Kaby Lake desktop processors have finally arrived
Back in August of last year, we anticipated that Intel would have more news about its 14-nanometer Kaby Lake processors around CES 2017. Chips for ultraportables, hybrids, and tablets have been available for a few months, but desktop enthusiasts were forced to wait a bit longer. Yesterday, the Santa Clara giant presented more than a dozen models under its classic Core i3, i5, and i7 brands, with prices that should not exceed $350 for its fastest model.
Ladies and gentlemen, Kaby Lake is a fact. Available information indicates that the Cannonlake 10nm architecture will be delayed until at least the second half of 2017, so anyone who has decided to resist the temptation to jump on the 14nm train might want to consider doing it now. Kaby Lake symbolizes the end of Intel's work on that node (for now), the last phase of its new Process-Architecture-Optimization scheme that replaced the classic Tick-Tock. Everything that 14nm has to offer is already on the table, as long as we talk about general consumption (since the hardware cycle in servers is different). The Kaby Lake processors had their launch in August 2016 through the U and Y series. Yesterday, Intel released the H series, aimed at high-performance laptops, and the long-awaited S series, destined for the desktop.
At the front is the Core i7-7700K, which retains the structure of four cores and eight processing threads thanks to Hyper-Threading. Its frequency rises to 4.2 GHz, and 4.5 GHz in Turbo mode, a modest jump when compared to the frequencies of the Core i7-6700K (Skylake, 4.0 / 4.2 GHz). The other improvements that Kaby Lake received could be interpreted as equally subtle, but that doesn't make them less important. Speed Shift version 2 allows compatible chips to respond with greater speed and precision to frequency changes, the integrated Intel HD video incorporates support for accelerating different codecs and standards, and we also find compatibility with Optane technology. From what we've gathered, the first Optane products will follow the line of cache modules for traditional hard drives, with M.2 interface.
Probably the biggest asterisk on Kaby Lake's record is not in hardware, but in what will be its software support. Intel confirmed that Windows 7 and Windows 8.x will not receive official drivers for the new platform, so those who want to squeeze the most out of Kaby Lake will have to use Windows 10 (for example, Speed Shift v2 will only work on that system). Benchmarks tell us a story we already know quite well. The performance improvement is nothing spectacular, but enough to place Kaby Lake at the top of the mountain. The cost per thousand units of the most economical chip, the Core i3-7100 (2/4, 3.9 GHz), is $109, while the aforementioned i7-7700K costs $305. Logic dictates that the final price on its label should be below $350.
