More cores for the people: Coffee Lake-S with Intel Core i7-8700K and Core i7 8700 in review

For example, you currently only launch two CPUs per class, each with two more cores. If the Core i7 has 6 cores and SMT, which allows 12 threads, the Core i5 can still have 6 cores without SMT. The Core i3 is... The Z370 chipset At first glance, not much has changed about the chipset itself, except that Intel has now reopened up to AMD and has the top three in the nomenclature. PCIe connectivity remains unchanged at 16 Lane... In the AI test of Civilization IV, all CPUs position themselves in a good way as one might expect from the technical data. Even with the Time Spy CPU test, the world of the advertised hierarchies is (almost) still in order. Positive falls here ever... For this benchmark, the Core i7-8700K is exceptionally just ahead of the Core i7-8700, albeit only at average frame rates. The differences are so small that you could almost push everything into the tolerance range. The... Even if a GPU limit is not to be denied here, the CPUs still scale up to a good 140 FPS. However, the overclocked Core i7 of both genrations will no longer bring any extra power, as you can see well on the Min-FPS. ... In Civilization, the overclocked Ryzen 7 1800X can still keep up quite well. Otherwise, the Core i7 are the dominant CPUs in this selection. However, the Core i7-7800X is the inglorious exception, as it still sorts itself behind the... Clock precedes core count and the Core i7-8700 is faster than the K-Pedant. Which brings us to the paradox of our foreword to the tests, where a CPU with nominally lower turbo clock suddenly performs better than the actually more expensive Mo... Project Cars offers a very similar image, in which the non-K model performs a tick faster. The AMD CPUs, on the other hand, have no chance and are clearly behind. Individual results of all maps Other game - same image, except that this time even the older Core i7-7700K can push itself in front of the Core i7-8700K. However, if you run at overclocked to 4.9 GHz with the same clock, the Core i7-8700K is faster again. This shows... This benchmark is effectively in the balance between the two new Core i7, while the core i7-7800X, the core i7-7700K (unclocked) and the AMD CPUs have to be significantly behind. At the same clock, the speed limit is suddenly 4.9 GHz ... In this game, the focus is on the Frame Times and the Min-FPS as a logical consequence. Otherwise, the Core i7-8700 is again a tick faster. The rest repeats itself as well as with the other benchmarks. Single... Important preliminary remark on CPU selection and overclocking Contrary to our usual handling, not benchmarking the productive areas with overclocked CPUs, as it is also rather unlikely in reality, this time we have both Coff... 2D Performance In order to better understand some of the later results, we are putting forward a good old acquaintance. With our GDI/GDI+ benchmark, we are first testing two different output methods for 2D objects, how to... CPU Performance: Workstation Of course, in the production area, not only the 3D graphics performance is important in the production area for the just-set applications, because many things are calculated by the CPU in parallel within these applications (Simu... For these test series, we use benchmarks from the rather versatile SPECwpc suite for workstations, which rely on very different mathematical calculations, which on the one hand can be perfectly parallelized and where it is at the same time a... Overclocking First of all, we are exploring the limits. To make sure that we don't run in thermal limits, because Intel still relies on the tiresome thermal paste between Die and IHS, we initially use the chiller again and cool the... Summary First of all, we would like to thank AMD and their Ryzen family. Without this wake-up call or food for thought, Intel would probably have continued to delight us with now boring four-cores in the consumer sector. But that's how the train-zwan brings...

CPU Performance: Workstation

Of course, in the production area, not only 3D graphics performance is important in the application, because many things are calculated by the CPU in parallel within these applications (simulations, compute tasks, preview rendering, etc.). In order to get a truly objective impression, you always have to look at both in context.

Many of the current software packages also contain modules based on pure calculations and simulations, so that you always have to include all possible aspects in productive use. However, software packages such as Solidworks do not fully scale with the large number of possible threads, so that often enough quad-cores with high IPC (and SMT) can exist here. This can also be seen in the direct comparison between the Core i7-7700K and the Core i7-8700K.

At Creo, the pure clock counts as long as 8 threads can run stress-free. Otherwise, the new Core i7-8700K can hardly take advantage of the two additional cores.

At 3ds Max, the clock and core count, whereby the core i7-8700K can set itself off slightly from the core i7-7700K. The Core i7-7800X is not competitive here either.

In the CPU composite, on the other hand, extensive rendering is also included (which we will come to separately) so that the overall rating of the AMD Ryzen 7 provides a slightly different picture.

CPU Performance: Photorealistic Rendering

In final rendering, it is no longer so much universality that matters, but the most efficient and fast, parallelized processing. That's why we're looking at this section now. So let's get back to 3ds Max right at the beginning. When it comes to pure rendering, no one is fooling the Core i7-8700K in its class. Core count goes ahead with clock, although the performance with the latter also scales beautifully.

The console variant of Luxrender confirms this image, whereby at least the Core i7-8700K can compete with the Ryzen 7 1800X.

Let us now turn to Blender. The usual workload (but with a sample size of 200 pixels) confirms the image of the previous tests very impressively. The Core i7-8700K is roughly at the level of the Ryzen 7 1800X, depending on the clock. The two older Kaby Lake CPUs no longer see a trick here. Gaming isn't everything.

If we run the blender loop of the SPECwpc, the result looks very similar, even if the task is somewhat different.

If the share of pure rendering power continues to decrease, the non-overclocked Core i7-8700K will also push to the top. The rest looks like it was.

This becomes even clearer when one not only confines oneday to photorealistic image output, but also plays a role in the loop many factors, in which not only the core number is the only decisive factor, but also the IPC. Suddenly, the older four-cores with SMT are back at the front.

In this part, the two new Intel CPUs finally push themselves to the top, since the core number is not unimportant, but the clock is even more important.

Intermediate conclusion

Intel's Core i7-8700K and the Core i7-8700 are also useful CPUs in semi-professional use and not only in gaming. Depending on where you set the priorities, they can either keep up with the production or even pull the sausage off the plate for everyone else. We would not have expected such a positive assessment of Intel's consumer rail, especially compared to the Core i7-7800X. This makes the Core i7-7800X completely obsolete.

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