Intel Core i7-7700K 'Kaby Lake' Review

A new codename, Kaby Lake, was inserted into roadmaps to serve as a successor to Skylake and fill the void created by pushing the 10nm Cannonlake generation a year out.

What is the Intel Core i7-7700K?

The i7-7700K is the most powerful processor of Intel’s new “Kaby Lake” generation of desktop processors. A direct successor to the Skylake 6700K, this new model sees higher clock speeds, improved graphics performance and a slightly more efficient architecture.

Note: I haven’t had my i7-7700K review sample for long enough to run a full suite of tests on it, or to fully stretch its overclocking ability. As a result, this review will not feature a final score. I’ve run enough benchmarks to come to an early conclusion, however.

Intel Core i7-7700K – Specifications, Technology and Chipset

The seventh generation of Intel Core chips should offer a minor improvement on the sixth-generation processors. There have been no wholesale changes in terms of physical design; the chip has been produced using largely the same 14nm (nanometre) fabrication process as the fifth- (Broadwell) and sixth-generation (Skylake) chips.

In simple terms, the smaller the process, the more efficient and therefore powerful a processor can be. Intel calls the process used on Kaby Lake chips “14nm+”, with each individual transistor benefiting from a taller, thinner design for increased efficiency.

This chip has a higher base clock speed thanks to the efficiency gains made possible by the Kaby Lake architecture. Where the 6700K had a base clock speed of 4GHz, the 7700K manages 4.2GHz.

In addition, the maximum Turbo Boost clock speed – which dictates how fast any given core can go – has been increased to 4.5GHz from 4.2GHz in the old model. That’s a decent jump in performance for a processor that has the same 91W TDP (thermal design power) as its predecessor.

On-board graphics performance has been improved as well, with Intel HD Graphics 630 replacing the 530 from last year. As you’ll see from my benchmarks, though, this is no speed demon.

Kaby Lake also supports Intel Optane, which offers a way to speed up performance on the cheap. It supports low-capacity, high-performance SSDs to boost the performance of slow hard disks.

Intel has also improved overclocking, both in terms of performance and stability. This should make it far easier to push big speed boosts without spending time obsessing over voltages.

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