With Rocket Lake slated to arrive in a year or so, Intel’s 10th Gen Comet Lake-S lineup has largely been a waste of silicon. Another rebrand of the 14nm Skylake core, with just a single new SKU in the form of the 10-core i9-10900K. Even with this chip, it’s hard to show any practical scaling in games, making it a hard buy. The 10th Gen lineup also introduces a third Core i5 part, the 10500 which bridges the gap between the 10400 and the 10600K:
| CPU | Price | C/T | Base Clock | Boost | L3 Cache | TDP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Core i5-10400 | $160 | 6 / 12 | 2.9 GHz | 4.3 GHz | 12 MB | 65 W |
| Core i5-10500 | $200 | 6 / 12 | 3.1 GHz | 4.5 GHz | 12 MB | 65 W |
| Ryzen 5 3600 | $175 | 6 / 12 | 3.6 GHz | 4.2 GHz | 32 MB | 65 W |
| Core i5-9600K | $200 | 6 / 6 | 3.7 GHz | 4.6 GHz | 9 MB | 95 W |
| Core i5-10600K | $265 | 6 / 12 | 4.1 GHz | 4.8 GHz | 12 MB | 125 W |
| Ryzen 5 3600X | $205 | 6 / 12 | 3.8 GHz | 4.4 GHz | 32 MB | 95 W |
The Core i5-10500 costs $40 more than the 10400 for a 200MHz higher operating clocks. It’s still a ways slower (and $65 cheaper) than the 10600K and doesn’t come with an unlocked multiplier either. In terms of performance though, just like the 10400, it disappoints rather thoroughly:
In Cinebench R15 and R20, while the Core i5-10600K sits between the Ryzen 5 3600 and the 3600X in the multi-threaded tests, the 10500 fails to match either. The single-core benchmarks portray a similar image with the 10600K coming out on top, but the 10500 once again is beaten by both the Ryzen 5 parts. (https://cobblerexpress.com)
The CPU-Z benchmark is generally kinder to Intel’s CPUs as you can see the Core i5-10600K take a hefty lead in the single-threaded benchmark and level with the Ryzen 5 processors in the multi-core test. The Core i5-10500, although manages to edge past the 3600 in the SC test, the multi-threaded score is disappointing to say the least.
All in all, the results are as we’d surmised. The Core i5-10600K is easily the best CPU from Intel right now and only 10th Gen part worth buying. It offers the best gaming performance in the price bracket with a mild overclock mostly pushing it up to the same level as the 10700K and the 10900K. The lower-end 10th Gen parts, on the other hand, shouldn’t really exist as they’re handily beaten by the Ryzen 3 and Ryzen 5 CPUs in nearly every scenario.
