Intel · LGA1151 · Upgrade guide
Upgrading from a Core i5-6600K?
What you can drop into the same LGA1151 motherboard, and the graphics cards the Core i5-6600K can drive before it becomes the bottleneck.
See all upgrades for my board → Socket LGA1151
Gaming tier 40/100
TDP / base power 91 W
Released 2015
⬆️ Best drop-in upgrades (LGA1151)
The fastest gaming chip for your socket is the Core i7-7700K (~15% more CPU gaming potential). No new motherboard or RAM needed — a BIOS update might be.
🎮 Graphics cards it can drive
The strongest GPU the Core i5-6600K can keep up with before it bottlenecks, by resolution:
1080p up to ~Radeon RX 6800 XT
1440p up to ~GeForce RTX 3090 Ti
4K up to ~GeForce RTX 5090
Higher resolutions lean on the GPU, so the same CPU pairs with stronger cards at 4K than at 1080p.