Intel Core i7-10700K

Core i7-10700K specifications

What these numbers mean for the Core i7-10700K

On our index the Core i7-10700K scores 71.0, which places it 47th of the 83 processors we track and puts it faster than roughly 44% of them.

The Core i7-10700K and the Ryzen 7 5700X land on exactly the same index score of 71.0, so on raw throughput the two are interchangeable and the choice between them comes down to memory, power draw and price on the day.

The Core i7-10700K is tuned for games rather than throughput, scoring 71.0 for games against 72.0 for multithread work, and that shape is the signature of a part built around cache and per core speed at 5.1 GHz rather than around core count, which is what game engines actually use.

8 cores and 16 threads is the range almost every game engine is built around, which is why the Core i7-10700K performs close to chips with far more of both: past about 8 cores the extra ones sit idle during gameplay, because the game thread and the render thread are largely serial and cannot be split further.

A 2020 part, so the platform around the Core i7-10700K matters as much as the chip: expect PCIe 3.0, slower memory support and no upgrade path left on that socket after 6 years. Those cost a few percent on top of whatever its 71.0 index says.

Core i7-10700K frame rate at each resolution

The Core i7-10700K paired with the GeForce RTX 4080 on the High preset with 16 GB of system memory. The processor is the limit at all three resolutions here, so the Core i7-10700K only drops 49% from 121 fps to 62 fps across them and keeps capacity it is never asked for.

How the Core i7-10700K compares

6 processors sit within 30% of the Core i7-10700K on our gaming index, running from the Core i7-14700K at +30% to the Ryzen 9 9950X at +24%, a window narrow enough that price, memory and power decide it rather than raw speed.

What to pair with the Core i7-10700K, and when to upgrade

Best GPU for the Core i7-10700K

When the Core i7-10700K becomes the limit, the Ryzen 7 9700X is the next step worth paying for: 87.0 on our index against 71.0, a jump of 23%, which is roughly where an upgrade stops being something you have to look at a counter to notice. See its specs.

Check the Core i7-10700K against your own parts