Kaby Lake launches
Today, Intel is launching their latest iteration of mainstream/performance segment processors, code-named ‘Kaby Lake’ alongside the new 200-series chip-set motherboards. The new processors of the 7000-series feature an improved 14nm+ process resulting in increased clocks-speed at similar TDP levels to previous processors of the Skylake generation, but the underlying micro-architecture remains the same (aside from improvements to the on board GPU-core). Each of the new chips is equipped with Intel’s HD 630 graphics core and none feature any L4 eDRAM cache.
Die map of the quad-core Kaby Lake Processors
The Core i7-7700K: Clock speeds get a major lift
At the head of the launch, is the flagship Core i7-7700K; a quad-core with hyper-threading which demonstrates this process advantage by shipping with some impressive clock-speeds out of the box. At 4.2 GHz base and a staggering 4.5 GHz boost, this is Intel’s highest clocked processor ever- and it does all this within a TDP of 91W. In addition, Kaby Lake brings the supported DRAM speed up to DDR4-2400 from Skylake’s DDR4-2133.
List of Kaby Lake processors
| Part Name | Cores/Threads | Clock speed (base/turbo) (GHz) | L3 Cache | TDP | Price |
| i7-7700K | 4/8 | 4.2/4.5 | 8MB | 91W | $305 |
| i7-7700 | 4/8 | 3.6/4.2 | 8MB | 65W | $272 |
| i7-7700T | 4/8 | 2.9/3.8 | 8MB | 35W | $272 |
| i5-7600K | 4/4 | 3.8/4.2 | 6MB | 91W | $217 |
| i5-7600 | 4/4 | 3.5/4.1 | 6MB | 65W | $199 |
| i5-7600T | 4/4 | 2.8/3.7 | 6MB | 35W | $199 |
| i5-7500 | 4/4 | 3.4/3.8 | 6MB | 65W | $179 |
| i5-7500T | 4/4 | 2.7/3.3 | 6MB | 35W | $179 |
| i5-7400 | 4/4 | 3.0/3.5 | 6MB | 65W | $170 |
| i5-7400T | 4/4 | 2.4/3.0 | 6MB | 35W | $170 |
| i3-7350K | 2/4 | 4.2 | 4MB | 60W | $157 |
| i3-7320 | 2/4 | 4.1 | 4MB | 51W | $139 |
| i3-7300 | 2/4 | 4.0 | 4MB | 51W | $129 |
| i3-7300T | 2/4 | 3.5 | 4MB | 35W | $129 |
| i3-7100 | 2/4 | 3.9 | 3MB | 51W | $109 |
| i3-7100T | 2/4 | 3.4 | 3MB | 35W | $109 |
Kaby Lake also brings with it support for several new features, such as ‘Optane’ memory support and a revised version of the Speed Shift technology first introduced with Skylake. Speedshift V2 essentially improves on the original by allowing the processor to ramp up its frequency and voltage even quicker to respond to workloads than before, providing greater responsiveness. The processors will be available to purchase within the next few days.