It's not easy to surprise the many denizens of technology forums all over the Internet. When Intel recently released 6-core Core processors 8th generation, many were not impressed. In their opinion, Intel offers slightly redesigned old products with a new cover.

Perhaps the new processors have become derivatives of the previous ones, but this does not detract from their advantages. There are enough differences that many reviewers are calling them worthy of an upgrade from previous-generation chips. This hasn't happened often in recent years. In support of this point of view, test results will be given below.

What are they? Intel Core 8th generation?

As usual, understanding Intel products is not at all easy. First came the Core i7 Coffee Lake S 8th generation for desktop computers. Then Core i7 came out Kaby Lake R 8th generation for ultraportable laptops. Why they weren't called Coffee Lake U is unknown.

Now we are talking about the 8th generation Core i7 Coffee Lake H for larger and gaming laptops. They can be considered an improved version of the 6th generation Skylake processors, which appeared in laptops back in 2015.

Since then, engineers have made many improvements. For example, Kaby Lake's video processing engine has been significantly improved. Clock speeds have also increased compared to Skylake. The 14 nm process technology was finally brought to fruition, earning the title 14++.

MSI GS65 Stealth Thin RE

How the testing was performed

Desktop computers can control cooling, power consumption, memory, and disk space. Laptops do not have this freedom, which significantly affects productivity. Some laptops may be aimed at maximum speed, others at maximum silence. The cooling system plays a role, and the size of the case depends on it.

IN in this case compared MSI laptop GS65 Stealth Thin with 6-core processor with 17-inch Lenovo Legion Y920. The latter runs on a 4-core Core i7-7820HK, which is an unlocked chip with overclocking capabilities.

The past generation represents Asus ROG Zephyrus GX501. This is a 17-inch laptop, very thin and powered by a 4-core Core i7-7700HQ processor.

6-core Core i7-8750H in MSI GS65 Stealth Thin

Performance

In all three laptops different graphics processors are used. The Lenovo Legion Y920 has a GeForce GTX 1070, the Asus ROG Zephyrus GX501 has a GeForce GTX 1080 Max-Q, and the MSI GS65 Stealth Thin uses a GeForce GTX 1060.

Because of this disparity, graphics performance receives little attention. In this case, the emphasis is on central processors.

This benchmark is built on the Maxon Cinema4D engine and prefers more cores. As a result, the transition from 4 to 6 cores provides a fairly large performance increase. Similar results can be expected in all applications using 6 cores or 12 instruction threads of the Core i7-8750H.

Overclocked Core i7-7820HK lags behind Core i7-8750H

True, not all applications support multithreading. Of these, few are effective enough to show the results shown in the graph above. Without 3D graphics, video editing and other demanding tasks, it's better to look at the single-threaded performance of laptop processors.

That's exactly what was done, reviewers tested Cinebench R15 using a single command stream. The results have leveled off, but new processor still in the lead. Even against the overclocked Core i7-7820HK it has a 7% advantage. Compared to the Core i7-7700HQ in the Asus ROG Zephyrus GX501, the difference is 13%.

Leadership through higher frequency

Benchmark based on the Corona Photorealistic renderer for Autodesk 3ds Max. Like Cinebench and most rendering applications, it loves a lot of cores. As a result, 6 cores are again better than 4.

The latest rendering benchmark measures the processing time per frame. Here the difference is not so significant. Perhaps it's the length of the tests. Cinebench and Corona last a couple of minutes, Blender about 10 minutes.

When the processor in a laptop heats up, the clock speed begins to decrease. The Core i7-8750H has an advantage in the number of cores and clock speed. With continued use, this benefit begins to diminish. For the same reason, the nominal frequencies on the Core i7-7820HK are not impressive, while when overclocked the processor is much closer to the Core i7-8750H.

Encoding speed

The file used was a 30 GB 1080p MKV file, HandBrake 9.9 and an Android Tablet profile. Here the process took about 45 minutes on a 4-core laptop, because of this the difference in frequency is minimized. Under long-term workloads, you can see the value of the extra cores: the new processor completed encoding in about 33 minutes versus 46 minutes on the Core i7-7700HQ.

Compression speed

The internal WinRAR benchmark is used. The first results are single-threaded, so the higher frequency of the Core i7-8750H gave it an advantage. True, the advantage is small.

Single thread performance

The Core i7-7700HQ in the Asus ROG Zephyrus GX501 performed poorly, despite several attempts. Since its performance in the remaining tests was at the expected level, memory may be to blame. Asus uses 16GB in one slot and 8GB in the other, so dual-channel mode may not always be enabled. In WinRAR, memory bandwidth plays an important role.

Multi-threaded performance

Multithreaded mode showed the expected results. The advantage of the new processor immediately became overwhelming, and the Core i7-7700HQ showed normal results.

Performance Analysis

So, Core i7-8750H has more cores and higher clock frequency. Repeated testing of Cinebench R15 was performed with the number of threads from 1 to 12 on the Core i7-8750H and from 1 to 8 on the Core i7-7700HQ.

The results are not very consistent with the actual performance differences. The graph below shows this difference more clearly. As you can see, the more threads, the higher the difference, which ultimately reaches 50%.

Coffee Lake H has the same architecture as Kaby Lake H, so the only difference is the increased clock speeds. For a more detailed analysis, Cinebench R15 was launched again and the number of threads was increased. Clock speed has been analyzed for some time.

The Core i7-8750H runs at higher frequencies under light loads compared to the Core i7-7700HQ. The further to the right, the more the processors heat up, the difference is minimized.

Conclusion

In recent years, there has been no reason to change processors and laptops. For example, if you had a 5th generation Core i7, there was no point in upgrading to the 6th generation. The performance difference was only 6%-7%. This is no longer the case.

When upgrading from a 7th-gen Core i7 laptop to an 8th-gen Core i7, you'll see a more substantial jump in performance for video editing, graphics processing, and other heavy-duty tasks. This is visible even with light load, but especially noticeable at high.

Of course, for many users, what they have is enough. You don't need much for Word and the browser, so you need to understand whether you need increased productivity or not.

For several years now, Intel processors have been divided into series, based on the names of which, one can understand its features and purpose. There are six main series - Intel Core i9, Intel Core i7, Intel Core i5, Intel Core i3, Intel Pentium and Intel Celeron. Note that the list is sorted by decreasing performance within a generation, meaning the Core i7 is faster than the Core i5, but slower than the Core i9.

Intel Core i9 is the youngest series of Intel processors, which appeared in the second half of 2017. The processors of this series have the highest performance among mass-produced models and belong to the HPC (High Performance Computing) class. What distinguishes them is maximum amount computing cores and threads (up to 18 cores and 36 threads in the 2017 model range), maximum cache memory (up to 24.75 MB) and four-channel memory mode. The disadvantages include high heat dissipation (TDP up to 165 W) and a very high price. The main purpose of such processors is high-performance workstations, systems for complex mathematical calculations, 4K video editing, and such processors are also popular among computer enthusiasts and professional overclockers.

Intel Core i7 is a series of Intel processors that was considered the fastest until the advent of Core i9. Processors of this series exist in two modifications - HPC with a four-channel, or three-channel in older models, memory controller, as well as in more popular versions with dual-channel memory. If we consider older versions of Core i7, then they are distinguished from Core i9 by a smaller number of processing cores and threads (up to 8 cores and 16 threads) and a smaller cache (up to 11 MB). Due to this, performance, TDP and, of course, price are reduced. Low-end Core i7s with a dual-channel memory controller are still the most powerful processors in the mainstream device segment. They contain 6 cores and 12 computing threads (data for the eighth generation of processors; earlier ones had 4 and 8, respectively), up to 12 MB of cache memory and high clock speeds with TurboBoost support. Despite the lower performance compared to Core i9, Core i7 still has highest level performance, so the purpose of these processors is the same, but for the latter it also makes sense to add gamers, especially those who prefer to broadcast their games to services like Twitch, YouTube or their analogues.

Intel Core i5 - just like Core i7, processors in this series are available in two versions - with a four-channel memory controller and a dual-channel one. In general, these two series are very similar to each other, so the differences lie in the lack of support for Hyper-Threading technology, that is, the number of cores coincides with the number of computing threads. Core i5 series processors are best choice for gaming computers, they are also great for editing HD video, processing photos in RAW format, music and other demanding tasks.

Intel Core i3 is the junior series of Intel Core processors. Before the advent of the eighth generation, absolutely all processors in this series had two cores, and older models of such processors could support Hyper-Threading technology, thus, there were processors with two cores and two or four computing threads. The eighth generation Intel Core i3 processors use four processing cores and the same number of processing threads. Unlike older Core i5s, i3s do not support TurboBoost technology, which automatically increases processor clock speeds, and also have a smaller cache, for example, the eighth-generation Core i5 has a minimum cache of 9 MB, and the Core i3 has a maximum cache of 8 MB. As for the purpose of these processors, it is quite extensive. The term “minor series” at the beginning of the paragraph should not evoke associations with low productivity. Yes, is she lower? than the older ones, but still sufficient for most everyday tasks, such as games, movies, the Internet, simple editing of images and photos in JPG format, as well as for office tasks of any complexity.

– the weakest Intel processors, they are inferior in all respects, and their main purpose is office PCs, home theaters and other tasks that are not demanding by modern standards.

May 14, 2010 Odnokrylov Vladimir 0

Time does not stand still in the world of computer technology. Once upon a time, the race for gigahertz clock speeds brought profit to manufacturers. But now this method has outlived its usefulness, and has been replaced by multi-core technology. So our test subject is covered in the same world - not only is it the first six-core processor in the Core i7 family, but it also has an unlocked multiplier. In a word, overclock, overclock and overclock some more - let's see what the Intel Core i7-980X Extreme Edition can do.

With the advent of the new family from the company, the performance limit of desktop computers has increased once again, and the family Core i5/i3 strives to squeeze into the “Consumer Choice” niche, that is, mid-range and budget high-performance models. But today we are not talking about them.

Indeed, even among high-performance models from Intel there are models that almost everyone who has ever overclocked their computer secretly wishes to have at home - these are the models of the line Extreme Edition. They are similar models to their counterparts, but have one important difference - at the production stage they are specially selected and tested with particular passion.

Why is this being done? And to check whether this processor crystal can conquer abnormal operating modes on increased voltages and will it withstand high temperatures? In addition, during the assembly process, the base frequency multiplier of these chips is not blocked, which theoretically makes it possible to obtain a frequency much higher than the nominal one without any special tricks.

Today we will talk about the newest representative of this rare species, meet - Intel Core i7-980X Extreme Edition.

What's included with Intel Core i7 980X Extreme Edition

As befits an engineering model, Intel Core i7 980X arrived in a fairly large white box with no identifying marks. When we opened the box and removed its contents, we saw the following set:

• CPU Intel Core i7 980X.

• Cooling system Intel DBX-B.
• Disk with drivers and software.

As for the processor, we’ll talk about it later. In the meantime, let's consider standard system cooling. After taking it out of the package it looks like this.

The cooler at the point of contact with the processor is a base pierced with copper heat pipes, a total of four. Next, the tubes bend and pass through a multi-fin aluminum radiator made of thin plates. The entire structure rests on an aluminum tube fixed to the base and passing through the radiator.

A 100 mm diameter fan with blue LED backlight is installed on the side of the radiator.

It is connected to the motherboard via a four-pin connector, which allows it to control the rotation speed of the cooler fan.

There is also a switch for “quiet operation” and “full speed” on the radiator.

By the way, the sample that fell into our hands made an outrageous noise at low speeds and roared uncontrollably at maximum speeds - being next to it for a long time was a very big test for the nerves.

However, engineers Intel, it seems, they realized the mistake with the box cooling system and are already replacing it. However, whether it will become quieter is still in question.

The entire cooler is secured using a four-claw mount and a plastic base. In this case, the plate is placed on the back of the board so that the holes for the screws coincide with the holes in the motherboard. The base of the heatsink is slightly curved, so it is recommended to polish it or apply a little more thermal paste.

Technical Intel specifications Core i7 980X Extreme Edition

CPU Intel Core i7 980X has a clock speed of 3.33 GHz per core. Compared to other models, its number has increased to 6 cores, which corresponds to 12 computing threads. The volume of third-level cache memory has also increased - it has reached 12 MB. However, technically these are all the same cores from previous quad-core models.

The solution is very interesting - due to the fact that the third level cache is accessible to any core in the processor. This means that even in applications that do not support two or three or more cores, performance will increase. This and its technology Turboboost company Intel provided power scaling for non-thread-optimized applications.

Turboboost

This technology is designed to automatically increase the clock frequency, or “self-overclocking,” of the processor. Of course, the frequency becomes higher than the nominal one, but the design speed limits and, accordingly, the warranty are not violated. Slightly increases performance if the application cannot handle multiple cores.

The frequency increase is carried out using a multiplier step algorithm of 133 MHz (base frequency) - on one core up to two steps, on two or more cores - only 1 step. That is, the maximum achieved is a multiplier of 27 on one core and a multiplier of 26 on two to six cores.

Intel Core i7 980X Extreme Edition | Test bench

We carried out tests at the next stand.

CPU	Intel Core i7 980X Extreme Edition
Motherboard	ASRock X58 Xtreme3
RAM	DDR3 Kingston Hyper-X KHX2133C9D3T1K2/4GX 2x2GB
Video card	Sapphire VAPOR-X 5870, 1 GB (Catalyst 10.4)
power unit	Tuniq Ensemble 1200 W
HDD	Western Digital Caviar Blue 640 GB WD6400AAKS
OS	Windows 7 Ultimate

Regarding the system assembly - special claims There is no connection to the processor cooling system, but the radiator could only be placed on a certain side. All this is a consequence of the fact that in other positions the fan clings to the radiators on the test motherboard.

Testing and Intel overclocking Core i7 980X Extreme Edition

Actually, the testing itself was carried out both in purely synthetic and purely computational tests, and in simulating ones real job on the computer. The tests themselves were carried out in normal mode, in mode Turboboost and when overclocking the processor.

The following should be said about the overclockability of this processor - although the multiplier is unlocked, nevertheless, at our stand we were unable to achieve stable operation above a multiplier of 26 with a base multiplier of 25. Therefore, overclocking was carried out by increasing the supply voltage to 1.35 V, lowering the multiplier to 21 and raising the base frequency to 200.

We also had to lower the memory speed to 600 MHz to avoid problems with system stability. The maximum result was a stable (in terms of) frequency of 4.2 GHz per computing core. We'll talk about how much performance has increased during the tests.

Because Fritz Chess Benchmark 4.2 supports only 8 threads, then the benefit of four additional threads (2 cores) tends to zero. But the shared cache corrects the situation very well, allowing partial scaling of computing power.

The biggest gain, of course, is in overclocking - at first the gap is only 20% over the standard mode, and even the Turboboost mode is left far behind. Of course, the general benefits of overclocking multi-core processor also increases with the number of threads involved - but the efficiency of each individual core drops slightly starting from the involvement of the 6th thread.

And here wPrime 2.0 clearly shows the benefits of distributed computing at high clock speeds - even Turboboost, slightly overclocking the processor, ahead of the standard mode. And a frequency overclock of 26% still gives a speed increase of 20% - very impressive.

IN SiSoftware Sandra 2010 the balance of power has not changed - speeding up the work a little Turboboost and the same 20% increase in performance from overclocking.

However, it is interesting that inside the processor, throughput efficiency has increased by 37%, and the latency of information exchange between cores has decreased from 14 to 11 ns - this is an expected result, because we raised the base frequency of the system by approximately the same amount.

In the first two tests in Everest versions 5.50.2127 the situation is ambiguous - at first, in the CPU Queen test, a familiar picture opens up before us. And then in the PhotoWorxx CPU test the efficiency Turboboost unexpectedly drops to unfortunate tenths of a percent, and the result of overclocking is simply stunning - an increase of as much as 30% compared to 26%, as a result, the frequency efficiency has risen above 1.

Intel Core i7 980X Extreme Edition | Results

Without a doubt, with careful selection of components, overclocked sample and cooling system, the processor Intel Core i7 980X Higher frequencies will also be available. But is such power necessary? After all, the current cost of this processor is about $1000, and not every application that is not a benchmark can load its six cores. This means that for one and a half to two years the processor will work only at part of its capabilities, and taking into account the speed of development of platforms and technologies, in 3-4 years this processor will no longer be needed - more powerful and modern models. Therefore, taking into account the fact that this model is for enthusiasts, its only market will be the sector of overclocking enthusiasts and those who like to distill terabytes of FullHD video from one format to another.

Why? Everything is very simple. For a regular user this processor not needed - after all, most of its potential Core i7 980X opens in acceleration. And since to get the same output as the processor power, you also need other high-end components and water cooling, otherwise air cooling will turn your computer into a hybrid of a vacuum cleaner and a heater. Accordingly, the minimum cost of decent components will be at the level of $1500-2000, and the entire system will cost more than $3000.

Therefore, this monster has one calling - "power here and now", no matter what the price for those who crave crazy benchmark numbers and gaming computer, which calmly “digests” 2-3 modern games at once. In a word, this processor is a godsend for lovers of the best, fast and powerful. But if your needs are limited to trips out of town on weekends, why do you need a racing Ferrari?

If we take processors Core i5, then they operate at similar frequencies and can achieve the same level of performance in single-threaded applications. And their price is approximately $200-300, and for the difference in price you can buy two very good video cards for SLI/Crossfire.

However, the editors website awards this processor a reward "Innovation" for the first 6 full-fledged and fastest (today) desktop cores in a series of processors Intel Core.

2017 became a real test for Intel, something that had not been observed for many years after the debut of the Intel Core line on the market. This is primarily due to the release of a very successful line, which required Intel to quickly prepare the third generation of 14 nm processors in order to strengthen its position.

Under other circumstances, Intel might have completely abandoned the 14nm Intel Coffee Lake and Intel Kaby Lake R lines (mobile Intel Core 8th generation), directing its resources to speeding up the release of the 10nm Intel Ice Lake and Intel Cannon series Lake respectively. Moreover, the computing power of Intel Kaby Lake processors is quite enough for a wide range of home, educational or office computers. But the competitor left no choice.

The first 8th generation Intel Core models were presented at the end of August. They are aimed at mobile market, and many laptop manufacturers have already announced new or updated products based on them. At the end of September, a presentation of the desktop line took place along with the Intel Z370 chipset, which we will talk about in a separate article.

Six processor models will be the first to go on sale, each of which is iconic for its series. Thus, the Intel Core i3-8100 and Intel Core i3-8350K are the first full-fledged 4-core CPUs in this series, which previously only included 2-core, 4-thread solutions. The Intel Core i5 line was replenished for the first time with 6-core, 6-thread representatives - Intel Core i5-8400 and Intel Core i5-8600K. And the Intel Core i7 series is now dominated by the 6-core, 12-thread Intel Core i7-8700 and Intel Core i7-8700K, which replaced the 4-core, 8-thread model. In the first half of 2018, the list of available processors in each series will be expanded. The remaining Intel 300 series chipsets and motherboards based on them will also appear.

8th generation Intel Core solutions are positioned primarily for gamers, content creators and overclockers. They will be especially useful in cases where software optimized for multithreading. In addition, Intel processors are traditionally characterized by excellent performance in single-threaded mode, so even in outdated applications and games they look decent.

Gamers are promised a performance increase of up to 25% (recorded in Gears of War 4 when comparing systems on Intel based Core i7-8700K and Intel Core i7-7700K) and a comfortable frame rate in multitasking mode, when you not only need to play, but simultaneously record the gaming session and broadcast it on the Internet.

There are also some tasty facts in store for content creators: up to 32% speedup when editing 4K video (Intel Core i7-8700K vs Intel Core i7-7700K). And if you compare the performance of the Intel Core i7-8700K and the Intel Core i7-4790K (Intel Devil's Canyon), you can count on 4.5 times faster when creating HEVC videos in PowerDirector, and 65% faster when editing files in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom and 7.8 times when transcoding in Handbrake Transcode.

In turn, overclockers are captivated by new features: overclocking a separate core, increasing the memory multiplier to 8400 MT/s, monitoring memory latency in real time, and others. If you are afraid of possible processor failure as a result of overclocking experiments, then you can optionally buy Performance Tuning Protection Plan. It allows you to replace the CPU once if it is damaged during abnormal operation. The cost of such a plan depends on specific model. For example, for the Intel Core i7-7700K it is set at $30, and owners of the Intel Core i9-7980XE will need to pay an additional $150.

There is no mention of any microarchitectural changes in the presentation, although you can admire the marvels of engineering embodied in the crystals themselves.

The main emphasis in the press materials is on increasing the number of physical cores and cache memory, expanded overclocking capabilities and the use of an improved 14nm process technology. To be more precise, then Intel Skylake manufactured using 14 nm, Intel Kaby Lake - 14+ nm, and Intel Coffee Lake - 14++ nm.

In turn, the use of the new chipset is explained by increased requirements for the power subsystem due to the increased number of cores, support for new overclocking capabilities and faster DDR4-2666 memory.

At the hardware level, the incompatibility of new and old processors is manifested in the different number of VCC pads of the Socket LGA1151 connector: Intel Coffee Lake has 146, and Intel Kaby Lake and Intel Skylake have 128. An additional 18 were obtained by activating spare pads, without introducing any or physical changes. That is, you can install a new processor on old motherboards or old processors on new boards, but such combinations will not work. Therefore, for Intel Coffee Lake it is mandatory to buy motherboard based on Intel 300 series chipsets.

Intel did not forget to remind you of its accompanying product - Intel Optane Memory, which can significantly increase system responsiveness and speed up application launches. Although, at the current volume (16/32 GB) and price level, it is difficult for it to compete in the market with the same M.2 or conventional 2.5-inch SSDs.

We got acquainted with the presentation, now it’s time to move on to a more detailed study of the hero’s capabilities this review - IntelCorei7-8700 K, which is also the flagship of the 8th generation Intel Core line.

Specification

CPU socket
Base/dynamic clock speed, GHz
Base multiplier
Base frequency system bus, MHz
Number of cores/threads
L1 cache size, KB	6 x 32 (data memory) 6 x 32 (instruction memory)
L2 cache size, KB
L3 cache size, MB
Microarchitecture	Intel Coffee Lake
Codename	Intel Coffee Lake-S
Maximum Design Power (TDP), W
Technical process, nm
Critical temperature (T junction), °C
Support instructions and technologies	Intel Turbo Boost 2.0, Intel Optane Memory, Intel Hyper-Threading, Intel vPro, Intel VT-x, Intel VT-d, Intel VT-x EPT, Intel TSX-NI, Intel 64, Execute Disable Bit, Intel AEX-NI, MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, EM64T, AES, AVX, AVX 2.0, FMA3, Enhanced Intel SpeedStep, Thermal Monitoring, Intel Identity Protection, Intel Stable Image Platform Program (SIPP)
Built-in memory controller
Memory type
Supported frequency, MHz
Number of channels
Maximum memory capacity, GB
Integrated graphics Intel core UHD Graphics 630
Number of execution units (EU)
Base / dynamic frequency, MHz
Maximum amount of video memory (allocated from RAM), GB
Maximum screen resolution at 60 Hz
Maximum number of supported displays
Supported technologies and APIs	DirectX 12, OpenGL 4.5, Intel Quick Sync Video, Intel InTru 3D, Intel Clear Video HD, Intel Clear Video
Products webpage
Processor page

Packaging, delivery and appearance

Intel kindly provided us with an engineering sample of the Intel Core i7-8700K for testing without the appropriate packaging and delivery kit. Therefore, we will use official press materials to evaluate appearance boxes. Its front side unmistakably indicates that the processor belongs to the 8th generation of the Intel Core line and the corresponding series, and on one of the sides the key advantages are listed. The need to use new products exclusively with motherboards based on Intel 300 series chipsets is also indicated. The packages themselves also differ in thickness, that is, there will be options on sale with and without a complete cooler.

AndIntel Core i7-7700K

Externally, the Intel Core i7-8700K is no different from its predecessor, of course, if you do not take into account the markings and other markings on the heat distribution cover. The designation itself for the retail sample of the new product will be different. Firstly, instead of the inscription “Intel Confidential” the model name (Intel Core i7-8700K) will be indicated. Secondly, there will be a different Spec code instead of "QNMK". And, of course, the FPO code will change. In this case, it tells us that the processor was manufactured in Malaysia in the 19th week of 2017 (from 05/08 to 05/14).

AndIntel Core i7-7700K

On the reverse side there are contact pads for the Socket LGA1151 connector. As we already know, their physical location has not changed, but the functional purpose of some legs has changed, which requires the use of new motherboards with processors from the Intel Coffee Lake line.

Analysis technical characteristics

For Intel testing Core i7-8700K we used the ROG STRIX Z370-F Gaming motherboard and our stock Scythe Mugen 3 cooling system. First, we deactivated Intel Turbo Boost 2.0 technology and got the processor frequency at 3.7 GHz at 1.12 V.

The maximum load frequency (AIDA64) with Intel Turbo Boost 2.0 technology enabled reached the specified 4.7 GHz. The temperature rose to 96°C, but there was no skipping of cycles (throttling).

When the system was idle, the processor frequency remained at 4.7 GHz, although the temperature dropped below 50 ° C.

If you put the system into power saving mode, the speed of the Intel Core i7-8700K is reduced to 800 MHz.

Cache memory structure of Intel Core i7-8700 processorsKand Intel Core i7-77 00K

The cache memory structure of the new product is as follows:

• 32 KB of L1 cache per core with 8 associative channels is allocated for instructions and the same amount for data;
• 256 KB L2 cache with 4 associative channels per core;
• 12 MB shared L3 cache with 16 associative channels.

Compared to its predecessor, the cache memory of each level has increased in proportion to the increased number of cores: L1 by 64 KB for data and instructions, L2 by 512 KB, and L3 by 4 MB.

Built-in controller random access memory Guaranteedly supports operation of DDR4-2666 MHz standard modules in 2-channel mode. Of course, you can, at your own peril and risk, try to overclock the RAM to higher frequencies, but there are no guarantees here and it all depends on the quality of the strips themselves, the capabilities of the motherboard and the user’s skills. The maximum available RAM is 64 GB.

The maximum temperature on the official website is stated at 100°C. A similar figure is reported by AIDA64.

The Intel Core i7-8700K processor has a built-in Intel UHD Graphics 630 graphics core, which at the time of preparation of the review was poorly detected by the GPU-Z and AIDA64 utilities. According to official information, it includes 24 execution units and can use all available 64 GB of RAM to suit its needs. Its base operating frequency is 350 MHz, and its dynamic frequency can increase to 1200 MHz.

At simultaneous loading CPU and iGPU cores by running the AIDA64 and MSI Kombustor benchmarks, the frequency of the processor cores remained at 4.7 GHz. But at the same time, the temperature increased to 99°C and throttling was observed.

Testing

During testing we used Processor Test Stand No. 2

Motherboards (AMD)	ASUS F1A75-V PRO (AMD A75, Socket FM1, DDR3, ATX), GIGABYTE GA-F2A75-D3H (AMD A75, Socket FM2, DDR3, ATX), ASUS SABERTOOTH 990FX (AMD 990FX, Socket AM3+, DDR3, ATX)
Motherboards (AMD)	ASUS SABERTOOTH 990FX R2.0 (AMD 990FX, Socket AM3+, DDR3, ATX), ASRock Fatal1ty FM2A88X+ Killer (AMD A88X, Socket FM2+, DDR3, ATX)
Motherboards (Intel)	ASUS P8Z77-V PRO/THUNDERBOLT (Intel Z77, Socket LGA1155, DDR3, ATX), ASUS P9X79 PRO (Intel X79, Socket LGA2011, DDR3, ATX), ASRock Z87M OC Formula (Intel Z87, Socket LGA1150, DDR3, mATX)
Motherboards (Intel)	ASUS MAXIMUS VIII RANGER (Intel Z170, Socket LGA1151, DDR4, ATX) / ASRock Fatal1ty Z97X Killer (Intel Z97, Socket LGA1150, DDR3, mATX), ASUS RAMPAGE V EXTREME (Intel X99, Socket LGA2011-v3, DDR4, E-ATX )
Coolers	Scythe Mugen 3 (Socket LGA1150/1155/1366, AMD Socket AM3+/FM1/ FM2/FM2+), ZALMAN CNPS12X (Socket LGA2011), Noctua NH-U14S (LGA2011-3)
RAM	2 x 4 GB DDR3-2400 TwinMOS TwiSTER 9DHCGN4B-HAWP, 4 x 4 GB DDR4-3000 Kingston HyperX Predator HX430C15PBK4/16 (Socket LGA2011-v3)
Video card	AMD Radeon HD 7970 3 GB GDDR5, ASUS GeForce GTX 980 STRIX OC 4 GB GDDR5 (GPU-1178 MHz / RAM-1279 MHz)
HDD	Western Digital Caviar Blue WD10EALX (1 TB, SATA 6 Gb/s, NCQ), Seagate Enterprise Capacity 3.5 HDD v4 (ST6000NM0024, 6 TB, SATA 6 Gb/s)
power unit	Seasonic X-660, 660 W, Active PFC, 80 PLUS Gold, 120 mm fan
operating system	Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-bit

Select what you want to compare Intel Core i7-8700K Turbo Boost ON Enhanced Performance with

We were in a hurry to prepare the material for the release of new products, so we did not have time to test the Intel Core i7-8700K with Intel Turbo Boost 2.0 technology disabled. Typically, dynamic overclocking can improve performance levels by a few percent, so it's best not to disable it yourself.

First, let's analyze the situation in the domestic model range. In synthetic tests, the Intel Core i7-8700K outperformed the previous flagship by an average of 39%. In games, the performance bonus was only 2%, since many gaming benchmarks have been replaced since testing the 4-core model. In turn, the integrated graphics core Intel UHD Graphics 630 turned out to be on average 11% better than its counterpart, however, its gaming capabilities are still limited to undemanding projects with low quality settings in Full HD.

The comparison with the recently tested 8-core (16-thread) processor of the Intel Core X line turned out to be more interesting and rich. In synthetic tests it came out ahead by an average of 1%, and in gaming tests it was even at parity. The difference between them in recommended price tags is $240 ($359 versus $599). That is, the Intel Core i7-8700K strikes not only the positions of AMD’s opponents, but also its own model range Intel HEDT.

And now, actually, about the competitors. These include 8-core AMD Ryzen 7 1700 ($349) and 6-core AMD Ryzen 5 1600X ($249). But we haven’t tested them yet, so we compared the results of the new product with (nominally $440, but now the average price has dropped to $389) and (nominally $219, but now $240). In “synthetics”, the Intel Core i7-8700K was ahead of the Ryzen 7 1700X by 17%, and the Ryzen 5 1600 by 43%. But in games the situation turned out to be interesting. The advantage of the new product over its 8-core opponent was almost 5%, but the Ryzen 5 1600 is already ahead by the same 5%. And all thanks to the low minimum Intel Core i7-8700K score in the Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege test. If you do not take it into account, then new flagship in games it is 3% ahead of the Ryzen 5 1600 and Intel Core i7-7820X. The comparison results with the Ryzen 7 1700X do not change, since this processor was not tested in it.

The situation with energy consumption is also very interesting. The test system with an Intel Core i7-8700K and a discrete graphics card required a maximum of 276 W. This is even more than the combination with the 8-core Intel Core i7-7820X (242 W) and AMD Ryzen 7 1700X (182 W). Perhaps this only applies to our engineering sample and the versions on sale have more balanced power consumption and heat dissipation.

Overclocking

Already when analyzing the technical characteristics of the Intel Core i7-8700K processor, we recorded processor throttling under significant load in nominal mode. That is, our test cooling system could not cope with its cooling. Again, this may be due solely to the engineering test unit, and regular retail versions temperature regime it will be much better.

Nevertheless, carry out manual overclocking We were unable to test the test sample: raising it even to 4.8 GHz led to active throttling and frequency reset. And only thanks to automatic overclocking on the motherboard ROG board STRIX Z370-F Gaming in “TPU II” mode managed to increase the core frequency to 5.0 GHz with a “x50” multiplier and a frequency reduction of 300 MHz when executing AVX instructions. The RAM speed was increased to 3200 MHz, and the maximum temperature during testing did not exceed 94°C, which allowed the system to operate stably.

You can evaluate the impact of overclocking on performance using the following table:

		Nominal	Overclocked
Fritz Chess Benchmark 4.3
	Heavy Multitasking
	1920x1080, DX12, Very High
Tom Clancy's The Division	1920x1080, DX11, High
	1920x1080, DX11, High
Average value

The average increase was 4.49%. Synthetic tests responded best to increasing the frequency, providing a bonus of 4% to 7%. But in games, the maximum recorded increase was 3%.

Results

What did we get in the end? First, Intel should be commended for adding additional cores and threads to the Intel Coffee Lake line of desktop processors, regardless of the reasons that prompted it to do so. Secondly, the additional cores came with their own cache memory of all three levels, which also helps to increase the overall level of performance. This is especially noticeable in synthetic tests, where the 6-core is on average 39% ahead of the 4-core flagship of the previous generation and practically does not lag behind the more expensive 8-core Intel Core X series. In turn, overclockers will certainly like additional features for overclocking.

Now to the weaknesses of the tested engineering sample. The first is high heat dissipation: even under load in nominal mode using a fairly powerful Scythe Mugen 3 tower cooler, the temperature rose to 96°C. For this reason, we were not able to carry out manual overclocking, but the automatic one allowed us to increase the speed to 5 GHz, reducing it to 4.7 GHz under load in the benchmark. Secondly, the power consumption of the test bench was higher than that of the compared 8-core Intel and AMD processors. Thirdly, in games there is no noticeable advantage of the new product over its competitors.

, Kingston , Noctua , Sea Sonic , Seagate , Scythe AndTwinMOS Technologies for the equipment provided for the test bench.

Article read 32522 times

Subscribe to our channels

6-core processor Intel rises to Ryzen.

Verdict: The six-core Intel Core i7-8700K proves that the company can do more with fewer cores than AMD Ryzen. Bonus: The processor offers champion overclocking. Intel Review Core i7-8700K more…

• pros: Hyperthreading higher than Ryzen | Overclocking level;
• Minuses: Overclocking only in K models | New motherboard;

Intel had to raise an important figure on the main processors with Coffee Lake. It was inevitable, and frankly unthinkable, for a CPU maker to introduce another generation of quad-core processors in light of AMD's overhaul of its rival Ryzen and Threadripper series.

Intel Core i7-8700K leads the new generation of Coffee Lake-S PC processors with six cores, 12 threads and more high frequencies than any of them can offer AMD processors Ryzen 7: After testing the new flagship processor, it's everything we've ever wanted from Intel, with amazing performance and hyperthreading experience that outperforms Ryzen and offers a ton of overclocking options.

Characteristics:

• Cores: 6;
• Streams: 12;
• Base frequencies: 3.7 GHz;
• L3 cache: 12 MB;
• TDP: 95 W;

Pricing and Availability

The price of Intel Core i7-8700K is $359 (21,500 rubles), the processor is aimed at competing with the best processors AMD Ryzen 7, including 1700X for $399 (24,000 rubles) and 1800X for $499 (30,000 rubles).

And while this processor has fewer cores than its competitors, the 8700K pulls ahead with an increase in base frequencies and higher frequencies (3.7 and 4.7 GHz).

The six-core core processor is a big step forward for Intel, which previously placed more than four cores in its E-X range and X-series processors for High End Desktop (HEDT).

Speaking of the fact that the current six-core Intel i7-7800X processor from Skylake-X can cost $379 (22,500 rubles), it is worth mentioning that X299 motherboards are much more expensive than the new Z370 standard. Unfortunately, if you're thinking about upgrading to Coffee Lake C, you'll definitely have to buy a new motherboard, as legacy Z270 platforms don't support the high power requirements of the latest generation.

While we're still counting the additional costs, the increase in clock speeds has resulted in a slight price increase. The Kaby Lake processor that the 8700K replaced, the Intel Core i7-7700K, was slightly cheaper at $349 (21,000 rubles).

Processor Features

Intel used all the black magic it knows to squeeze 18 cores into the tiny Intel Core i9-7980XE, and a little bit of magic went down and new Intel Core i7-8700K. Despite packing two extra cores, which we've never seen on Kaby Lake, the processor body hasn't grown even a millimeter.

While this is impressive, it makes it even more annoying that the new generation of processors still requires us to buy a completely new motherboard.

Also, the Z370's platform isn't actually as big as the Z270's. You retain dual-channel memory support, and of the 40 available PCIe lanes, only 16 are directly connected to the CPU. The remaining 24 PCIe lanes implement a single DMI 3.0 connection to the processor, meaning you can squeeze the full potential out of two graphics cards or one graphics card and two M.2 NVMe SSDs.

Luckily, the Z370 comes with an important silver label, officially stating support for 2.666MHz DDR4 memory, up from 2400MHz on the Z270, as well as improved power delivery for significant overclocking of the main processor.

Characteristics of the system under test:

• Video card: Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti (11 GB GDDR5X RAM);
• RAM: 32 GB DDR4 (3200 MHz);
• Motherboard: ASUS ROG Strix Z370-E Gaming;
• Nutrition: Corsair RM850x;
• Memory: 512 GB Samsung 960 Pro M.2 SSD (NVMe PCIe 3.0 x4);
• Cooling: Thermaltake Floe Riing 360 TT Premium Edition;
• Frame: Corsair Crystal Series 570X RGB;
• operating system: Windows 10;

Performance

Core i7-8700K delivers high multi-core performance Intel performance, significantly higher than the previous year's processor.

The chip effortlessly beat AMD's rival Ryzen 7 1700X in Geekbench 4 by several thousand points, making the Intel Core i7-7700K's previous multi-core benchmarks look like a joke in comparison.

What's even more impressive is latest intel beat its predecessor in all single-core tests.

All that processing power also helps the 8700K convert video as quickly as some of the industry's most overworked processors, including the Intel Core i9-7980XE and AMD, although those aforementioned processors would still win any hyper-threading race through sheer brute force.

In terms of gaming performance, you won't see a huge improvement in our testing phase. Compared to the Intel Core i7-7700K, the shiny new 6-core processor improves frame rates across the board, with the biggest gains seen in Full HD and Ultra HD titles.

Overclocking and temperature conditions

Of course, increasing the base clock speeds inevitably comes with a sharp increase in power consumption, but we didn't expect the 8700K to require twice as much power compared to the competition. However, the 6-core processor consumes an average of 5 watts of power at idle, which is much less than the 12 watt AMD 1700X processor, so Intel hasn't completely forgotten about energy efficiency.

On the other hand, the 8700K is more than happy with the extra current when you want to push it beyond its rated maximum frequency of 4.7 GHz.

We easily reached 5.0GHz across all cores by simply providing the processor with an extra 0.02 volts of power, while recording a peak temperature jump of up to 85 degrees Celsius with 152.84 watts of power consumption. Next step additional food allowed us to increase the clock frequency of the Intel Core i7-8700K to 5.1 GHz on all cores without significant detrimental effects.

Unfortunately, cranking up the six-core processor to 5.2GHz proved too choppy to even load properly. While this may seem like a disappointing boost from the 8700K's top speed of 4.7GHz, we're impressed by how little heat and power the overclock requires.

Overall, the Intel 8700K remained relatively cool, peaking at only 76 degrees Celsius, allowing it to run comfortably under Thermaltake's triple heatsink for cooling. The only time the processor got a little warm was when we overclocked it to the aforementioned 5.1 GHz, under which it hit a peak temperature of 87 degrees Celsius.

Summing upresults

The Intel Core i7-8700K proves that the blue team is still the leader in the processor market. Coffee Lake is a clear improvement over Kaby Lake, with impressive increases in single-core and multi-core benchmark numbers, as well as improved gaming performance. What's more, stunning hyperthreaded performance far exceeds the capabilities of 8-core AMD Ryzen processors, even in some high-end desktop PC environments.

The Intel 8700K gets a little warmer and requires more power than we'd like, but that's to be expected as the core count increases. What we didn't expect was the pleasant surprise of 5.1GHz under overclock, not to mention the relatively low impact of overclocking on the processor.

Overall Score

Verdict:

The six-core Intel Core i7-8700K proves that the company can do more with fewer cores than AMD Ryzen. Bonus: The processor offers champion overclocking.