Question About Hyper-Threading

[kenkanif]

I'm trying to decide between the 2500k and the 2600k, to which my knowledge the only difference (ignoring the slightly lower speed) is hyper-threading.

I'm not entirely familiar with Hyper-Threading to the point where I know what difference it makes. Is it worth the extra $80? I finally have enough money to build a somewhat top-of-the-line computer that I've always wanted to build but I'm still wanting to be smart with my money and have a budget none the less so any help in deciding would be appreciated.

 

[king smp]

Hyperthreading allows one of the cores to process two threads which is helpful
when the threads dont utilize the same resources on the core
In the Pentium 4 era Intel showed that it was a 20-30% improvement in
multithreaded apps
in generat
it is a good thing
If you do heavily multithreaded work (encoding,transcoding,rendering etc)
then it is definitely worthwhile
if it is mainly a gaming maching then save the money towards the video
card

 

[DXRick]

Look at various benchmarks. In the apps where the 2600K beats the 2500K by more than 10%, hyper-threading makes the difference, and the apps are using more than 4 cores to do the work. I don't know of any games that benefit from HT.

 

[jprahman]

In short if you are gaming then get the i5-2500K, if you plan on doing video and photo editing/transcoding then get the i7-2600K. Basically benchmarks have shown that Hyper-threading does nothing to increase gaming performance, while also increasing heat just slightly. Hyper-threading does, however, help in highly threaded applications like video and photo editing and transcoding.

 

[kenkanif]

is there a big difference in overclocking potential (nothing major) between the two? I don't plan on going crazy with it, but i've read good things about the 2600k getting good boosts in speed while maintaining stability and stock air cooling. Does the same apply for the 2500k?

 

[king smp]

You need a member that owns one for that question
though from everything I read on here many people are getting over
4gh on good air cooling

 

[ghnader hsmithot]

Hyperthreading allows one of the cores to process two threads which is helpful
when the threads dont utilize the same resources on the core
In the Pentium 4 era Intel showed that it was a 20-30% improvement in
multithreaded apps
in generat
it is a good thing
If you do heavily multithreaded work (encoding,transcoding,rendering etc)
then it is definitely worthwhile
if it is mainly a gaming maching then save the money towards the video
card

Nuf' said.

 

[king smp]

Thanks Z

 

[megamanx00]

Hyper threading just allows a single core to handle more than one thread. Modern cores have dedicated areas to handle specific types of instructions such as an Integer Unit, a Floating Point unit, and a Fetch and decode unit. How many distinct units simply depends on the architecture. If you have one thread with an integer Op, then it can execute on the integer unit while a second thread with a floating point Op is executed on the floating point unit. The thing is, if they both want the same resource, as if both need to do the same kind of op or both need to fetch data, then one thread needs to wait until the other thread is done with that resource.

 

[kenkanif]

Alright well I'm pretty much decided on the 2500K. I figure ill save the money and get another hard drive instead.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

If budget allows, but only if you are doing something besides gaming that can take advantage of HT, get the 2600k.... from all the sites I have perused, for the most part, peeps seem to get higher OC's on the 2600k. However, with 8 cores running, at 4.8Ghz, the 2600 will run about 7C hotter than the 2500.

If ya do spring for the 2600, I'd suggest using the BIOS profiles feature to create an "everyday" OC at 4.4 - 4.6 to do all routine as well as "demanding HT apps" and then a "gaming" profile where ya turn off HT and run at 4.8 Ghz or better.

 

[IntelEnthusiast]

Like has been explained by others the value of the Intel® Core™ I7 2600K over the Intel Core I5 2500K is hyper-threading and 100MHz clock speed increase. Since very few games can take advantage of more than 3 threads there is very little advantage for the Intel Core I7 2600K over the Intel Core I5 2500K. Now if you are going to be doing video/audio or heavy multi-tasking then the value of the Intel Core I7 2600K grows a great deal.

Christian Wood
Intel Enthusiast Team

 

[kenkanif]

Best answer selected by kenkanif.

 

[king smp]

Thank you for selecting me as Best Answer
Dont be a stranger

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey