Intel Core i5-2450M Review

Behold the Core i5-2450M! This Laptop processor is a gem in Intel's mid-range collection. Debuted in 2012, it's equipped with 2 cores and 4 threads. With a base clock speed of 3.1GHz, a turbo speed of 3.1GHz, and a power consumption of 35W, it's primed to boost your gaming performance. The Core i5-2450M is engineered on the Sandy Bridge 32nm platform and belongs to the renowned Core i5 series.

And guess what? The Core i5-2450M is the ultimate successor to Intel's previous-gen gaming champion, the Core i5-450M. The Core i5-450M was based on the legendary Arrandale and 32nm process, and it made its grand entrance into the gaming scene back in 2010. But now, it's time for the Core i5-2450M to take the throne and conquer the gaming world!

Can the Intel Core i5-2450M finally dethrone the king of mainstream CPUs, the A4-3320M? It's a maybe. The Core i5-2450M doesn't quite reach the same single-core performance as its rival, but more games are starting to use all those threads, so who cares!

We already went deep into the nitty-gritty details of the Sandy Bridge chip design in our reviews of the Intel Core i5-2520M and Core i5-2435M. If you want to learn more about the Core i5-2450M's architecture (which is identical to the Core i5-2435M), head over there!

The Core i5-2450M is the more expensive version of the Core i5-2435M, and it shows with its higher base and boost clock speeds: 3.1 GHz and 3.1 GHz, respectively. That's a nice boost in speed, but the real game changer is the higher power delivery (PPT). This lets the motherboard pump more juice (up to 142W) to the Core i5-2450M compared to the Core i5-2435M's limit of 35W. This extra power allows the Core i5-2450M to crank up the boost clocks even more aggressively, on both single and multiple cores. That means the performance gap between these two CPUs might be bigger than what the specs on paper suggest.

But for most gamers who also do other stuff on their PC besides gaming, the Core i5-2450M is a better overall choice. It offers double the threads compared to the similarly priced A4-3320M, and those extra threads come in handy for tasks like editing and encoding videos. The Core i5 chips have always been great for these workloads, and Intel's recent improvements to AVX performance are super impressive.

Heads up! If you already have a Core i5-450M, this new generation doesn't offer a huge jump in performance. You might be better off waiting a year to upgrade or spending more on a higher-end CPU.

One of the best things about the Intel Core i5-2450M is that it comes with a free CPU cooler! You can grab the Core i5-2450M for $225 without having to spend extra on cooling.

The Intel Core i5-2450M comes with a basic heatsink cooler, nothing fancy. But it gets the job done for this low-power CPU (TDP of 35W). You won't need a fancy aftermarket cooler unless you want to overclock it.

If you don't care too much about overclocking and max boost speeds, then the Intel Core i5-2435M is a good option for $225. It also has 2 cores and 4 threads, but with slightly lower clock speeds (3GHz base and 3GHz boost).

Building on the success of mainstream Core i5 CPUs, Intel is now attacking the mid-range market with the Core i5-2450M processors, available since on January 2012.