Intel
Intel Core i5-8600K
Coffee Lake's unlocked six-core i5, 3.6/4.3 GHz stock and commonly 4.8-5.0 GHz all-core once overclocked. Without Hyper-Threading it sits awkwardly close to the i7-8700 in price while giving up six threads, so it only makes sense to someone who will actually overclock it.
Pros
- Unlocked multiplier - 4.9-5.0 GHz all-core is routine with a good tower cooler
- Six cores and 9 MB L3, a full generation ahead of any quad-core LGA1151 i5
- Highest gaming clocks of any i5 on this platform once tuned
- UHD Graphics 630 at 1150 MHz for QuickSync and no-GPU troubleshooting
- Z370/Z390 boards allow memory overclocking well beyond the official DDR4-2666
Cons
- No Hyper-Threading - six threads against the 8700's twelve, for a small price gap used
- 95 W and no cooler in the box; an overclocked sample needs a serious one
- Thermal paste under the heat spreader - Intel did not return to solder until 9th gen
- Requires a 300-series board; a Z170/Z270 will not run it
Below average
Computed from specs & benchmarks via our public methodology.
Full specifications
Everything we track for the Intel Core i5-8600K
General
- Announced
- 2017
- Socket
- LGA1151-v2
- Process
- 14 nm
- Base TDP
- 95 W
- Unlocked multiplier
- Yes
- Cooler included
- No
Cores & Clocks
- Cores
- 6
- Performance cores
- 6
- Efficiency cores
- 0
- Threads
- 6
- Base clock
- 3.6 GHz
- Boost clock
- 4.3 GHz
- L2 cache
- 2 MB
- L3 cache
- 9 MB
Integrated GPU
- iGPU
- Intel UHD Graphics 630
- iGPU clock
- 1,150 MHz
Memory
- Memory support
- DDR4-2666
- Max memory
- 64 GB
- Memory channels
- 2
Platform
- PCIe version
- 3
- CPU PCIe lanes
- 16
Benchmarks
- Geekbench 6 (single)
- 1,480
- Geekbench 6 (multi)
- 5,400
- Cinebench R23 (single)
- 1,210
- Cinebench R23 (multi)
- 6,800
- PassMark
- 10,600
Quick answers
Is the Intel Core i5-8600K good in 2026?
The Intel Core i5-8600K earns an Inno Score of 31.1/100 (“Below average”) based on its specs and benchmark results. Coffee Lake's unlocked six-core i5, 3.6/4.3 GHz stock and commonly 4.8-5.0 GHz all-core once overclocked. Without Hyper-Threading it sits awkwardly close to the i7-8700 in price while giving up six threads, so it only makes sense to someone who will actually overclock it.
What are the key specs of the Intel Core i5-8600K?
Cores: 6 · Threads: 6 · Boost clock: 4.3 GHz · Socket: LGA1151-v2
What are the closest alternatives to the Intel Core i5-8600K?
Its closest rivals on InnoReviews are AMD Ryzen 5 2600, AMD Ryzen 3 3100, Intel Core i5-9600K — open the comparison pages for a spec-by-spec breakdown.