Intel i5 9600K and i7 9700K Review

Introduction

The launch of the 9th Generation of Intel CPUs started off with the Core i9-9900K, an octo-core processor which piled on the cores and threads until only the most intense power users could have any cause for complaint.

Naturally, as you would expect from a processor which also was numbered at the very top of the possible options, it was also a little bit on the expensive side for an average user. While it remains affordable for what you receive, it’s far beyond what should be considered mid-range.

Since the famous i5-2500K, a lot of the non-hyperthreaded Intel CPUs have been a roaring success, balancing good everyday performance with more than enough power to keep your games running smoothly. This latest 9th Generation ups the ante even further by going all in on the idea of more cores being better equipped to handle the encoding and image processing tasks which have become a larger part of our daily lives. It’s a side-effect of our phones being such capable media monsters and the stratospheric rise of online streaming and gameplay sharing on video sites that a task which was reserved for the enthusiasts is now something we all do. After all, if you can’t share photos of your dinner on social media did you really eat it?

We have two processors for review today, the Core i5-9600K is a six-core speedster, whilst the Core i7-9700K is the first Core i7 processor we can recall that doesn’t use hyperthreading, although with eight cores that is less necessary than before. Perhaps the introduction of the Core i9 has moved the range below up one.

Technical Specifications