Intel is set to launch its Kaby Lake-S series processors for desktop and 200-series motherboards on 5th of January at CES 2017. While we are still are couple of months away from the launch, the first Core i5-7600K review has just hit the web. The review has been published by PCOnline, giving us the first glimpse at the CPU performance of the K-series family of Kaby Lake processors.

For those who don’t know, the Intel Core i5-7600K is the fastest Core i5 chip in the upcoming KBL-S lineup. The chip will replace the Core i5-6600K which is based on the Skylake architecture. To make things clear, Kaby Lake isn’t a new architecture in itself but a more optimized variant of Skylake, built using the 14nm+ FinFET process node.

Thanks to the latest FF process technology, the i5-7600K which is clocked at 3.8GHz base, manages to boost all of the way up to 4.2GHz, becoming the first processor in the Intel Core i5 range to hit a maximum stock clock speed in excess of 4.0GHz.

According to Intel’s document for partners leaked earlier, the Core i5-7600K will use the B0 stepping of the core, and it’ll pack 6 MB of L3 cache while being rated at 91W TDP. As for the pricing, the processor is expected to retail at $239.

Core i5-7600K Benchmarks: 9% Faster Than Core i5-6600K But No IPC Gains

Moving to the performance benchmarks, the Core i5-7600K outperforms its Skylake based counterpart by around 9-10%. However, the lead comes only from the increase in clock speed; IPC (Instructions Per Clock Cycle) remains the same as Skylake and shows a 1% uplift. We shouldn’t expect a considerable IPC increase until the 10nm Ice Lake architecture arrives in 2018.

Intel Core i5-7600K CPU Benchmarks:



Intel Core i5-7600K GPU Benchmarks:



Intel Core i5-7600K Power Consumption / Temperatures:



On power consumption side of things, the i5-7600K has the same power package as its predecessor, though the voltage readings are a bit high. This could lead to 3-5W higher power consumption at full load, while temperatures are stable around 46C.

Folks over at PCOnline conducted the bench using an engineering sample but based on our experience with ES benchies for previous generations, we can expect a similar performance with the final release.

What are thoughts on the Intel Core i5-7600K performance benchmarks? Let us know in the comments below.