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Again i said that in certain situations in certain games which is supported by the linked article. It also stipulates that 4 test passes were performed not 1 as you say. Showing data which does not show the same performance loss does not "Prove data incorrect" , it simply shows more data gathered under different conditions . It seems to me you are arguing just to do so as no amount of data showing situations where game performance "pretty much matches" proves my aforementioned statement incorrect. For example frame time performance can be detrimentally effected on a lower threaded cpu when background applications are running in the os . This would be a plausible scenario in which performance is less. Logically some games use more than 6 threads therefore a processor with only 6 threads will perform lower than one able to utilize more than that . You can argue to what degree these things matter and whether that performance difference is worth a cost difference but it does not take away from the fact that performance is less.

You are talking about the severity of a bottleneck , the term bottleneck describes the underlying limiting behavior. I am simply indicating to you the definition of the word bottleneck . I wouldn't say that a 3% bottleneck is something to worry about but it fits the definition nonetheless just the same as a 15% bottleneck which obviously would be a greater cause for concern. Showing a couple of games where a 6core cpu doesn't substantially limit performance does not refute my conditional statement . I would say for most people and most games a 9600 would be fine but that is a subjective assessment which an individual would need to determine based on their own use case . It does not mean that in certain games you would not have problems . https://www.gamersnexus.net/hwreviews/3407-intel-i5-9600k-cpu-review-vs-2700-2600-8700k please direct your attention to the data on far cry 5 for one example of what i am talking about . I have noticed similar behavior in other games in my own testing of a 9600k vs higher thread count cpus . The article linked is also a good illustration of why 1% lows ,as you quoted, do not tell the whole story of end user performance. Frametime plots are more reliable generally but the way they are presented in the toms articles are too condensed as too be difficult to assess.

By definition a bottleneck means that there is performance being limited by some part of the system, a cpu and gpu can bottleneck in the same system in different parts of the same game. It doesn't matter if it is only a 3% difference if a system has performance being limited by a component at a given time then it is technically a bottleneck. Not that i disagree with your assessments when factoring in the cost vs performance of each part but that is really a different discussion than a simple yes or no question of is something a bottleneck. Also lower threaded cpus like the 9600K can have detrimental effects and cause frame time spikes in certain games under certain conditions when compared to higher thread count cpus and they can make for a much less pleasant experience.