Intel Core i7-7700K first test: the performance benchmark in the Kaby Lake era

Starting with Skylake, which debuted in 2015, Intel has added the suffix "lake" to the processor code name. Although the new Kaby Lake architecture product, which is the seventh-generation Intel Core processor, has entered the mobile platform last year, it is undoubtedly Intel's latest weapon for 2017 in terms of timing.

It is still the 14nm process technology, which is at the same level as Skylake and even the earlier Broadwell architecture. Many people feel that Moore's Law proposed by the founder of Intel has shown a slowing trend in processor research and development.

However, thanks to new technologies such as the 14nm+ process that debuted with Kaby Lake, the seventh-generation Core processor is still capable of taking performance to new heights. The Intel Core i7-7700K, standing at the top of the Kaby Lake architecture, is designed to set a new benchmark for PC performance.

New processor and new platform

The Intel Core i7-7700K adopts a 4-core 8-thread design with a default frequency of 4.2GHz and can be turbo-accelerated to 4.5GHz. Compared with the previous Core i7-6700K, it has a slight improvement. The reason may be that it benefits from the advancement of 14nm+ process technology. This is also the most intuitive difference in parameters.

In other aspects, the Intel Core i7-7700K, which belongs to the 7th generation Intel processor product family, provides a wide range of I/O solutions, including Thunderbolt 3 and support for the third-generation PCIe interface, as well as a more powerful core graphics card. As for power consumption optimization, it is of little significance to the Intel Core i7-7700K for desktop platforms, as its own TDP is 91W.

Although the Kaby Lake architecture processor has not changed the previous LGA 1151 interface design, Intel still brought a new 200 series chipset. The motherboard model we used for this test is ASUS PRIME Z270-A from ASUS, which has dazzling AURA SYNC lighting effects, 4 DDR4 memory slots, 4 PCI-e 3.0 x1, 2 M.2 slots, and provides 6 SATA 3.0, 2 USB 3.1 and 4 USB 3.0 ports.

At the same time, ASUS PRIME Z270-A is also equipped with luxurious materials such as 8+2+2 phase digital power supply module, 10K black gold solid capacitors, MicroFine alloy inductors, etc., and combined with ASUS's latest ASUS Extreme Engine Digi+ technology, it can easily overclock the processor to the extreme.

It has been reported before that the Intel Core i7-7700K can be overclocked to an amazing 7.383GHz when equipped with ASUS's new Z270 motherboard. Therefore, when combined with the latest G.SKILL Trident Z DDR4 series 16GB memory with a frequency of up to 3600MHz and the Windows 10 operating system, it is undoubtedly an ideal platform for unleashing the performance of the processor.

Performance test: No pressure to win the championship again

Although in the eyes of many enthusiasts, Kaby Lake processor is a reinforcement and improvement of Skylake, making it impossible for it to have an overwhelming advantage over the latter in performance, but for each generation of i7 processor, reaching the peak of performance is always the core demand. The new core architecture and higher frequency allow Intel Core i7-7700K to achieve this goal and it will not disappoint.

First, in the pi calculation software Super π, the Intel Core i7-7700K achieved a score of 8.126 seconds for 1 million digits, which is slightly ahead of the previous generation of products of the same level. This test can also be used as a basis for judging the stability of the CPU.

In the chess test that places more emphasis on multi-threaded computing capabilities, the Intel Core i7-7700K's test result is equivalent to 35.8 times that of the P3 processor 1.0GHz, once again consolidating its position as the performance king, but the improvement compared to the previous generation is only in the single digit.

In wPrime, which still tests the multi-threading capabilities of the processor, the Intel Core i7-7700K scored 7.794 seconds and 245.571 seconds in the 32M and 1024M benchmark tests respectively.

In the Cinebench R15 test, Intel Core i7-7700K performed outstandingly, with a CPU score of 969cb close to 1,000. In the ranking list within the software, it leads the 4-core processor camp and is second only to products with 6 cores or more.

In the file compression and decompression test that is more in line with actual usage scenarios, using the built-in benchmark test of 7-Zip software, the Intel Core i7-7700K can easily achieve a good score of around 24000 MIPS.

Overall, regardless of whether the results meet your expectations for the new generation of i7 processors, there is no doubt that the Intel Core i7-7700K can provide you with the most powerful processor performance currently available.

Finally, we have to mention the upgrade of Intel Core i7-7700K core graphics card. The graphics card model has been upgraded from the previous HD 530 to HD 630. During the test, the GPU-Z software with version number 1.16.0 could not fully display the graphics card information. However, judging from the external parameters, the EU rendering unit is still 24 and has not been improved.

It is not difficult to see from the P1907 score of 3D MARK11 that it is basically the same as the score of the previous generation HD530, maintaining the level of the core graphics card. It is not ruled out that it will have better performance in the DX12 environment. However, game enthusiasts still have to equip the Intel Core i7-7700K with a powerful graphics card. Of course, if you are just a light game enthusiast, it is not a problem to play online games with the core graphics card on the processor alone.

In addition to performance, the potential significance of these upgrades cannot be ignored

From a certain perspective, today, the general user's pursuit of pure PC processor performance is not as strong as before. Even for Core i7, the pace of new product upgrades is no longer as drastic as in the early years. Fortunately, the positive side is that the current Kaby Lake has more potential upgrade significance beyond performance improvement.

For example, what excites high-end users the most is that the Kaby Lake processor adds support for Optane solid-state drives built based on 3D XPoint technology. The read and write efficiency of Optane solid-state drives will be several times better than the current mainstream SSDs. This is also a new technology that Intel brought to the PC field in 2017.

In addition, in a wider range of daily uses, the hardware upgrade allows the Kaby Lake processor to decode and encode 4K videos in HEVC 10-bit and VP9 formats. Not only does it consume less energy when editing or playing videos, it can also stream up to 8 4K resolution videos in AVC and HEVC standards. This is also an important upgrade for foreseeable new application scenarios.

So to be precise, the emergence of Kaby Lake is not only to allow Intel Core i7-7700K to raise the performance level of the processor, but also to create a PC for users that is excellent and balanced in all aspects.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.