Overclocking helps some, but the 7600K sample I tested wasn't quite stable at 5.0GHz and I had to drop to 4.9GHz. If you upgraded to a Core i5/i7 desktop part from the Haswell / 4th Gen Core period or later, you can sit out this round, and if you're primarily worried about gaming performance, that advice applies even more. And make no mistake, the i5-7600K is a better (ie, faster) processor than the i5-6600K-it's just not a revolution in CPU performance. The good news is that, at least in markets where the i5-7600K is readily available, it effectively replaces the i5-6600K at the same price. Compared to the i5-6600K, clock speed on the i5-7600K is eight percent higher (give or take half a percent).
There's also a new platform that increases the number of PCH chipset lanes to 24, but raw performance should scale directly in proportion to clock speed. The Core i5-7600K is mostly a lateral move for the Core i5 series of processors, with a slight upward trend in performance-exactly the same approach Intel has taken since the Core i5-2500K. Our Kaby Lake overclocking article does the same for all tested CPUs at overclocked settings.
INTEL CORE I5 2400 GAMING PLUS
Our main Kaby Lake hub includes additional charts comparing stock performance, plus additional architectural details.