Review: Intel Core i5-11600K

by Tarinder Sandhu on 8 April 2021, 14:01

Tags: Intel (NASDAQ:INTC)

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qaeqfo

Add to My Vault: x

CPU Tests

4.9GHz of Cypress Cove power is plenty fast enough to offer tip-top performance in our customary first test.

The single-thread gain between Intel generations is impressive. Our Core i5-10600K sample, which has the same number of cores and threads, runs at around 4.7GHz here. The new 11600K, meanwhile, chomps along at 4.9GHz, per maximum specification. Adding increased IPC to the mix pushes single-thread performance up by a considerable 27 per cent. Nice.

Cranking out the power on all cores reveals modest improvements. That said, the Core i5-11600K is absolutely competitive against 6C12T parts from AMD and certainly better than the two previous-generation chips occupying the same place in the Core hierarchy.

Blender's test takes a while longer. That is the main reason why the Core i5-11600K slows down a bit. Logs show that while the chip runs at a 145W package power for a short time, it does indeed settle down to a long-term 125W. This settlement reduces all-core frequency to between 4.4-4.5GHz.

One can easily make it run at an all-core 4.6GHz by a few presses in the BIOS. Doing so elevates long-term TDP from 125W to 180W. No bueno.