Intel Core i9-11900K and i5-11600K review: Solid gaming, if you can get one

Intel’s 11th-gen Core processors are exceeding my low expectations. The company is still on its 14nm process, but a new architecture means its desktop CPUs are maxing out at 8 cores and 16 threads. That’s opposed to the 16 cores in the Ryzen 5950X (or 12 in the more comparable 5900X) and 10 cores in Intel’s own last-gen i9-10900K part. But the reality is that the Intel Core i9-11900K and the i5-11600K both deliver strong gaming performance. And in the case of the 10900K, it’s an ideal CPU for livestreaming … depending on what you pay for it.

Here are the quick basics about Intel’s Rocket Lake-S processors.