Intel are celebrating the 40th anniversary of their x86 architecture and 8086 processor with the launch of their high-end i7-8086K. Just 50,000 units of this hex core, twelve threaded Coffee Lake processor have been made available globally. Exactly like the i7-8700K, the 8086K features 12MB of smart (L3) cache, 2 channels of DDR4 RAM and has a TDP of 95W. Essentially, the 8086K is Intel’s current Coffee Lake flagship, the i7-8700K, with a single-core turbo frequency factory overclocked by 300 MHz. Thermals permitting, out of the box, the i7-8086K achieves a single core boost speed of 5.0 GHz – which is a new record for Intel. That said, you would be unlucky if you were unable to achieve a 5.0 GHz single core OC with an 8700K. For everything other than single core, the turbo clock speeds on the 8086K exactly match the 8700K which puts the 8086K firmly into gimmick territory. Directly comparing the 8086K and 8700K shows that for a $100 (24%) price premium you get around a 5% performance improvement which drops to around 2% when both chips are overclocked. If the price gap between the 8086K and the 8700K were to fall to less than 20 USD it may be worth considering the 8086K. [Jun '18CPUPro]
Intel’s 13th gen. Raptor Lake CPUs offer around 10% faster gaming and 45% faster multi-core performance than their predecessors. The new CPUs are compatible with DDR4 memory and Z690/B660 ($150) motherboards. New high-end gaming builders need look no further than the 13600K. The 13600K beats AMD’s flagship 7950X in gaming and almost matches the 7900X in multi-core performance. Extreme workstation users may find value in the 13700K or 13900K. Gamers on a tight budget can save $40 USD with a 13600KF which is a 13600K without integrated graphics. Although Ryzen 7000 has weaker multi-core, weaker single-core, higher platform costs and higher unit prices AMD have a 3D joker up their sleeve (7800X3D est. 2023). Via “Advanced Marketing” on youtube, forums, reddit, and twitter AMD will demonstrate that their upcoming CPU is the “best in the world” and offer “proof” by way of a small handful of obscure workloads. Games that few people play e.g. (Factorio, SotTR) will be cherry picked, video footage of the gameplay/settings won’t be provided and frame drops will be conveniently ignored. This playbook has easily outsold Intel in recent years but with every overhyped release, consumers lose trust in AMD. Based on social media/press coverage, you would never guess that the combined market share for all of AMD’s Radeon 5000 and 6000 GPUs amongst PC gamers is just 2.12% (Steam stats). Meanwhile Nvidia’s RTX 2060 alone accounts for a whopping 5.03%. Largely thanks to marketing incompetence, Intel is existentially motivated to deliver material annual performance improvements. Consumers can look forward to Meteor Lake (14th gen) in less than a years time. [Oct '22CPUPro]
We calculate effective speed which measures real world performance for typical users. Effective speed is adjusted by current prices to yield a value for money rating. Our calculated values are checked against thousands of individual user ratings. The customizable table below combines these factors to bring you the definitive list of top CPUs. [CPUPro]
Welcome to our PC speed test tool. UserBenchmark will test your PC and compare the results to other users with the same components. You can quickly size up your PC, identify hardware problems and explore the best value for money upgrades.