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2500K... 6 years ago! My, how time flies!

Charlie98

Charlie98

Diamond Member
6 years ago today I trotted down to MicroCenter and got the Black Friday $150 2500K CPU deal with a $55 Gigabyte Z68 mobo... my first CPU purchase leading to my first PC build. Oddly enough, this combo still powers my main business PC today, and very likely for a few years, yet... while ALL of the other components have been replaced or upgraded, the CPU and mobo remain. And, yes, I'm still on Windows 7.

How many of you are still running your 2500K's???
 
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I had a 2500k at one point but the mobo died so I took the opportunity to upgrade to a 4790k. They were great cpus for the time though.
 
Just upgraded from a 2500k to a 8600k. Sure there's a considerable difference.

In games, with 1070@1080p, I have seen ranges from 30% up to 100%+ (in AotS-average cpu framerate all batches @high) .

Since this thread is about the 2500k though, I would say that it is still a very decent performer for the average user. Only if you are into 120/144fps gaming or heavy productivity apps, will you face a problem. For office apps it's a champ.

Set it at 4.3Ghz so you don't stretch it too much for long term use, and you can play anything at 60fps with a decent graphics card. It's the only cpu from recent history that has driven a wide range of video cards, from the 570 to the 1070. I believe the only one that will surpass it, is the 8600k.

Just a quick example to put things in perspective. 2500k@4.8Ghz 8600k@5Ghz. Ultra settings 1080p.



As you can see the differences are not huge. That is because the game is primarily gpu limited. However what is worth to note here, is that the 2500k managed that 70fps almost maxed out, while the 8600k was at around 50% overall. So there's still a lot of power left on the 8600k. Throw in a 2080ti in these two systems next year, do the same run at 1080 Ultra and the difference will be huge.

See you in six years on a similar thread for the 8600k! 🙂
 
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While I never had a Sandybridge CPU, I had a 3770k, now owned by a friend, and I have a Xeon x5660 in a Gigabyte X58-UD5 that my sister is using. I still have the 980X ES that was replaced by the Xeon. I also have a 4930k ES in another desktop.
 
psolord said:
Since this thread is about the 2500k though, I would say that it is still a very decent performer for the average user. Only if you are into 120/144fps gaming or heavy productivity apps, will you face a problem. For office apps it's a champ.
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Considering it taken those 6 years to get 2500K performance down to i3 price levels, I very much agree. The 2500K was insane value for money. Even if you don't use it anymore as your primary gaming rig, it makes an excellent secondary or a hand-me-down machine for the F&F segment.

Shmee said:
While I never had a Sandybridge CPU, I had a 3770k, now owned by a friend, and I have a Xeon x5660 in a Gigabyte X58-UD5 that my sister is using. I still have the 980X ES that was replaced by the Xeon. I also have a 4930k ES in another desktop.
Click to expand...

I skipped SB due to rocking on LGA-1366 Nehalem. Though my last PC was a 3770non-K, I do have a single Sandy Bridge CPU currently. In Celeron G465 disguise...
 
Yeah bought mine used (100$) one year after they launched to replace a Phenom II I was running at 3.4. Run it at stock most days but will overclock during some games. Has gone through a 460,570,670 and a 970 and now sits with a 1070FE. Best chip I've ever owned. Nothing it won't run well.
 
wildcard-x said:
Yeah bought mine used (100$) one year after they launched to replace a Phenom II I was running at 3.4. Run it at stock most days but will overclock during some games. Has gone through a 460,570,670 and a 970 and now sits with a 1070FE. Best chip I've ever owned. Nothing it won't run well.
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The 2500K in my game rig was bought the same way... about a year or so afterward. It actually turned out to be a better OC'er than my original chip, which I could only manage to get to 4.1GHz; the game rig chip is at 4.4GHz.
 
I'm still running a 2600K and only now upgrading to a 8700K in January.

I think its safe to say the 2500K/2600K have attained legendary status like the Pentium 4 has.
 
Just finished putting together a 2500K rig today actually, its my main backup system.

My main computer has a 3770K still too, LGA1155 was such a great socket.
 
for the average gamer I think sandy bridge still delivers,
obviously it's a lot slower under some scenarios, more extreme games and so on, but still, remarkable, the consoles having very weak CPUs must be helping, also the gain in IPC was underwhelming for 6 years of evolution, on average.

I'm not really doing anything too demanding, so no plans from upgrading from my locked sandy i5; Ryzen was tempting but DDR4 prices were not.
 
SPBHM said:
for the average gamer I think sandy bridge still delivers,
obviously it's a lot slower under some scenarios, more extreme games and so on, but still, remarkable, the consoles having very weak CPUs must be helping, also the gain in IPC was underwhelming for 6 years of evolution, on average.

I'm not really doing anything too demanding, so no plans from upgrading from my locked sandy i5; Ryzen was tempting but DDR4 prices were not.
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I tend to agree, but I update/upgrade anyway, as a sort of spend-thrifty tech fascination. I CAN see the difference between my OC'd Skylake and my OC'd Sandy Bridger-K's -- 2600K and 2700K. But if it were important to economize, I wouldn't be missing much by deferring my Skylake build to beyond Coffee Lake.

DDR4 prices are indeed a put-off.

It just amazes me how many of these "Still Rocking my Sandy Bridge" threads we've seen in the last three years or so . . .
 
I can't believe I'm still rocking my 2500k after all these years. I upgraded my graphics card a year ago but I can still play everything I want with this processor. I feel like this processor has spoiled me with how long it's stayed good.
 
All my spare rigs are still highly OCed Sandys / Ivys (2500/2600/2700/3570/3700K).
Can't afford to upgrade them with the insane DDR4 prices 🙁
 
kwalkingcraze said:
You can easily upgrade to Pentium G645 dual-core for less than $8 shipped now. Keeping the Celeron G465 is a waste of time now.
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Nah, not worth the bother. I use that system as a potato. If it runs on the potato, it runs on anything.

Besides, I already have a Celeron G1610 I could pop-in if I was so inclined.
 
My HTPC originally had a Pentium G620... I thought it was a pretty capable little chip. In the end I upgraded it to the i3, but that was just a fluke. That isn't to say I would want the Pentium as my main desktop CPU, but it had it's place.
 
Still running an o/c 2500k, it still works fine. I will probably get an 8700k when the prices drop a bit, but really I am not having any issues with the 2500k. Amazing to have a 6 year old cpu that wasn't even that expensive new, and basically it's still fast. That says the 2500k was amazing but also says everything that came after it has been pretty rubbish.
 
Dribble said:
Still running an o/c 2500k, it still works fine. I will probably get an 8700k when the prices drop a bit, but really I am not having any issues with the 2500k. Amazing to have a 6 year old cpu that wasn't even that expensive new, and basically it's still fast. That says the 2500k was amazing but also says everything that came after it has been pretty rubbish.
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Probably should wait for the Z390 and 9700K developments at this point.
I wouldn't buy a Z370 / 8700K now.
 
Why? Could be until this time next year for the 9700k to be available. Not like the 8700k is going to become any less of a beast when it does either.
 
Charlie98 said:
6 years ago today I trotted down to MicroCenter and got the Black Friday $150 2500K CPU deal with a $55 Gigabyte Z68 mobo... my first CPU purchase leading to my first PC build. Oddly enough, this combo still powers my main business PC today, and very likely for a few years, yet... while ALL of the other components have been replaced or upgraded, the CPU and mobo remain. And, yes, I'm still on Windows 7.

How many of you are still running your 2500K's???
Click to expand...

My primary PC is a 2700K.
No complaints and have yet to run in a situation where I felt the processor is holding me back.
If anything were to push me to upgrade, it would probably be driven by the chipset\mobo (Asrock Z77).
 
I still use mine in my media server/Handbrake machine. However, it's really more of a statement showing how weak post SB releases have been, than about how great the 2500K is.
 
I am also using my 2500k in my media/file server (after fulfilling main rig duties). And for that purpose, the 2500k still seems to be more power than that system needs.
 
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