Intel Core i5-11600K CPU Review & Benchmarks: Gaming, Overclocking, Video Editing, & More

The Intel i5-11600K is one of Intel's more promising launches today, alongside the Intel i5-11400 CPU and other low-end parts. Our review & benchmark of the 11600K tests it vs. AMD & more.


Our Intel i5-11600K CPU review covers the new processor in-depth, tested in an ASUS Z590 Maximus XIII Hero with BIOS published a few days ago. This includes updated microcode numbers for the 11700K, and our 11900K critical review will publish later today. The Intel i5-11600K CPU may actually be worth it, and this poses a strong value proposition for Intel in a market contested primarily by CPUs in the $300+ price bracket. Benchmarks include a look at the best CPUs for gaming in 2021, top CPUs for video editing and rendering, Cycles CPU rendering performance in Blender, power consumption, overclocking performance, and more.

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TIMESTAMPS

00:00 - Intel 11600K CPU Benchmark vs. R5 5600X & More
04:13 - Intel 11600K CPU Frequency Behavior
05:43 - The 11700K with a Microcode Update
06:36 - F1 2020 (1080p & 1440p) i5-11600K Benchmarks
08:56 - Red Dead Redemption 2 Best Gaming CPUs 2021
09:40 - Three Kingdoms CPU Benchmarks (11600K vs. R7 5800X, etc)
10:41 - Hitman 3 CPU Benchmarks
11:07 - Rainbow Six Siege (1080p & 1440p) Best CPUs
12:45 - Cyberpunk 2077 CPU Benchmarks
13:59 - GTA V (1080p & 1440p) 11600K vs. 11700K
15:01 - Overclocking the Intel i5-11600K CPU
16:43 - Blender Cycles Best Rendering CPUs
17:35 - Chromium Code Compile CPU Testing
18:22 - 7Zip (Compression & Decompression) Benchmarks
19:55 - Adobe Premiere Best CPUs
20:28 - Adobe Photoshop CPU Benchmark
20:47 - Power Consumption of i5-11600K
22:18 - Conclusion
: Strong Value Footing

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Testing, Writing, Test Lead: Steve Burke
Additional Testing, Writing: Patrick Stone
Testing: Patrick Lathan
Video: Keegan Gallick
Video: Andrew Coleman

[jobcorver]

Love how fast it changed to 'Out of stock'

[thevaultsup]

Time for heavily tuned 11600K vs heavily tuned 5600x

[mrgreengns]

"Sort of like buying kaby lake when you got the 8700 later that year. That certainly didnt feel great to those 7700k buyers at the time." Hey, he's talking about me!

[dannyboy]

How often do you pull random long hairs out of motherboards?

[glennv]

This is like upside-down world, you buy the intel if you want to save $50 and don't care about at least double power consumption

[ReadySetRag]

TLDW:
Intel is the budget/value option now while AMD is the workstation/performance option. Nothing bad with the role reversals, at least there’s some competition.

[b-rant]

You guys should definitely do a basic overclocking video covering cpu and memory tuning. Don't need to give us all the secrets but a walkthrough for those who havent upgraded since 4th gen would be great

[MirelRC]

21:15 It's almost absurd how much power efficient is the R9 5950x. Like more than double the cores of a 5600x and almost double power consumption.

[jholotanbest]

It is kind of impressive how much power intel has managed to force through the CPU.

[StotterChannel]

"intel is the value brand" never expected to hear that

[f-raptor]

Got a 5600x for 279 pretty happy with it

[Matttheman]

Are we going to get a review of the 11400? Looking forward to seeing reviews of that, and info about their integrated graphics

[raikoh]

Anandtech once said, no such thing as bad product, only bad prices.

[Matthew-dphf]

I'll be honest, power efficiency matters a lot to me, and I appreciate you guys for taking the time to add it to the video as its own segment.

[traumadisaster]

Objective, good job. For us casual gamers the 106kf is $200 and all we need.

[Kelemeth]

"You can always wait in this industry, but at some point you have to build something."

Sounds like it should be on a tablet.... like one of those stone ones not.. never mind.

[lolowfi]

Something to take into account when testing compile times is that in large code bases (lots of compilation units/source files) the bottleneck is often storage speed and not the CPU. I've never tried this myself, but it's possible that having 2 test systems with different ssd's will skew the results.

[shiggityx]

"The sand would be better...on a beach." So brutal, made me laugh all over again.

[turbofanlover]

Bring on the 11400F...please and thank you. THAT is the clear best bang for the buck gaming CPU out there.

[asagraf]

Have you ever considered comparing "package prices" including motherboards? Looking at the prices at my local Microcenter, you can still get a decent B550 board with the 5600X for less money total than a decent Z4/590 board with the 11600K. In my opinion, that changes the value equation but I am curious to hear yours!