Intel Core i7-7700K vs 6700K: 22 Games, RX 480 & GTX 1080

[W1zzard]

Intel's new Kaby Lake processors were just launched. We compare the Core i7-7700K to the i7-6700K, both stock and overclocked, to investigate the performance gains using AMD's Radeon RX 480 and NVIDIA's GTX 1080 in 22 games at three resolutions.

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[Chaitanya]

As expected nominal gains over previous generation for PC users.

 

[ZeppMan217]

Can someone explain this to me

The performance DECREASES with a higher clock?

 

[kruk]

Wow, underwhelming.

Also, read this: https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/semiaccurate-coffee-lake-points-to-issues-with-intel’s-10nm-process.2495934/#post-38656226

Goliath seems to be in trouble @TheMailMan78?

I like you guys. Y'all got moxy. I'm sure this time will be different. I'm sure AMD with It's vastly smaller resources is gonna beat the big bad Intel. It will be a technology style David and Goliath.

A story for the ages indeed.....lol

 

[the54thvoid]

Horrendous. That is all. To actually release this chip is a seriously ridiculous marketing move.

Hey - last year we sold you a ham and cheese sandwich. Well, we've made some improvements and now we're selling you a cheese and ham sandwich.

 

[NBH]

If the increased clock speeds do nothing then is there no point overclocking Skylake CPUs?

 

[TheLaughingMan]

Can someone explain this to me

The performance DECREASES with a higher clock?

Consider that is within margin of error and Doom in particular seems to care more about core count that clock speed, I would just ignore that as a fluke. Clearly Doom was getting all it needed from the CPU at stock and increasing the clock speed never really mattered. It could also be as simple as the GTC 1080 was getting slightly warmer due to the increased heat in the area and throttled slightly.

 

[Vario]

and I'm sure a good chunk of users on here and overclock.net will probably upgrade anyway just to have the latest e-peen

I actually read the full Intel article from Canard since I speak French. Here's the most important points:

• They say Intel's in the most precarious time ever in its existence.
• Employees blame Krzanich as the main cause, he's impatient and eager and keeps changing/canceling projects before they get anywhere.
• Many employees/engineers got fired in recent times and they say Krzanich treats engineers (replacing them) like supermarket cashiers, many new hires are inexperienced and not getting trained well enough. The mood in the company is at an all-time low and many employees are in fear for their jobs.
• Murphy Renduchintala is said to actually be a glimmer of hope in the whole mess as since he's been brought on he's been able to focus R&D properly and actually has technical background and makes decisions that engineers are able to get behind on. Some say they're hoping he'll replace Krzanich as CEO once they hope he'll get the boot from the board.
• 10nm is suffering all kinds of problems, both technical as well as management problems. The first samples that got in apparently were extremely disappointing in performance, not to talk about yields.
• Kaby-Lake as well as Cannon-Lake were supposedly late designs just to save face and management was just hoping AMD wouldn't compete. Cannon-Lake is said to bring almost no architectural improvements.
• 10nm will sample in late 2017 but production won't happen till 2018.
• Intel has nothing concrete till 2019.
• Long-term, Intel is said to be very worried about x86 as ARM is gaining ever more. If they can't keep Apple happy in the Macbooks that would be the first sign of the decline of x86.
• Because of the above, they say that they have one CPU project which can do hybrid x86/ARM execution and they say they'll have the first prototype wafers with this within the next few months.
• There's an Intel CPU AMD GPU MCM in the works.

They state the sources on all of this were off-the record interviews with both current and ex-employees.

 

[ShurikN]

Amazing gains. Over at TH with the same clocks as 7700K the Skylake counterpart is either faster or equal...
AMD couldn't ask for a better opportunity with the Zen release. If they can't use this, might as well turn off the lights and close the door for good.

 

[proxuser]

Well, for 2% difference no one move to new generation over skylake. I didn't expected difference either. My 6700k easly oc to 4.5ghz(1.248v), i do it when needed

 

[Vario]

Its too bad they didn't continue the 128MB L4 Cache 'Crystalwell' as released on the 5775C, that seemed like a nice feature for an otherwise bland release. It could have supplemented the weak incremental performance of the current releases.

 

[Jetster]

Thanks for the review W1zzard

As I understand it this chip is more of a revision. To reduce temps for laptops and a change from the Tick- Tock Intel has done in the past.

 

[64K]

Abysmal, but I guess expected. I'm more disappointed that 10nm Cannonlake may not be available to buy until 2018 from what I've been reading. I'm not expecting much of an IPC increase with Cannonlake anyway but was hoping that the smaller process could make it more efficient per watt and so possibly a decent boost to the stock clocks.

 

[Octopuss]

As expected...

A comparison between 7700K and 3770K would be much more interesting as I believe the latter still powers a significant amount of PCs.

 

[VSG]

Yet another generation where the chipset and motherboard features are the only reason to upgrade the base hardware. Disappointing, but it is what it is.

Great job on the RX 480 CPU overhead numbers, and thanks for going the extra step and testing the GTX 1060 as well.

 

[Vario]

As expected...

A comparison between 7700K and 3770K would be much more interesting as I beleive the latter still powers a significant amount of PCs.

hell yeah, 3770K has no reason to upgrade unless you want DDR4 and newer SSD interfaces

 

[Octopuss]

I will either wait two more years (being a stubborn Windows 7 users gives me even less of a reason to upgrade) to see if Intel actually produces anything worth my money, or I'll just go AMD (if Zen is decent) again after 12+ years.

 

[ShurikN]

As expected...

A comparison between 7700K and 3770K would be much more interesting as I beleive the latter still powers a significant amount of PCs.

I'd like to see that as well.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Time to wait on AMD.

 

[springs113]

Time to wait on AMD.

I hope they let the cat out of the bag come Thursday.

 

[GreiverBlade]

ohhh my 6600K will stay for a while ... unless i decide to go i7 ... and even there, "if" the 7700K is at "a la" intel pricing and make the 6700K drop a little ... the 6700K would be a slightly better choice "if"

 

[Jetster]

The 6700K has already dropped price. I just ordered one

 

[xkm1948]

So the entire take home message of this review are:

1. 7700K underwhelming.
2. AMD GPU performance scale well with CPU performance.

Indeed interesting.

 

[Dippyskoodlez]

Consider that is within margin of error and Doom in particular seems to care more about core count that clock speed, I would just ignore that as a fluke. Clearly Doom was getting all it needed from the CPU at stock and increasing the clock speed never really mattered. It could also be as simple as the GTC 1080 was getting slightly warmer due to the increased heat in the area and throttled slightly.

Also doom does not have a benchmark, so benchers have to use a sample run which may have variation.

 

[GreiverBlade]

The 6700K has already dropped price. I just ordered one

i meant to a acceptable level in Switzerland it's still only 3-5% lower than launch depending the retailer/etailer