Processors/Comparison
15 specifications
Intel Core i5-2500K vs AMD FX-4100
On paper, the AMD FX-4100 boosts higher, and the AMD FX-4100 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
AMD FX-4100
AMD · FX · 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 FX-4100 boosts to 3.8 GHz against 3.7 GHz, 3 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 FX-4100 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 AM3+, 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.
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 FX-4100?
- 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 FX-4100 use the same socket?
- No. The Core i5-2500K uses LGA1155 and the FX-4100 uses AM3+, so switching means a new motherboard.
More comparisons
- 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
- AMD FX-4100 vs Intel Core i5-4690
- AMD FX-4100 vs Intel Core i5-6600
- AMD FX-4100 vs Intel Core i5-6600K
- AMD FX-4100 vs Intel Core i7-4770
- AMD FX-4100 vs Intel Core i7-4770K
- AMD FX-4100 vs AMD A8-6600K with Radeon HD 8570D
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.