Preview: Core i5 7600K processor - Desktop Kaby Lake - A CPU tested

Intel Core i5 7600K preview
The Kaby Lake Quad-Core processor tested

Today we take a first look at Intel Kaby lake processors in the form of a Core i5 7600K processor. A processor that has been fabbed on the 14nm node, a spin-of from SkyLake. The Core i5 series processors are intended to be the more wallet friendly offering from Intel, for a more mainstream to high-end consumer. In this preview we look at the performance of this processor in a wide variety of benchmarks and situations.

Kaby Lake Core i5 7600K and Core i7 7700K processors are two models released for desktop platform. Though you'd think it is an all new chip, it is merely a respin seen from Skylake, meaning both series processors are Socket 1151. being a respin this also means that IF you are in the market for a new series 7000 processor, your H170 or Z170 motherboard will be compatible with Kaby Lake after a motherboard BIOS firmware upgrade (this will be mandatory). If you are interested in new technologies like Intel Optane, you will however need to upgrade to the upcoming Z270 and H270 range motherboards. Much like Skylake the new series Kaby Lake processors are fairly energy efficient yet still as powerful as they have been for years.  In this preview we peek briefly at the Core i5 7600K. An unlocked Kaby Lake processor that has four cores based on a 91W TDP, similar to Skylake TDP wise. 
  

CPU	Core i7-7700K	Core i5-7600K	Core i7-6700K	Core i5-6600K	Core i7-4790K	Core i7-4770K
Codename	Kaby Lake	Kaby Lake	Skylake	Skylake	Haswell	Haswell
Package	LGA1151	LGA1151	LGA1151	LGA1151	LGA1150	LGA1150
Cores/threads	4/8	4/4	4/8	4/4	4/8	4/8
Frequency（GHz）	4.2-4.5	3.8-4.2	4.0-4.2	3.5-3.9	4.0-4.4	3.5-3.9
memory	DDR4-2133	DDR4-2133	DDR4-2133	DDR4-2133	DDR3-1600	DDR3-1600
IGP	Intel HD 630	Intel HD 630	Intel HD 530	Intel HD 530	Intel HD 4600	Intel HD 4600
L3 Cache	8MB	6MB	8MB	6MB	8MB	8MB
Fab	14nm	14nm	14nm	14nm	22nm	22nm
Unlocked multiplier	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
TDP	91W	91W	91W	91W	84W	95W

 
Kaby Lake is the third step in Intels 'process-architecture-optimization' strategy on 14nm. So yes these chips are, much like Broadwell and Skylake, produced at 14nm, but should get some optimizations and features such as support for Optane SSDs. The quad core CPU has 6 MB of L3 cache, and an integrated memory controller that supports both DDR4 and DDR3 memory. For the gaming community the two K model processors are the most important. As stated, in this article we focus on the Core i5 7600K. Let's get started shall we?