Intel Core i5-9600K vs Intel Core i7-7700K

Core i5-9600K vs Core i7-7700K comparison

Our benchmark analysis concludes that the Core i5-9600K performs better than the Core i7-7700K. Furthermore, our gaming benchmark shows that it also outperforms the Core i7-7700K in all gaming tests too.

When comparing core counts for these CPUs, we notice that the Core i5-9600K has significantly more cores with 6 cores compared to the Core i7-7700K that has 4 cores. Despite this, the Core i7-7700K has more threads than the Core i5-9600K. These CPUs have different clock speeds. Indeed, the Core i7-7700K has a slightly higher clock speed compared to the Core i5-9600K. Despite this, the Core i5-9600K has a slightly higher turbo speed. Both these chips have an identical TDP (Thermal Design Power). This measures the amount of heat they output and can be used to estimate power consumption. In terms of cache, the Core i5-9600K has significantly more L2 cache when compared to the Core i7-7700K. The Core i5-9600K also has slightly more L3 cache.

Most CPUs have more threads than cores. This technology, colloquially called hyperthreading, improves performance by splitting a core into multiple virtual ones. This provides more efficient utilisation of a core. For instance, the Core i5-9600K has the same number of threads as cores. This means the the CPU does not support hyperthreading.