Is This Even a Infant Pace?

Before wrapping up what'southward been one of the least exciting CPU launches in recent retentiveness, I thought I'd exercise some clock-for-clock testing. For this nosotros moved the Skylake processors to the same Z270 motherboard for testing, then all things should now be equal. We also upgraded the GPU to the GeForce Titan XP.

So with the Kaby Lake and Skylake processors both locked at iv.5GHz on the same motherboard nosotros receive pretty much the exact same scores. Where are those IPC improvements Intel?

Gears of War 4 is a CPU demanding game and information technology will happily use all 8 threads of a Core i7 processor. Here nosotros run into when matched clock-for-clock using an extreme GPU both the Kaby Lake and Skylake processors deliver the verbal same performance. This makes Kaby Lake feel more like a Skylake refresh than the adjacent step forward in Intel'south Core architecture. Even the efficiency improvements nosotros've seen are along the lines of what you would await from a matured process, rather than a refined architecture.

... in that location isn't much to see here.

The only noteworthy comeback we can think of is the slightly improved overclocking headroom and the fact that those buying non-Chiliad models can expect slightly better operation out of the box thanks to a bump in operating frequency.

Beyond that, there isn't much to see here. Even the 200-series chipsets are relatively dull, though we really like the Z270 motherboards we received from Gigabyte and Asrock, it'south fair to say the same boards could have been created around the Z170 chipset. Granted you practice get more than PCIe and HSIO lanes which is a good affair, simply honestly those seeking more lanes would have just gone with Broadwell-E.

What nearly pricing you ask? Intel'due south 1ku cost guide suggests that the Cadre i7-7700K is fix to come up in at $305 while the 7600K will cost at least $200. Given that the 6700K currently costs $350, this is roughly the launch price I expect to run into stamped on the 7700K. Meanwhile, the 6600K is going for $240 and once again this is about where we see the 7600K coming in.

Shopping shortcuts:

  • Intel Core i7-7700K on Amazon
  • Intel Core i7-7700K on Newegg
  • Intel Core i5-7600K on Amazon
  • Intel Core i5-7600K on Newegg

We're having a hard time seeing how this release or 'update' is meant for consumers who build their own computers. Instead it seems more like a way for Intel to sell more processors and keep OEMs happy. "Has our bloatware bogged down your sixth-gen Intel PC? Fret non, the 7th-gen is available today..."

Pros: Tad more overclocking headroom than Skylake. Minor efficiency improvements. Z270 boards bring more PCIe and HSIO lanes.

Cons: No reason for Skylake owners to upgrade.