Intel Core i3 7350K Benchmarks Leaked

Earlier in the month, we got the leak about Intel’s new Core i3 7359K. In a first for Intel, it would be the first unlocked dual-core i3 CPU, catering directly to overclockers and budget gamers. Part of the upcoming Kaby Lake-S desktop lineup, it finally brings overclocking to the budget market below the i5, hopefully permanently. Today, we have our first leaked benchmarks of the chip in Geekbench 4.

In addition to the benchmarks, we are also getting a few more details as well. The i3 7350K will feature the same 91W TDP of the other unlocked K series CPUs and come with 4MB of L3 cache. As expected, the i3 will feature 2 cores with Hyperthreading allowing for 4 simultaneous threads. Since it is part of Kaby Lake, it will use the Skylake architecture but with the new 14nm+ process.

Moving onto the benchmark, the 7350K shows strong single and multithreaded performance. Due to its high stock boost clock of 4.2 Ghz, it manages a single core score of 5137. This is higher than pretty every i5 except potentially the similarly high clocked i5 4690K and 6600K. In most cases, I would expect single threaded performance to match the i7 6700K.

In multithreaded performance, the i3 manages to keep up with the lower clocked i5s with a score of 10048. This, of course, is due to the higher stock clocks and the use of Hyperthreading. For budget gamers, this means the 7350K would be better than any budget i5 in single threaded games and be comparable in multi-threaded titles. This is all before you even consider overclocking which may stretch its legs further.

The big consideration, of course, is pricing compared to the i5. The 7350K is expected to cost about $180 USD which is about where budget i5′ sit. Once you factor in the cost of purchasing a Z series motherboard to overclock, the value proposition may no longer exist. Still, it should offer a viable alternative for budget gamers compared to the unlocked i5s, at least until games start demanding more.