Intel Core i7-7700K Kaby Lake Processor Review

CPU Benchmarks – Ashes of the Singularity, Cinebench, Handbrake, WPrime and WinRAR

Ashes of the Singularity

Ashes of the Singularity’s dedicated CPU benchmark can take advantage of those extra cores and poses a problem for even the most expensive options on the market such as the i7-6950X. At stock values, the i7-7700K records a commendable result which defeats its predecessor and has a good lead over the 6-core i7-5820K. Once overclocked to 5.1GHz, the frame-rate increases by a decent amount and allows the CPU to stay within touching distance of the i7-5960X running at the default turbo frequency. This is a significantly better result than I expected, although the substantial gains may be down to a margin of error.

Cinebench R15

Prior to overclocking, the Intel i7-7700K falls just short of a 1000 multi-threaded score and remains well above the i7-6700K thanks to the enhanced frequency. This also applies to the single-threaded data and it’s clear that the faster Turbo clock is paying dividends. Interestingly, the stock i7-7700K is able to outperform a heavily overclocked i7-4770K which indicates the progress made over time. Setting the CPU to a mammoth 5.1GHz has a dramatic effect on the single-threaded performance which easily eclipses the rest of the field. On another note, the multi-threaded capabilities at 5,1GHz are greater than a stock 6-core i7-5820K.

Handbrake

The processor exhibits a small performance boost in video tasks when converting a 4K MP4 video file versus the previous generation offering. Furthermore, the FPS value isn’t too far behind the 6-core 5820K and I’d argue that the 4.5GHz boost helps to close the gap. The overclocked frequency is really beneficial during the conversion task and begins to rival higher core products with a lower base frequency.

WPrime

Rather surprisingly, the Intel i7-7700K reports a quicker pi calculation time than an overclocked i7-6700K during the 1024M benchmark. Saying that, the Skylake option fares better when working out the equation to fewer digits. Additionally, the i7-7700K running at 4.5GHz comprehensively beats an overclocked i7-4770K and isn’t too far away from the i7-5820K. After the overclock was applied, the 1024M calculation time dropped below 150 seconds and surpassed the i7-5820K. This is a great showing given the benchmark’s preference for processors with additional threads.

WinRAR

Here we can see the processor at stock values offers a very similar compression time to the previous flagship and struggles to contend with Intel’s 6-core alternative. As expected, the hefty overclock helps to narrow the gap, although it’s still some way off if you compare the different frequencies.