Description

Intel Core i7-7700k Kaby Lake 4.2GHz LGA 1151 Processor

Intel Core i7-7700k Kaby Lake 4.2GHz LGA 1151 Processor Kaby Lake for desktops brings with it a new chipset to work with, and that entails new motherboard designs and features. For the most part, Kaby Lake is not too dissimilar from Skylake, as they both share the same socket (LGA1151), and as is usually the case with such launches, Kaby Lake is backwards compatible with the previous chipset (Z170, B150 etc), at least with a firmware update. To take full advantage of the updated features though, you’ll need the new chipset, Z270, which we’ll cover in this review too.

The main new features of the platform include an update to Speedstep, native HEVC 10-bit plus VP9 encode and decode, a new SSD trick with something called Optane Memory, and an overhaul to the integrated graphics. There are quite a few Windows 10 specific features too, along with some architecture changes under the hood regarding I/O with PCIe lanes, Thunderbolt 3.0 and USB 3.0.

Finally, there are several changes to the way overclocking is handled, including tweaks to how BCLK works and a decoupling of AVX instructions. All of these tweaks we’ll get into in a little bit. We should point out that a number of these features are for Kaby Lake in general, while others are specific to certain products within the generation.

Specifications

Model

Brand Intel Processors Type Desktop Series Core i7 Name Intel Core i7-7700K Model BX80677I77700K

CPU Socket Type

CPU Socket Type LGA 1151

Details

Core Name Kaby Lake # of Cores Quad-Core # of Threads 8 Operating Frequency 4.2 GHz L2 Cache 4 x 256KB L3 Cache 8MB Manufacturing Tech 14nm 64-Bit Support Yes Hyper-Threading Support Yes Virtualization Technology Support Yes Thermal Design Power 91W