I5 2300 vs i5 2500S for GAMING

[lampa78mao]

Hi All,

I need some help. I am building my own system and already own both the i5 2300 and the i5 2500S. The "S" is not a typo as it is the 65W version. I am building two different computers but want to build a gaming rig (for myself) and one regular one for my girlfriend.

My question is, which of these CPUs is better for gaming? I looked on the Intel website and both look almost identical. I am assuming I cannot find too much consumer information for the i5 2500S because it is usually used in smaller form factors, probably in All-in-one systems.

I want to play games like World of Warcraft, Starcraft 2, and in the future, Diablo 3 hopefully run on the best settings possible. I am not much for FPS games as I know games like crysis are usually benchmarked.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[browsingtheworld]

S stands for shi......

It's not like the CPU is going to use the maximum TDP unless you're gaming. When you're gaming the power draw from the video card will be more significant than anything else to the point the wattage you saved on the S model is insignificant.

You won't notice the difference between either of these in both power consumption and performance. The video card will be much more important for gaming.

 

[AdrianPerry]

Aim for the 2500k. Pretty much the best of the bunch and certainly in the top tier for gaming with its huge overclocking capabilities.

 

[jaguarskx]

Well of the two, the i5-2300 is technically better because it is 100MHz faster. But that is not going to make much of a difference even in a game that is heavily dependent on the CPU rather than the video card.

It's a toss up. If you want a little lower power consumption then keep the i5-2500s for yourself.

 

[IntelEnthusiast]

The "S" processors are all about power savings. The Intel® Core™ i5-2400S has a clock speed of 2.5GHz and a TDP of 65w; while the Intel Core i5-2300 has a clock speed of 2.8GHz and a TDP of 95w. Also the Intel Core i5-2400S has support for VT-d (directed I/O) and TXT (Trusted Execution Technology) that the Intel Core i5-2300 doesn’t have. Think of the “S” processor being designed for large business where the power savings can make a huge difference on their power bill. Google got a bunch of the “S” processors for their offices. You can see how these processors stack up at The "S" processors are all about power savings. The Intel® Core™ i5-2400S has a clock speed of 2.5GHz and a TDP of 65w; while the Intel Core i5-2300 has a clock speed of 2.8GHz and a TDP of 95w. Also the Intel Core i5-2400S has support for VT-d (directed I/O) and TXT (Trusted Execution Technology) that the Intel Core i5-2300 doesn’t have. Think of the “S” processor being designed for large business where the power savings can make a huge difference on their power bill. Google got a bunch of the “S” processors for their offices.

Christian Wood
Intel Enthusiast Team

 

[browsingtheworld]

The "S" processors are all about power savings. The Intel® Core™ i5-2400S has a clock speed of 2.5GHz and a TDP of 65w; while the Intel Core i5-2300 has a clock speed of 2.8GHz and a TDP of 95w. Also the Intel Core i5-2400S has support for VT-d (directed I/O) and TXT (Trusted Execution Technology) that the Intel Core i5-2300 doesn’t have. Think of the “S” processor being designed for large business where the power savings can make a huge difference on their power bill. Google got a bunch of the “S” processors for their offices. You can see how these processors stack up at The "S" processors are all about power savings. The Intel® Core™ i5-2400S has a clock speed of 2.5GHz and a TDP of 65w; while the Intel Core i5-2300 has a clock speed of 2.8GHz and a TDP of 95w. Also the Intel Core i5-2400S has support for VT-d (directed I/O) and TXT (Trusted Execution Technology) that the Intel Core i5-2300 doesn’t have. Think of the “S” processor being designed for large business where the power savings can make a huge difference on their power bill. Google got a bunch of the “S” processors for their offices.

Christian Wood
Intel Enthusiast Team

But it doesn't really save power considering the CPU will throttle down unless you're using the max load as in gaming. The max TDP will not be seen in just about any task except for gaming. If you're using any decent video card that will be more significant when gaming than the 30W from the different i5 models. I've never seen my Lynnfield above 25-30% outside of gaming. It makes sense in confined spaces like iMacs but I don't see the point in a regular desktop, even for power saving unless (as mentioned) it's in a business setting. Even then it's debatable considering I can't find any information about what these processors would draw at 10-20% load.

Nobody knows what the 4 core turbo speed for these processors are? The 2500 might be clocked higher with all 4 cores are using turbo boost than the 2300 so I wouldn't say the 2300 is faster. The 2500S models just seem to cost more for little gain in your case.

 

[lampa78mao]

Hi all,

Thanks for the reply. I still havent really decided at this point which to use since I have both. I don't want to buy a CPU because i have budget concerns but if I could, i would definitely take the i5 2500k with overclocking, but unfortunately thats not an option right now.

So basically if i'm reading everyone's feedback correctly, there is no difference which processor i use since 1)i'm not a business user and only using it to game, 2) wont see a difference in power usage since i wont be gaming 24/7.

So basically they're the exact same CPU with the same performance in my case?

Thanks again everyone

 

[lampa78mao]

The "S" processors are all about power savings. The Intel® Core™ i5-2400S has a clock speed of 2.5GHz and a TDP of 65w; while the Intel Core i5-2300 has a clock speed of 2.8GHz and a TDP of 95w. Also the Intel Core i5-2400S has support for VT-d (directed I/O) and TXT (Trusted Execution Technology) that the Intel Core i5-2300 doesn’t have. Think of the “S” processor being designed for large business where the power savings can make a huge difference on their power bill. Google got a bunch of the “S” processors for their offices. You can see how these processors stack up at The "S" processors are all about power savings. The Intel® Core™ i5-2400S has a clock speed of 2.5GHz and a TDP of 65w; while the Intel Core i5-2300 has a clock speed of 2.8GHz and a TDP of 95w. Also the Intel Core i5-2400S has support for VT-d (directed I/O) and TXT (Trusted Execution Technology) that the Intel Core i5-2300 doesn’t have. Think of the “S” processor being designed for large business where the power savings can make a huge difference on their power bill. Google got a bunch of the “S” processors for their offices.

Christian Wood
Intel Enthusiast Team

Hi Christian,

Thats some great info. my question is what the heck is the VT-d and TXT. those sound like business PCs with enterprise support, useless for consumer gamers? am i correct?

Thanks.

 

[jaguarskx]

^^^

Yeah, those are basically more for business/IT. They a basically allows a more secure way for the IT dept. to take control of your PC if necessary for troubleshooting, making it more difficult for an outside agent to pretend to be your company's IT dept. It also prevents hackers from gaining access to certain data on your hard drives and your system RAM.

 

[lampa78mao]

I'm going to be using a HD 6850 1GB graphics card and probably sticking with the i5 2500S since the performance between that and that i5 2300 is practically the same. whether or not it actually saves power, doesnt matter as long as it performs the same.

Setup:

i5 2500S
MSI P67A-C43 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA3 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666)
Radeon HD 6850 1GB
1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5"
SILVERSTONE Strider Essential series ST60F-ES 600W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS
Antec Three Hundred

 

[lampa78mao]

Best answer selected by lampa78mao.