Intel Core i5 8600K processor review - Introduction

The Core i5 8600K Tested
Intel's value six core gaming proc

We'll check out the more mainstream six-core proc from Intel as we put the Core i5 8600K through our benchmark paces. At $257 USD proc it is again a six-core processor that you will need to seat on a Z370 chipset based motherboard. While it isn't fitted enabled with hyper-threading and has less L3 cache, it seems to be a sweet gaming processor with its all-core turbo to 4.1 GHz and again it being tweakable to 5.0 GHz on all six cores.

Let me one again start by stating that Intel has not been a part of this review whatsoever. As I have mentioned before and will keep mentioning, Intel is ignoring the bigger part of EU press. And as such we have not received a shred of information let alone a single processor for review. That means we use a processor supplied from an industry contact. This is a proper Core i5 8600K (ES) processor. But it would be SO GOOD, if anyone from Intel who reads this would take notice and step up, to solve this sad situation in EU for the Nordic region specific. 

In this article we'll have a look at a new Core i5 8600K processor from Intel, the new six-core part is based on Coffee Lake(S) architecture and is the direct answer and effect from what AMD has been pursuing aggressively in the desktop processor channel. With this first 'mainstream' step from Intel, we'll get 6-core processors. These will need to be paired with a new motherboard chipset and thus motherboard, the Z370 based ranges. As you probably have figured out, Intel still does not have a mainstream priced 8-core processor available. Coffee Lake will not address that. Later this year you will see a Z390 chipset and motherboard range, it is suggested that here you'll see 8-core mainstream priced processors, based on Ice Lake architecture. This, however, remains speculation, as Ice Lake is based on a newer and smaller 10nm fabrication process. With the introduction of Ryzen and more recently the announcement of Threadripper processors the processor market and channel have been turned upside-down, and Intel is slowly waking up from its S3 deep-sleep state finally realizing that they cannot keep serving just quad-core processors in the mainstream, as they have been doing for subsequent years now. AMD gave Intel a serious awakening call and as such, they needed to step up, significantly. Intel’s primary processor business has been releasing and refreshing quad-core processors for many years combined with high-margin spicy priced E type (e.g. Broadwell-E / Haswell-E / Skylake-X) processor release every now and then. You can't really blame Intel either as there simply was no competition - hence they had no rush and have been relaxed all the way for years now. Intel did anticipate Zen (or Ryzen), but the AMD consumer aimed Threadripper 16-core and Naples server segment 32-core made Intel step up its game a notch as they shifted into a higher gear ever since Ryzen was released. Over the summer Skylake-X processors have been announced with limited releases and availability for the highest core count procs. Skylake-X, however, is available in good quantities for the 10-cores and 12-core parts, but these start at 999 Euros for the 10-core version. There is an Intel Core i7-7800X hexa-core available at the sub-400 Euro ranger though, but it needs to be tied towards an X299 motherboard, but these start at 350 euros. Ergo, AMD is outflanking Intel in any and every product segment price wise. This now changes with the Coffee Lake generation of processors that have up-to six-cores alongside more affordable Z370 motherboards.

We have been able to borrow a Core i5 8600K for this review. On the next few pages, I will take you guys a little deeper into the architecture and processor series that is Coffee lake as well as the Z370 chipset.