Review of Intelã‚â® - Core I7-8700k Coffee Lake Six-core 32 Ghz Desktop Processor
Our Verdict
The 6-cadre Intel Core i7-8700K processor proves the company tin can do more with fewer cores than AMD Ryzen – bonus: this flake overclocks like a gnaw.
For
- Hyper-threading overtakes Ryzen
- Low-impact overclocking
Against
- Overclocking just on K models
- Requires new motherboard
TechRadar Verdict
The vi-core Intel Core i7-8700K processor proves the visitor tin do more with fewer cores than AMD Ryzen – bonus: this fleck overclocks like a champ.
Pros
- +
Hyper-threading overtakes Ryzen
- +
Low-touch overclocking
Cons
- -
Overclocking but on K models
- -
Requires new motherboard
With Coffee Lake processors like the Intel Core i7-8700K, Intel had to upward the core count on its mainstream processors. This was absolutely necessary, and franky, it'due south difficult to imagine what would have happened if Team Blue didn't put out something like the Intel Core i7-8700K in light of how AMD has redrawn the boxing lines with Ryzen and Threadripper.
And, so, here we are.
The Intel Cadre i7-8700K is easily the best processor in the Coffee Lake lineup, with 6-cores, 12-threads and college core clocks than whatever of the AMD Ryzen chips. After using this processor for a calendar week, Team Blue'south 2017 flagship is everything we could inquire for, even more than a year afterwards: with otherworldly gaming performance and hyperthreading numbers that put the first generation Ryzen fries in their place. Information technology even overclocks like a champ.
Spec sheet
Cores: 6
Threads: 12
Base clock: 3.7Hz
Boost clock: iv.7GHz
L3 enshroud: 12MB
TDP: 95W
Pricing and availability
Priced at $359 (about £270, AU$460), the Intel Cadre i7-8700K takes on AMD's best Ryzen 7 processors including the $399 (£319, AU$499) 1700X and $499 (£399, AU$649) 1800X.
Even if this CPU has two fewer cores than its Red-colored rivals, the 8700K pulls alee with higher base of operations and boost clocks of three.7 and 4.7GHz, respectively.
A hexa-core mainstream processor is a big step frontward for Intel, who previously placed anything with more than four-cores inside its high-end-desktop (HEDT) E- and X-series ranges.
Speaking of, the hexa-cadre Skylake-X Intel Core i7-7800X may come close in price at $379 (£349, AU$495), but those X299 motherboards will cost a chip more than the new Z370 chipset. And, if you're thinking about moving upwards to Coffee Lake Refresh, you'll certainly take to pony up for a new motherboard, every bit older Z270 platforms, don't support the 9th-generation'southward higher power commitment demands.
While we're adding up all the extra costs, bumping upward the cadre count has resulted in a pocket-sized price premium. Its predecessor, the Kaby Lake Intel Core i7-7700K, was a bit more than affordable at $349 (£299, AU$459).
Exam system specs
GPU: Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti (11GB GDDR5X VRAM)
RAM: 32GB Vengeance LED DDR4 (iii,200MHz)
Motherboard: Asus ROG Strix Z370-E Gaming
Power Supply: Corsiar RM850x
Storage: 512GB Samsung 960 Pro G.two SSD (NVMe PCIe 3.0 x4)
Cooling: Thermaltake Floe Riing 360 TT Premium Edition
Case: Corsair Crystal Series 570X RGB
Operating system: Windows 10
Performance
The Core i7-8700K brings Intel'south multi-cadre performance up to and well above the loftier benchmark Ryzen has set up this year.
This chip soundly overtook AMD's competing Ryzen 7 1700X in Geekbench 4, with a score several thousands of points higher – by extension, this makes the previous-generation Intel Core i7-7700K's multi-core numbers look similar a joke.
What's fifty-fifty more impressive is Intel's latest part beat the pants off its predecessor in all our single-core tests, as well.
All of this processing power also ends upwards helping the 8700K convert video as fast equally some of the industry'south nigh overpowered CPUs, like the Intel Core i9-7980XE and AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X – though these aforementioned chips will still win any hyper-threading race through sheer brute strength.
When information technology comes to gaming, in our testing, at that place'due south not going to be a huge improvement over last generation. Compared to concluding twelvemonth's Core i7-7700K, the shiny new hexa-cadre CPU increased frame rates across the board, with the greatest improvements seen in titles running at Full Hard disk drive and Ultra quality settings.
Features and chipset
Intel worked some blackness magic to squeeze eighteen cores into the tiny Intel Core i9-7980 XE, and some of that witchcraft has found its mode into the Intel Core i7-8700K. Rather than packing in ii more cores than we ever saw on Kaby Lake, the processor package hasn't grown by a single millimeter.
While that'south impressive, information technology's likewise slightly abrasive that this new generation of CPUs even so demands us to buy into a whole new motherboard.
However, the Z370 isn't actually much of an improvement over final-gen's Z270 chipset. Information technology still only supports dual-channel retention and, out of the 40 available PCIe lanes, simply sixteen are directly connected to the processor. The other 24 PCIe lanes share a single DMI three.0 connexion to the processor – which means you can but squeeze out the full potential of two GPUs – or one graphics card and two 1000.2 NVMe SSDs.
Thankfully, Z370 does have a silver lining of adding official back up for DDR4 2,666MHz memory – up from the 2,400MHz frequency seen on Z270 – and improved power delivery for some of the greatest overclocking we've seen on a mainstream processor.
Overclocking and heat
Plain, with a core count increment comes the inevitable rise in ability consumption. However, we weren't expecting the Intel Cadre i7-8700K to be twice equally power hungry as its Kaby Lake predecessors. Nevertheless, at idle, the 6-core chip sips electricity at an boilerplate of 5 wats, manner less than the 12 watts the AMD Ryzen 1700X gulps, and so Intel hasn't completely abandoned energy efficiency.
On the flipside, the 8700K is more than than happy to soak up extra electric current and push itself across its rated maximum 4.7GHz frequency.
Nosotros easily achieved a 5.0GHz frequency beyond all the cores just past giving the processor an extra 0.02 volts of juice, and simply saw the maximum temperature jump to 85-degrees Celsius and 152.84 watts of ability consumption. Another extra dab of juice immune us to further clock up the Intel Core i7-8700K to v.1GHz across all cores without significantly detrimental furnishings.
Pushing the six-cores to five.2GHz unfortunately proved to be too unstable to even get Windows 10 to load properly. While this might seem disappointingly short from the 8700K's maximum speed of 4.7GHz, nosotros're impressed with how niggling actress estrus and ability demands overclocking created.
At the end of the day, the Intel Core i7-8700K stays relatively cool, maxing out at merely 76 degrees, while operating normally and comfortably under a Thermaltake triple radiator as its cooling coating. The only time information technology got a bit hot nether the covers was when we overclocked the processor to that 5.1GHz mark, where it reached a peak temperature of 87 degrees.
Last verdict
Intel Core i7-8700K proves Team Blueish is still the top dog in the processor world. Coffee Lake is a clear comeback over Kaby Lake with impressively higher single-cadre and multi-cadre numbers, and e'er-so-slightly better gaming performance. What'south more, the staggering hyper-threading performance puts it well in a higher place AMD's octo-core Ryzen processors and even into the realm of some high-end desktop (HEDT) parts.
The Intel 8700K gets a petty hotter and more ability hungry than nosotros would like, only that was somewhat expected with the bump up in cores. What we didn't expect equally a pleasant surprise was the ease of overclocking the processor to 5.1GHz, not to mention the relatively low-bear upon of doing so.
The toughest pill to consume out of all of this is having to become a new motherboard to even utilise Coffee Lake-S. Only, if you're willing to spend the money to upgrade both components, the Intel Core i7-8700K is the best mainstream processor on the market, and it comes with all the bragging rights of having the highest criterion numbers in its class.
Source: https://www.techradar.com/reviews/intel-core-i7-8700k
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