Intel Core i5 3570 4-core LGA1155

The i5-3570 is a beloved budget chip with a 93rd percentile user sentiment score. It still handles older games fine, but four threads and DDR3 make it a dead-end upgrade. Worth it only if you already have an LGA1155 board and can snag one under USD 60.

The 4926 PassMark multi-core score tells the real story here. It's fine for older games and daily tasks, but anything that wants more than four threads will choke. Single-thread hits 2038, which is about average for our database. The 3.8GHz boost only kicks in on a couple cores, so don't expect all-core turbo magic. The stock cooler is surprisingly quiet, and the 77W TDP means it won't turn your case into a space heater. PCIe 3.0 support is a nice bonus for an older chip, and the HD Graphics 2500 iGPU will get you a display output but not much else.

Against the AMD Ryzen 5 5500, this thing gets smoked in multi-threaded work. The Ryzen has double the threads and modern architecture. But the 3570 costs a fraction of the price on the used market. The Dell Xeon E5-2637 V2 is another old-timer, but it's a server chip with different priorities. The Phenom II X6 is even older and slower. For pure budget gaming on an existing LGA1155 board, the 3570 is the smart play. If you're building from scratch, save up for something newer.

Pricing is all over the place. US listings run from USD 35 to USD 263, which is a massive spread for a chip this old. The best deal we're seeing is on the low end of that range, and honestly, anything over USD 60 is a hard pass. CAD buyers face a similar story, CAD 99 to CAD 469, with the cheapest option being the only sane choice. At the low end, this is a steal for a budget build. At the high end, you're getting robbed.

The Core i5-3570 is a 2012 Ivy Bridge chip that refuses to die. Four cores, four threads, 3.4GHz base with a 3.8GHz boost, and a 77W TDP. It's old, sure, but owners absolutely love this thing. Our sentiment data puts it in the 93rd percentile for user satisfaction, which is wild for a CPU this age.

This is a budget build hero. If you're cobbling together a cheap gaming rig or reviving an old LGA1155 board, this chip still punches above its weight. Just don't expect modern multi-threaded performance. The single-thread score is middle of the pack, and multi-thread lands in the bottom half of our database.

Skip this if you're building a new PC from scratch. The LGA1155 platform is a dead end, DDR3 is slow by modern standards, and four threads will bottleneck anything beyond light gaming. If you need to run modern games, video editing, or any kind of multi-threaded workload, save your money for a Ryzen 5 or newer Intel chip. Also skip it if you see a price above USD 60, you're overpaying for decade-old silicon.

Buy this if you already have an LGA1155 motherboard and need a cheap upgrade. It's a fantastic stopgap for older games, office work, and media streaming. Owners report years of reliable service, and the sentiment score backs that up. But if you're building a new system in 2024, this chip is a dead end. DDR3, four threads, and no upgrade path make it a temporary fix, not a foundation.