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.”
As a child in my 40's, I spend my day combining my love of music and movies with a life-long passion for gaming, from arcade classics and retro consoles to the latest high-end PC and console games. So it's no wonder I write about tech and test the latest hardware while I enjoy my hobbies!
Hey, did you subtract the temperature offset that AMD put on threadripper 1950x before creating the temperature images? I’ve built two threadripper systems and with prime95 + a noctua NH14, temps did not exceed 64°C under load (you reached that temperature in idle :p)
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Hey, did you subtract the temperature offset that AMD put on threadripper 1950x before creating the temperature images? I’ve built two threadripper systems and with prime95 + a noctua NH14, temps did not exceed 64°C under load (you reached that temperature in idle :p)