Intro
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With four cores and 4.2 GHz maximum clock, the Core i5-7600K is the most high-end CPU of the new Core i5 seventh-generation series, codenamed Kaby Lake. Let’s test it!
Recently, Intel launched the seventh generation Core i processors, codenamed Kaby Lake. At first, were launched the Core i7 and Core i5 CPUs, and soon after, the Core i3, Pentium, and Celeron models. Those processors bring small changes compared to the sixth-generation ones: new video decoder for 4K video, improved Speed Shift technology (that dynamically adjusts the CPU clock,) and support to Optane technology (which is a future kind of high performance SSDs.)
The Core i5-7600K is the most high-end Core i5 CPU so far. It features 3.8 GHz base clock, 4.2 GHz turbo clock, 6 MiB of L3 cache, TDP of 91 W, and unlocked multiplier. It is manufactured under 14 nm process.
By now, the Core i5-7600K has no competitor from AMD (the Ryzen R5 CPUs will probably be these competitors, when launched,) so we tested it against a Core i5-6500 CPU, which is a slightly (15%) less expensive processor. So, keep in mind that they are not direct competitors.
Figure 1 unveils the Core i5-7600K CPU.
Figure 1: the Core i5-7600K CPU
Figure 2 shows the bottom of the CPU.
Figure 2: underside of the Core i5-7600K
In our benchmarks, we used the integrated video for the processing tests. However, for the gaming benchmarks, we disabled the integrated video and used a GeForce GTX 1080 video card on both CPUs, in order to see how the CPU power impact games, not the iGPU.
Let’s compare the main specs of the reviewed CPUs in the next page.