intel Core i5-750 vs AMD Ryzen 5 1400
- Intel Core i5-750 vs AMD FX-4100
- Intel Core i5-750 vs Intel Core i5-4690
Every figure on this table is a design target. None of it is a measurement.
Nothing above describes how a processor behaves twenty minutes into a sustained workload, which is where two chips with nearly identical specifications routinely diverge. A boost clock is a ceiling the vendor permits, not a rate the chip sustains, and whether it holds depends on the cooling, the case, the power profile and the room. None of those appear on a specification sheet.
We deliberately do not reduce these figures to a single score. A composite invented from specifications would look authoritative and measure nothing, and choosing the weights would be choosing the winner.