Final Thoughts
I think the real story of the Core i5-10600K or just the 10th generation Core i5 series in general is that Intel has enabled HyperThreading. So now instead of getting a 6-core, 6-thread part you are getting a 6-core, 12-thread part. Intel’s decision to make this change might have been prompted by AMD, but whatever the case may be this upgrade is definitely going to bolster the performance of the Core i5 line.
So in terms of performance you are basically getting a slightly better performing Core i7-8700K. Keep in mind that the i7-8700K was Intel’s flagship processor when it launched back at the end of 2017. So now you are getting that type of performance in a Core i5 part! The Core i5-10600K is set up to compete with AMD’s Ryzen 5 3600X, which is also a 6-core, 12-thread part. We found that in our testing in most multi-core workloads the Ryzen 5 3600X beats it out by a slight margin.
In gaming tests however the Core i5-10600K is definitely dominate as almost all of the Intel chips in our test group were superior in our gaming benchmarks.
Overclocking the Core i5-10600K is quite easy to do whether you are doing it in the BIOS, with Intel XTU, or with motherboard companion software. With our chip we were able to bring all 6 cores up to 5.0 GHz with a Vcore of 1.35. Now we could boot at 5.1 GHz as well, but that overclock was not very stable. With this overclock temperatures were in check, but you are definitely going to want a pretty hefty cooler if you are going to run an overclock 24/7.
Again the question comes down to do I choose Intel or AMD? If gaming or the most FPS you can get is important to you then going Intel would be your best bet. AMD has a slight advantage in multi-core workloads and the platform offers gen 4 support so that is something to think about.
Intel prices the Core i5-10600K at $262 (per 1k units) so if they can keep the price around there I would say it is a very good price for Intel. Intel has vastly upgraded their Core i5 line over the previous generation and consumers are definitely going to appreciate that.
Pros:
– HyperThreading now enabled
– Basically a better Core i7-8700k
– Beats AMD in gaming performance
– Easy to overclock and updated overclocking options
– Good price overall
Cons:
– Gets beat by the Ryzen 5 3600X in multi-core workloads
