Intel Kaby Lake: 14nm+, Higher Clocks, New Media Engine

[Guest]

Intel's mobile-centric Kaby Lake CPUs are racing to market in September. We take a look at what's changed since the Skylake products.


Intel Kaby Lake: 14nm+, Higher Clocks, New Media Engine : Read more

 

[Guest]

What a boring release. LGA 2011-v3 is my platform of interest.

 

[dgingeri]

In other words, total yawnfest.

 

[ComputerSecurityGuy]

Yup, Skylake Refresh. Higher clocks. Slightly lower power consumption. Probably saw a demo of Overwatch on Iris Pro 680 (580 with 200mHz or so higher clocks. Overall, probably not a very interesting release. The only hopeful thing is they might bring Iris/Iris Pro to lower end or lower power SKUs.

 

[80-watt Hamster]

Sheesh, why all the negativity? As someone who put together a Skylake platform with an i3, I'm looking forward to more capable -K processors being released for the same socket.

 

[txhorn]

Kaby Lake's hardware encode and decode of 4k codecs is significantly better than Skylake. VP9 4k decode is down to 10-20% cpu usage from 70-80% usage. That's pretty awesome for HTPC's and high-res portable battery life.

 

[AndrewJacksonZA]

Typo on page two: "Intel is optimizing its transistors by improving their fin profile with taller fins and a wider gate pitch" That should be a NARROWER gate pitch.

 

[digitalgriffin]

$389 for a 2 core 4 thread processor....thanks but no thanks.

 

[goblinissimus]

Nothing about USB 3.1 Gen 2, TB3, DP1.3, HDMI 2.0b/HDCP 2.2?
Also, 12 bit (aka Dolby Vision or DV) HEVC decode would have been nice.

 

[digitalgriffin]

You know intel keeps bragging about how you get more battery life. Yet manufacturers keep shrinking the Wh on the batteries and intel keeps raising their prices. You really gain nothing in terms of battery life or cost.

 

[80-watt Hamster]

$389 for a 2 core 4 thread processor....thanks but no thanks.

4C8T perhaps you mean? I can't see Intel trying to charge nearly $400 for an i3.

 

[spdragoo]

Nope, I thought it was off, too, as that's the price for the 7th-Generation Core i7. However, the table says that even the i7 is only a 2C/4T CPU. But that's because these are the "Kaby Lake-Y", ultra-low power processors...the kind you find in laptops, Ultrabooks, 2-in-1s, & tablets, & the laptops aren't going to be the high-powered gaming/streaming ones either. These are the low-end chips, that aren't expected to be paired with any kind of discrete GPU. So I wouldn't expect a whole lot of performance from them anyway.

 

[josejones]

LOL, still no PCIe 4.0 ahh? Geeez

 

[ivonakiss]

i5-7200U and i3-7100U have the same price? Why would anyone touch the i3 ?

 

[Brian_R170]

Desktop buyers and gamers certainly won't be impressed by these chips, but buyers of thin-and-light laptops will likely appreciate the extra performance and lower power of the fanless-capable Y-series chips.

 

[Sizzor]

When are the desktop variant launching ?

 

[InvalidError]

4C8T perhaps you mean? I can't see Intel trying to charge nearly $400 for an i3.

Intel's mobile chip pricing (and chip pricing in general) is going out of control. Broadwell chips weren't cheap either. It is as if Intel was begging people to demand more powerful ARM-based laptops and more desktop-like functionality in Android/ChromeOS.

 

[prince_13]

only for laptop ? no thanks i wont spend almost $400 for just an 2 cores 4 thread eat it intel !

 

[InvalidError]

When are the desktop variant launching ?

"the faster H-series products, which Intel designed for more enthusiast-oriented mobile platforms (like gaming laptops), the S-series (mainstream desktop), HEDT, workstation, and enterprise products are not due until next year."

In other words, we may have a Broadwell 2.0 here: mainstream desktop chips launching late with no availability and Cannonlake just a few more months out.

 

[ComputerSecurityGuy]

Also, desktop Kaby Lake is set to launch about the same time as Zen. That's a disaster waiting to happen. Kaby Lake release day comes and AMD squashes them with a Zen launch.

 

[PaulAlcorn]

Typo on page two: "Intel is optimizing its transistors by improving their fin profile with taller fins and a wider gate pitch" That should be a NARROWER gate pitch.

That would certainly be the rational approach to increase density, but Intel actually did make them wider, which was a bit of a switch (har) in strategy. I can make the rational assumption that this helps to reduce the channel strain, thus allowing higher voltage/clocks. Unfortunately, we still await more information from Intel (specific measurements, etc.) so that we can provide more accurate information.

 

[PaulAlcorn]

Also, desktop Kaby Lake is set to launch about the same time as Zen. That's a disaster waiting to happen. Kaby Lake release day comes and AMD squashes them with a Zen launch.

Excitement!!

(not sure which way it will go, of course, but exciting either way)

 

[80-watt Hamster]

Nope, I thought it was off, too, as that's the price for the 7th-Generation Core i7. However, the table says that even the i7 is only a 2C/4T CPU. But that's because these are the "Kaby Lake-Y", ultra-low power processors...the kind you find in laptops, Ultrabooks, 2-in-1s, & tablets, & the laptops aren't going to be the high-powered gaming/streaming ones either. These are the low-end chips, that aren't expected to be paired with any kind of discrete GPU. So I wouldn't expect a whole lot of performance from them anyway.

Right. I forgot about i3/5/7 not meaning much besides cache and clocks in mobile chips.

 

[SteelCity1981]

the biggest improvements were clock speed boost and additional codecs to handle 4k video better but thats pretty much it.

 

[TDice]

I just want stuff I can't afford... But this release, I want Nothing to do with. So I am happy that i get to save some more money now ^^ Great Release!