Intel Core i7-8700K vs Intel Core i7-5960X

Core i7-8700K vs Core i7-5960X specs and performance

Our benchmark analysis concludes that the Core i7-5960X performs better than the Core i7-8700K. Despite this, the Core i7-8700K has the advantage in our gaming benchmark.

When comparing core counts for these CPUs, we notice that the Core i7-5960X has slightly more cores with 8 cores compared to the Core i7-8700K that has 6 cores. It also has more threads than the Core i7-8700K. Our comparison shows that the Core i7-8700K has a slightly higher clock speed compared to the Core i7-5960X. Also, the Core i7-8700K has a slightly higher turbo speed. A Core i7-8700K CPU outputs less heat than a Core i7-5960X CPU because of its significantly lower TDP. This measures the amount of heat they output and can be used to estimate power consumption.

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. Indeed, the Core i7-8700K has more threads than cores. Each physical core is split into multiple threads.