Core i7 7700K processor review: Desktop Kaby Lake - A CPU tested

Intel Core i7 7700K
The flagship Kaby Lake Quad-Core processor 

We review the flagship quad-core Intel Core i7 7700K processor, the new Kaby Lake generation from Intel is fabbed on the 14nm node; these processors are energy friendly. For this review we look at the performance of this processor in a wide variety of benchmarks and situations.

Kaby Lake Core i5 7600K and Core i7 7700K processors for the desktop platform have been released. Though you'd think it is an all new chip, it is merely a respin seen from Skylake, meaning both series processors are Socket 1151. This also means that IF you are in the market for a new series 7000 processor, your H170 or Z170 motherboard can be compatible with Kaby Lake after a motherboard BIOS upgrade. The new series Kaby Lake processors are fairly energy efficient, still as powerful as they have been for years. If you are interested in new technologies like Intel Optane, you will however need to upgrade to a Z270 or H270 range motherboard. In this review we test the Core i7 7700K; an unlocked Kaby Lake processor that has four cores and a slim 91W TDP, similar to Skylake TDP wise, once again a processor fabbed on the 14nm fabrication process. 

CPU	Core i7-7700K	Core i5-7600K	Core i7-6700K	Core i5-6600K	Core i7-4790K	Core i7-4770K
Codename	Kaby Lake	Kaby Lake	Skylake	Skylake	Haswell	Haswell
Package	LGA1151	LGA1151	LGA1151	LGA1151	LGA1150	LGA1150
Cores/threads	4/8	4/4	4/8	4/4	4/8	4/8
Frequency（GHz）	4.2-4.5	3.8-4.2	4.0-4.2	3.5-3.9	4.0-4.4	3.5-3.9
memory	DDR4-2400	DDR4-2400	DDR4-2133	DDR4-2133	DDR3-1600	DDR3-1600
IGP	Intel HD 630	Intel HD 630	Intel HD 530	Intel HD 530	Intel HD 4600	Intel HD 4600
L3 Cache	8MB	6MB	8MB	6MB	8MB	8MB
Fab	14nm	14nm	14nm	14nm	22nm	22nm
Unlocked multiplier	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
TDP	91W	91W	91W	91W	84W	95W

 
Kaby Lake is the third step in Intel's 'process-architecture-optimization' strategy. The chips are, much like Broadwell and Skylake, produced at 14nm, but should get some optimizations, such as support for Optane SSDs. The quad core CPU has 8 MB of L3 cache, and an integrated memory controller that supports both DDR4 and DDR3 memory. The Z270 and H270 series motherboards will all be offered with DDR4 though. For the gaming community the two K model processors are the most important.

Kaby Lake is the code name used by Intel for the 14nm processor micro-architecture under development and is the successor to the Skylake architecture. As stated, in this review we focus on the Core i7 7700K. Let's get started shall we?