Not too long ago the release of a new processor family meant a noticeable improvement from the previous generation and the only question was how to upgrade, not if you should upgrade.  Like many other things, that has passed on into the proverbial good old days and now we need reviews like this one published by [H]ard|OCP.  Is there any noticeable performance difference between the two chips outside of synthetic benchmarks? 

The test systems are slightly different as the memory has changed, the 7700K has 2666MHz DDR4 while the 2600K has 2133MHz DDR3; both CPUs are clocked at 4.5GHz however.  Their results show actual performance deltas in productivity software such as HandBrake and Blender, justifying the upgrade for those who focus on content creation.  As for gaming, if you have no GPU then you will indeed see performance increases; but nothing compared to buying a GPU.

"There are many HardOCP readers that are still running Sandy Bridge CPUs and have been waiting with anticipation of one day upgrading to a new system. One of the biggest things asked in the last month is just how the 2600K stacks up against the new 7700K processor. So we got hold of one of our readers 2600K systems and put it to the test."

Here are some more Processor articles from around the web:

Processors