Intel Kaby Lake Core i7-7700K, i7-7700, i5-7600K, i5-7600 Review

[FormatC]

Intel's Kaby Lake falls into the comes bearing the tuned 14nm+ process, a revamped graphics engine and a new chipset.

Intel Kaby Lake Core i7-7700K, i7-7700, i5-7600K, i5-7600 Review : Read more

 

[Guest]

Based on our initial testing, we can confirm that HD Graphics 630 does not function correctly under Windows 7 and 8.1. Both operating systems install generic drivers for the display adapter, even after applying the latest drivers and updates, so many core features remain unavailable. We also experienced stability issues with Windows 7 that might even negate using an add-in GPU as a workaround.

Not true, i setup Kaby Lake in my lab and everything works fine under Windows 7. Did you guys even try to apply drivers for HD Graphic 630?

 

[adgjlsfhk]

It would have been kind of nice to see igpu vs gtx 750 and other low end discrete graphics cards, but other than that, great review.

 

[cknobman]

Boooooooooooooooooring.

Bring on the new AMD cpu's!!!

Oh, nice review the boring is not Toms fault

 

[Jim90]

"Intel’s slow cadence of incremental upgrades hasn’t done much to distance its products from AMD's.
"...Obviously we need a competitive AMD to help reinvigorate the desktop PC space."

Without real competition the only risk Intel takes with the Desktop market is to loose sight of (i.e. actively ignore) the performance jump the consumer expects in a new release. Continual and lengthy minor incremental updates (pretty much what we've seen since the 2000 series) may well lead to consumer apathy. I certainly haven't upgraded 'as much as I could!' recently. Absolutely no justifiable need.

Then again, perhaps we've all had access to enough power we need? We used to talk about 'killer apps/software' to drive consumers into making a purchase. This certainly did work. Maybe new tech (currently available) isn't killer enough? We need another '3dfx Voodoo' experience?
VR is certainly (definite?) a potential driver...here's hoping for speedy and significant updates here.

 

[PaulAlcorn]

[quotemsg=19098433,0,2164959]Based on our initial testing, we can confirm that HD Graphics 630 does not function correctly under Windows 7 and 8.1. Both operating systems install generic drivers for the display adapter, even after applying the latest drivers and updates, so many core features remain unavailable. We also experienced stability issues with Windows 7 that might even negate using an add-in GPU as a workaround.

Not true, i setup Kaby Lake in my lab and everything works fine under Windows 7. Did you guys even try to apply drivers for HD Graphic 630?[/quotemsg]

Hello, yes we did test and attempt to install the HD Graphics 630 drivers. We are working with early BIOS revisions, so it is possible that we encountered a platform-specific issue. Can you share which motherboard you used for your testing? Any feedback is welcome.

 

[ohim]

Why are they even releasing this ? It makes absolutely no sense to release such a product ...

 

[redgarl]

I am concerned about Quality Assurance issue more than small performance increment.

 

[redgarl]

[quotemsg=19098782,0,216536]Why are they even releasing this ? It makes absolutely no sense to release such a product ...[/quotemsg]

Probably to make a statement of some kind.

 

[FormatC]

[quotemsg=19098433,0,2164959]Not true, i setup Kaby Lake in my lab and everything works fine under Windows 7. Did you guys even try to apply drivers for HD Graphic 630?[/quotemsg]You really have drivers for the Z270 chipset with official support of Windows 7 from intel and Microsoft? I tried it also and was not able to run KL with all features on a W7 installation. It runs, somehow.

 

[valeman2012]

Just notice that people that are using these CPU you need Windows 10 to have everything working 100%.

 

[Dosflores]

Intel's non-E CPUs are great for laptops, but it seems that they'll become irrelevant for desktops with dedicated graphics. Skylake-E will surely be much more interesting for top performance. For gaming, an eight-core Ryzen seems more attractive than buying a CPU with four ultra-fast cores, and hundreds of millions of transistors destined for graphics that you won't ever use.

 

[valeman2012]

Kaby Lake is good if you upgrading something from AMD FX...lol
Kaby Lake best use in Windows 10
Kaby Lake Perfromance it better than what AMD FX Provides so goodluck to far range upgraders.

 

[ac13044]

not much difference between kaby and skylake. skylake il stick too till cannonlake comes about. for those amd airheads come on it runs hot at stock settings also intel are not bothered about amd and what they have to offer as intel rises up more people using intel than amd imo

 

[mavikt]

I was expecting to see a definitive, albeit small efficiency improvement over Sky lake.
That's what I read into the 14nm+ label they're using. Atleast with a "14nm+" process you'd think they should've ironed out alot of the production process variability.
I can only conclude that the production process variations of the 14nm+ is greater that the improvement of "going from 14nm to 14nm+".

Is the 14nm+ just a marketing gimmick?

 

[FormatC]

It is in the first line a very welcome cost-down for Intel.

 

[weilin]

I'm sticking to my guns on this one

it's not "tick -> tock -> tock" it's "tick -> tock -> tweak"

 

[Sakkura]

[quotemsg=19099409,0,43465]I'm sticking to my guns on this one

it's not "tick -> tock -> tock" it's "tick -> tock -> tweak"[/quotemsg]

I'll go with "tick-tock-toe" because this is nowhere near as interesting as a real tock.

 

[Martell1977]

A few more "incremental" performance increases and I might find it worth the money to upgrade...my i7-950(@ stock speed) lives on, lol!

 

[mac_angel]

great work showing the previous generation at the same clock speeds for an actual comparison.

 

[SteelCity1981]

the only diff between kaby lake and skylake is kaby lakes igpu supporgs vp9 and hvec 10 codecs. that's it and has e saw here a skylake clocked at the same speed as kaby lake shows no performance diff.

 

[Guest]

[quotemsg=19099001,0,482859][quotemsg=19098433,0,2164959]Not true, i setup Kaby Lake in my lab and everything works fine under Windows 7. Did you guys even try to apply drivers for HD Graphic 630?[/quotemsg]You really have drivers for the Z270 chipset with official support of Windows 7 from intel and Microsoft? I tried it also and was not able to run KL with all features on a W7 installation. It runs, somehow. [/quotemsg]

I did not use Z270 chipset but Z170. Kaby Lake with Z170 works fine under Windows 7. Again, don't have Z270 motherboard.

I used this board

http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z170%20Extreme4+/index.us.asp

The latest UEFI update supports Kaby Lake. Works fine under Windows 7 so MS. story of Windows 7 not able to fully support Kaby Lake is a B.S. For Z270 i would wait Intel to release an appropriate drivers and it will happen.

 

[Sam Hain]

My 4790K's still viable for a while longer I guess... That is, if I'm solely looking at the Blue-Team's latest.

 

[uglyduckling81]

They really should just be called i7-6750k and i56650k seeing as all they are is a stock speed bump.
Basically meaningless to anyone that overclocks on Skylake already.
I'm still going to upgrade my 2500k this year but to what exactly I'm not sure.
Hopefully AMD give us a better showing, though I doubt they can match the 7700k in games, and I'm a gamer so it's probably where I'm looking.

 

[Guest]

[quotemsg=19099923,0,464372]They really should just be called i7-6750k and i56650k seeing as all they are is a stock speed bump.
Basically meaningless to anyone that overclocks on Skylake already.
I'm still going to upgrade my 2500k this year but to what exactly I'm not sure.
Hopefully AMD give us a better showing, though I doubt they can match the 7700k in games, and I'm a gamer so it's probably where I'm looking.[/quotemsg]

I agree. For someone who is about to buy a brand new system, this is a good option but for people who are coming from older generation no need to upgrade. Intel needs to step up but it won't happen until AMD does something. I do hope that new Ryzen costs same as 7700k but being 8/16 and beating high end x99 CPU in business scenarios and 7700K in gaming. It will force Intel to maybe merge x99 and z270 platform into one and lower the price.