Intel's recently-released Core i5-8600 comes with an identical boost frequency as the i5-8600K, for a lesser price that happens to match that of the Ryzen 5 2600X. While base frequency might look low with 3.1 GHz, in reality, out of the box, the processor runs above 4 GHz all the time.

The Core i5-8400 did enough to disrupt AMD's first-generation Ryzen 5 series, particularly the Ryzen 5 1600. With the advent of the second-generation Ryzen 5 2600X and 2600, both priced below the i5-8600K, Intel finds the need to bolster its Core i5 "Coffee Lake" series at newer price points, with the i5-8500 and i5-8600. The i5-8500, priced at $199, reaches the psychological 3.00 GHz barrier for its nominal clock (the i5-8400 is clocked at 2.80 GHz), while the i5-8600 ups that with 3.10 GHz. Both are 6-core/6-thread parts with 256 KB of L2 cache per core and 9 MB of shared L3 cache, and both feature Turbo Boost, which spool up clock speeds to over 4 GHz.