Intel Core i5-8600K 8th Gen 6-Core CPU Review

Intel Core i5-8600K The new Intel Core i5-8400 Coffee Lake CPUs certainly left us impressed, despite our own skepticism prior to their launch. I've been eager to see what else the new Coffee Lake CPUs have to offer, and today I have the Intel Core i5-8600K CPU going on our test bench. This is likely to be one of the most popular chips for many consumers. The i5 range is a popular option for gamers, as it delivers most of the features and performance of an i7, albeit at a lower price. With this being a K-series processor, it's also overclockable, meaning you can squeeze even more performance out of the chip. More cores are the main star of the show here, a leap to six cores is a first for the i5 range, which has been quad-core for a very long time indeed. That should basically mean 50% more performance. Of course, it doesn't always work like that, as every bit of software uses each core differently. Sometimes the performance can be the same, sometimes greater than expected, but that's what I'm here to find out! With as many cores as the Ryzen 5 range of CPUs, it's going to be competitive. However, Intel has AMD beat in terms of clock speeds, and we already know that our preview Coffee Lake reviews beat out virtually everything in benchmarks. Let's see what this one can do! Specifications Cores: 6 Threads: 6 Base Clock: 3.6 GHz Max Turbo: 4.3 GHz Cache: 9 MB Max Memory Size: 64 GB Memory Types: DDR4 2666 PCIe Lanes: 16 TDP: 95W Optane Ready: Yes Lithography: 14 nm Additional Our Z370 reviews all feature this lovely stick of Optane Memory from Intel. This is a feature that's still limited to the Intel platform, but one we hope to see expand into other parts of the market over the next few years. "Intel Optane memory is a smart, adaptable system accelerator for PCs. It provides uncompromising system responsiveness for large capacity storage drives, making everything you do fast, smooth and easy." - Intel Testing and Methodology Test Procedure Here at eTeknix, we endeavour to disclose vital information regarding the benchmarking process so that readers can quantify the results and attempt to replicate them using their hardware. When it comes to CPU reviews, the benchmarks are pretty self-explanatory although there are a few exceptions. Rember that your choice of motherboard, the silicon lottery, and other factors can yield different numbers, and there's always a margin for error when using the software. Therefore, your experience may vary. Each benchmark runs three times, and the average figure is taken to try to reduce the effect of hardware variation. Of course, any relevant details regarding the parameters will be listed below. Test Systems Z370 Motherboard - Gigabyte AORUS Ultra Gaming RAM - Crucial DDR4 2400MHz Quad-Channel 32GB + Optane CPU Cooler - Noctua D15S with dual fans Graphics Card - Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Power Supply - BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 850 Watt Main Storage Drive - Toshiba OCZ VX500 500GB Chassis - Lian Li T80 Test Bench Operating System - Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit X399 Motherboard – MSI X399 Gaming Pro Carbon AC RAM – Crucial Ballistix 32GB (4x8GB) 2400MHz CPU Cooler – CM Master Liquid 120mm (will be retested with Noctua D15S with dual fans in coming weeks) Graphics Card – Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Power Supply – BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 850 Watt Main Storage Drive – Toshiba OCZ VX500 500GB Chassis – Lian Li T80 Test Bench Operating System – Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit X299 Motherboard - Gigabyte AORUS Gaming 9 RAM - Crucial DDR4 2400MHz Quad-Channel 32GB CPU Cooler - Noctua D15S with dual fans Graphics Card - Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Power Supply - BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 850 Watt Main Storage Drive - Toshiba OCZ VX500 500GB Chassis - Lian Li T80 Test Bench Operating System - Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit AM4 Ryzen R3, R5 and R7 Motherboard - MSI XPower Titanium X370 RAM - GeIL DDR4 2977MHz Dual Channel 16GB CPU Cooler - Noctua D15S with dual fans Graphics Card - Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Power Supply - BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 850 Watt Main Storage Drive - Toshiba OCZ VX500 500GB Chassis - Lian Li T80 Test Bench Operating System - Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit X99 - Our GPU Review Test Bench Motherboard – Asus Rampage V Extreme X99 RAM – Crucial 16GB (2 x 8GB) 2666 MHz CPU Cooler - Noctua D15S with dual fans Graphics Card - Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Power Supply - BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 850 Watt Main Storage Drive – Toshiba OCZ VX500 500GB Chassis – Lian Li T80 Open Air Test Bench Operating System – Windows 10 64-bit Games Used All games are tested at both 1920 x 1080 and 2160 x 3840 (4K) on a 60 Hz display with V-Sync off for all tests. Previously we would use "extreme" presets, but these have now been adjusted to "Medium" or equivalent to better test the capabilities of the CPU, not the GPU. Rise of the Tomb Raider (Steam) DX12 Medium Preset Pure Hair Off Deus Ex (Steam) DX12 Medium Preset Ghost Recon: Wildlands (Uplay) Medium Preset Turf Effects Off Far Cry Primal (Uplay) Normal Preset Software Used 3DMark Fire Strike (download) FireStrike (1080p) Benchmark Unigine Superposition (download) 1080p Extreme Benchmark PCMark 10 Professional (download) Express Benchmark WPrime (download) 32M and 1024M Power usage recorded at 1024M 50% complete, thermals recorded at 75% CineBench R15 (download) CPU Multi CPU Single Handbrake (download) Custom MP4 to MKV 4K conversion (details below) AIDA64 Engineer (download) CPU-Z (download) HWMonitor (download) Handbrake To stress processors to their absolute limit and accurately judge their performance in video editing workloads, we transcode a 7.7GB compilation of gaming footage; this particular file is freely available from here. The captured footage is 22 minutes and 12 seconds long, it has a bit rate of 50.1 Mbps and it uses the Advanced Video Codec. Additionally, the video runs at a constant 30 frames-per-second and opts for a 3820 x 2140 (4K) resolution. Once loaded into Handbrake, we then transcode the 4K MP4 to an MKV file using the "normal" profile. Other Notes A rest period of 2-5 minutes is observed between each piece of software allowing the system to return to its idle power usage and temperatures. Background services like Windows Update are checked to not be running during the testing period by setting WiFi to Metered Connection. Thanks Thank you to Noctua, Crucial, ASUS, Gigabyte, Lian-Li, be quiet!, OCZ, for providing the hardware that helps makes these tests possible! Synthetic Benchmarks 3DMark Firestrike Intel's Coffee Lake CPU's have done amazing so far, and the 8600K is now one of the fastest too. It set a superb score of 20851 at stock and hit a more impressive 22031 once overclocked to 5 GHz. Stock Overclocked Unigine Superposition 1080p Extreme The GPU bound Unigine shows us that the PCIe throughput is perfect, and there's no "throttling" going on for our 1080 Ti. Overclocking took the score from 5512, up to a very nice 5540. Stock Overclocked PCMark 10 Express The general multi-tasking performance of the 8600K is great too, scoring 5392 points at stock. However, once overclocked, it set our highest score to date, a very impressive 6333 points! Stock Overclocked WPrime 32M and 1024M The bigger CPU core counts bring big benefits to WPrime, and moving to six cores for the i5 saw some great improvements. 174.302 is incredible for a stock consumer level CPU. Overclocking saw that time drop to around 143 seconds. Stock Overclocked Cinebench R15 While the i7 or i9 CPUs are best for CineBench, or the AMD Threadripper, the i5 did set a respectable score of 1035. The single core performance was promising too, hitting 187. Once overclocked, it scored a mighty 1321, a 24.27% increase in performance. Stock Overclocked Handbrake MP4 to MKV Conversion 4K Once overclocked, the CPU managed to hit just over 60 FPS while converting 4K video. That's very impressive, and for 60 FPS video, it means we're converting in real time; not bad for the mid-range i5. Stock Overclocked AIDA 64 Memory Bandwidth and Latency Memory performance is decent, with blazing fast read times although lacking on the copy a little, but still within the rating for our chosen memory kit. It also gave us one of our lowest latency scores, which is always a good thing to see. Gaming Performance Deus Ex: Mankind Divided Gaming performance is a big deal for any CPU these days, but especially this one, as it's going to be a prime target for most system builders. Straight away, the 8600K set out fastest ever score for Deus EX at 1080p at stock, and once overclocked. It's also performing great at 4K, with some of our highest scores there, but it also set some excellent minimum scores throughout. 1080p Stock 1080p Overclocked 2160p Stock 2160p Overclocked Rise of the Tomb Raider Again, we see the 8600K set some of our highest ever scores, making easy work of Tomb Raider at both stock and overclocked levels. 1080p Stock 1080p Overclocked 2160p Stock 2160p Overclocked Ghost Recon: Wildlands Rock solid 1080P performance, with record-breaking scores and a nice and high minimum score too. It also set our highest score while overclocked and running at 4K, which is very impressive. 1080p Stock 1080p Overclocked 2160p Stock 2160p Overclocked Far Cry Primal At 1080p, the 8600K made an absolute mockery of everything else, setting our highest scores by a freaking huge margin. If that wasn't enough, it went on to do the same at 4K too, setting some exeptional scores. If you're planning to buy this for gamin, you're making a great choice! 1080p Stock 1080p Overclocked 2160p Stock 2160p Overclocked Power Consumption and Temperatures Power Consumption The power consumption is not as high as you might think on this CPU. It's certainly efficient given the performance we've seen and that explains why overclocking it was so straightforward too. Stock Overclocked Temperatures Adding two more cores to the i5 range does mean more heat, but at just 65c once overclocked, we think the CPU could clock higher, although temperatures will shoot up with minimal returns, so water cooling would be advised beyond 5 GHz. Stock Overclocked Final Thoughts Pricing The Intel Core i5-8600K is available now for around £340. That's a pretty decent price given the performance we've seen today, and it is quite a lot cheaper than the i7-8700K, which is around £480! Hopefully, we'll see AMD price more competitively too, and see some price drops from both sides, as £340 is still a fair chunk of money for most. Overview Having tested the Intel Core i7-8700K and the i5-8400, it comes as no surprise that the i5-8600K performs as well as it did. All three 8th Gen CPUs we've tested so far have absolutely decimated the competition when it comes to gaming performance. For those building a high-end gaming PC, there's no content, as the new i5 is a real number cruncher when it comes to scoring high frame rates. More Than Just Gaming Obviously, PC's are good for more than just gaming. No, seriously, you should try other things sometime! The new i5 CPU is a monster, upping the standard i5 core count from four to six, and that means big improvements in everything. When it came to PC Mark 10, it set our highest score to date, making it a multi-tasking superstar. When it comes to day to day performance, it wont disappoint. While rendering videos, and other heavy-duty tasks, it's one of the fastest consumer CPUs on the market. Of course, you can get faster from the i7 or the i9, but you'll be spending a lot of money to pick up one of those. For the average consumer and gamer, the i5 is more than enough. Z370 or GTFO Unfortunately, the 8th Generation i5 requires the Z370 series motherboards. These are near identical to the Z270 motherboards in terms of features, but use a revised socket to support the increased core count. This is a shame, but given the performance gains, I doubt many will be too fussed about paying for the upgrade. If you're on something like the 7700K, maybe upgrading isn't needed right now. However, if you're on an older platform, buying Z270 now seems a bit silly, as Z370 offers much better performance. Pros 6 core design Great for productivity tasks Exceptional gaming performance Easy overclocking Good thermal performance Good efficiency Cons Requires Z370 motherboard "When it comes to hitting a higher frame rate in the latest games, the Intel Core i5-8600K is one of the best choices on the market today. From improving performance in the office, with multi-tasking, or just all out gaming, the new 6-core i5 is simply amazing."