Intel Core i5-8600K: Six mid-range cores

Since Coffee Lake-S is becoming more and more a digital launch and the hardware is not really available in quantities, we could actually take our time. The new Intel Core i5-8600K is also more of a fata morgana, the auc... In the AI test of Civilization IV, all CPUs position themselves in a good way as one might expect from the technical data.

For these test series, we use benchmarks from the rather versatile SPECwpc suite for workstations, which rely on very different mathematical calculations, which on the one hand can be excellently parallelized and where at the same time it is also very often things like memory bandwidth, cache, and latency.

Rodinia

The Pre-Euler3D CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics Benchmark) test is really impressive, so it's no surprise that all AMD CPUs perform so well. What is interesting with the Intel CPUs, however, is that the extra clock of the overclocked versions is not so extremely important here.

Convolution

This is a benchmark for a sub-area of function analysis in which a new, third function is created as a product of two functions (convolution, folding). Here, the clock and the core count scale equally well. heritage is an advantage for AMD.

CalculiX

This benchmark is based on a free finite element program for three-dimensional structural calculations. Intel's Core i7-8700K wins with a lot of clock, despite fewer cores. But the Core i5, robbed of hyper-threading, is once again completely without chance.

Poisson's Equation

The Poisson equation is an elliptical, partial second-order differential equation that is used as part of boundary value problems in large parts of physics. Intel's new six-cores may be pleasing, but here, too, overclocking isn't so extreme. Nevertheless, the Ryzen 7 1700 is always in sight.

Sequential Reweighted Message Passing (SRMP)

These are discrete energy minimization algorithms. The code doesn't really sit with all AMD CPUs, even though we count 16 threads.

Kirchhoff Migration

The subsurface structure in the earth can be determined by seismic processing. One of the four basic steps is the Kirchhoff migration to model an image from the existing data using mathematical operations. The benchmark used, including the calculations included, is in the best of AMD, so that the overclocked Ryzen 7 1700 remains clearly ahead.

Summary

The Core i5-8600K disqualifies itself due to lack of hyper-threading, but otherwise it would also be a Core i7 and not a cheaper variant. However, those who have to reckon with or render the appropriate programs would certainly invest incorrectly here. It's not a usable all-round workstation CPU, but rather something for gaming and better-sorted office.

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