First the bad news. The all-new Intel Core i7-6700K ? which pitches in at around $350 (about £225, or AU$475) ? does not tear PC gaming a new one. It's not a render monster like none before. It doesn't take desktop number crunching to a whole new level. Bummer.

Instead, it's yet another Intel processor with four cores, eight threads and a habit of humming along at about 4GHz. Isn't that what Intel's top processors for its mainstream platforms have looked like forever? In fact, it's the way things have been since the arrival of Sandy Bridge back in late 2010.

Of course, we've been complaining about the glacial rate of progress at Intel for so long, you might expect this latest mediocrity to have us pondering the possibility of putting an end to it all by stringing ourselves up with SATA cables. After all, you could say the glacial progress comment is actually a bit kind. Intel has in fact backtracked in recent years courtesy of silliness like dumbed down chip packaging and cooling, along with overclocking that's ever more locked down.