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The next generation of intel processors after kaby lake. Seventh generation Intel Core processors (Kaby Lake): comparison of Core i5-HQ and Core i7-U

We selected Core i7 and Core i5 processors from the HQ and U series. These four models are used in most laptops on the market. As you may have noticed above, the two U-series processors are clocked higher than the Core i5-7300HQ and generally come at a lower price.
Is this enough to win?

The short answer is NO. Full-fledged HQ series processors are still cooler.

Cinebench R15

Let's start with one of the cult processor benchmarks, Cinebench. We chose the multi-core scenario not only because most applications (including games) use multiple cores at once, but also to see how the result would be affected by the presence of additional processing cores on the processor (or the ability to execute more instruction threads).

We see the same picture: HQ series processors are tearing their U-series rivals to shreds. Moreover, the Core i5-7300HQ model is not only ahead of the i5-7200U by as much as 40%, but also leaves behind the Core i7-7500U - by 22%!

X264 Benchmark

If the term “computing performance” sounds too vague for you, the X264 benchmark will help clarify the picture, which simulates video transcoding using central processor. The higher the result, the faster the processor can convert videos from one format to another.

HQ series processors win again. This time their advantage is on average about 30%.

Conclusions

If you expect decent performance from your computer, go for the HQ series processor.

Don't let the "i7" name fool you. Even the i5-HQ processor will be faster than the i7-U! In addition to the number of cores and execution threads, HQ processors have other advantages such as larger size cache, and are therefore better suited for high-performance laptops, including gaming models.
This does not mean that U-series processors are worse. They are just designed for different purposes. Their destiny is ultrabooks, for which mobility and low power consumption are priorities. When speed matters most, you should always choose HQ series processors.

In this article, we made a comparison between Kaby Lake and Skylake, sixth and seventh generation Intel processors, which will help you decide which processor is better and which one to choose.

When Intel announced Kaby Lake, it quickly became apparent that the traditional upgrade cycle was over. Kaby Lake is just a tweaked version of Skylake, but it brings with it some important new features. For those unfamiliar, Intel used to work on a tiktok schedule, which meant that they (by tick) introduced a new processor that had a new design and performance.

Then there was the next range of processors (tock), which specialized in improving and optimizing the same architecture to provide better performance. Kaby Lake is essentially a “tock”, an improvement on Skylake. However, don't limit your choice to Intel. These days AMD processors Ryzen offers an unrivaled alternative.

What new features do Kaby Lake processors have?

So we've established that the 7th generation Intel Core processors are basically just optimizing the sixth generation chips. For desktop PCs, they both use the same LGA 1151 socket, so you can use Kaby Lake on a motherboard that had the Skylake chip installed (and use the same CPU cooler).

However, since Kaby Lake has several new features, motherboards based on 100 series chipsets do not support them. The best equipment is the Kaby Lake chip and motherboard with 200 series chipset.

4K video

The new Kaby Lake has an updated graphics chip that supports HEVC encoding and decoding. This is the latest video codec that is designed for 4K video, which means the Kaby Lake chip will allow you to watch Netflix, Amazon, or any other 4K video in HEVC format without stuttering. It also supports VP9 decoding, which is Google's codec designed to compete with HEVC.

Since the GPU handles the workload, the CPU cores can be used for other purposes, so your PC won't freeze while you're watching 4K video. Additionally, Kaby Lake supports HDCP 2.2, which, simply put, is copy protection used for 4K video, and you'll need it to connect a compatible monitor and watch copy-protected UHD content.

This is a real benefit for laptops, as native HEVC and VP9 support means the CPU won't be taxed as much as the Skylake chip - it will have to use its CPU cores to decode video, and therefore battery life should be longer when watching videos 4K. Intel says it could actually be 260 percent better.

Optane Intel support

Supports new Optane memory from Intel. It's similar to an NVMe SSD, but faster - and sits in a single M.2 slot on the motherboard. But it's only compatible with the Z270 chipset, which requires a Kaby Lake processor (you can run a Skylake processor on a Z270 board, but you won't be able to use Optane Memory).

Performance

Kaby Lake chips perform better than Skylake. Not great, but there is a slight improvement. Base clock speeds are higher than the equivalent Skylake processor, but Turbo Boost frequencies are the same.

While you'll need additional tools and programs to notice a difference in most applications, you won't have much trouble finding an improvement in 3D graphics power, at least for mobile chips.

The Kaby Lake U series processors (we'll get to those later) feature Intel Iris Plus graphics, which promise 65% better performance than the GPU in equivalent Skylake chips.

Unfortunately, in desktop chips, the Intel HD Graphics 630 is largely identical to the 530 found in Skylake. The only real update here is HEVC and VP9 support.

PCIe lanes

Skylake processors have 20 communication lanes with the PCH (Platform Controller Hub), but Kaby Lake adds four more. With 16 PCIe lanes on the processor itself, a Kaby Lake system can have 40 PCIe lanes.

USB and Thunderbolt

These additional connections are important, especially when PCIe is now used for storage as SATA speeds become too limiting.

Kaby Lake also supports latest version USB-C (USB 3.1 Gen 2), which means speeds up to 10 Gbps, rather than 5 Gbps on Skylake. Again, this is native support without the need for a separate controller or additional fee on the motherboard. Likewise, there is built-in support for Thunderbolt 3.0.
Kaby Lake systems can have up to 14 USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports and three PCIe 3.0 storage slots.

You can spend up to $750 on a Z270 motherboard like the Asus Maximus IX Extreme, although most are significantly cheaper.

Low-power Kaby Lake-Y processors

One confusing aspect is that Intel has renamed the ultra-low-power Kaby Lake chips, which you'd think would be called Core m like Skylake, to Core i3, i5 and i7.

These so-called Y-series chips have a TDP of just 4.5W and deliver far less performance than their U-series counterparts. These are typically found in thin and light hybrids like the Dell XPS 2-in-1, but the "Core i" branding might fool you into thinking you're getting the same chip found in the XPS 13 laptop.
So keep an eye on this.

Which is better to choose Kaby Lake or Skylake?

Obviously, given the choice of two PCs or laptops at the same price - one with a Skylake processor and one with a Kaby Lake processor - you would choose the Kaby Lake machine.

For laptops with integrated graphics, you'll see better performance from the Kaby Lake chip thanks to the Iris Plus GPU, as well as better performance and timing battery life when watching 4K Netflix.

Indeed, a Skylake-based laptop may not even have the processor power to play 4K video. However, not many laptops come with 4K screens.

Our verdicts

If you already have a computer with a sixth-generation Skylake processor, there's no point in upgrading to Kaby Lake. You'll miss out on most of the new features, and you won't notice any performance gains unless you upgrade from older i5 processors to, say, a Core i7-7700K. If you have more old computer with an Ivy Bridge (third generation) or Haswell (fourth generation) processor, then it might be time for an upgrade - unless it was a late-series Core i7, in which case you might not notice a significant performance boost.

Video: Comparison of Intel processors, which is better Kaby Lake vs Skylake?

The other day, Intel announced the imminent release of the 7th generation of its processors, thus putting an end to the “tick-tock” strategy that the company has been using for many years. Let us recall that the “tick-tock” strategy meant the following: with the “tick” cycle, Intel released processors with a reduction in the technological process of their production, while in the “tock” cycle there was a complete modernization of the processor microarchitecture, but process practically remained the same. For example, Intel’s 5th generation of Broadwell processors was developed in a “tick” cycle, while the next, 6th series, Skylake, was already a “tock” cycle. This time, Intel, according to its logic, had to release a “tick” cycle processor, and everything was leading up to this. The company planned that after Skylake it would release Cannonlake, a processor with a process scaled down to 10nm. However, all sorts of delays and problems with the development of the new product forced Intel to reveal to the public another “so-cycle” processor, called Kaby Lake, using the same 14-nm process technology as its predecessor, but with some optimizations that add performance to it in compared to Skylake.

In this note, we will talk about the main distinctive and similar features between Intel Kaby Lake and Skylake processors. Let us immediately note that Kaby Lake processors should look most attractive to those who create/consume a lot of 4K content.

Intel Kaby Lake: 4K Ready Processors

One of the key appeals of Kaby Lake lies in its support for HEVC encoding and decoding of 4K video. 7th generation Intel processors are now being delegated this work directly to the graphics card, and do not use their own cores, as was before, thereby the quality of the 4K video stream is noticeably improved, and at the same time, battery consumption is noticeably reduced. Moreover, the processor, which is not burdened with working with 4K video, can focus its energy on performing other tasks in the queue. At the same time, the cores are not only not subject to greater load, but also consume less energy, which is why Intel claims that systems running Kaby Lake processors use battery power 2.6 times more efficiently compared to other systems when working with 4K video.

Users will also notice significant improvements in working with 3D graphics when using Kaby Lake, compared to previous Intel generations, which directly indicates an improvement gameplay. Intel even decided to show off the Dell XPS 13 with a Kaby Lake processor, which, running at medium settings, was able to produce about 30 fps.

Kaby Lake vs Skylake: Comparison - Which is Better

Kaby Lake or Skylake: Faster Clock Change

In relation to Kaby Lake, Intel took the same architecture used in Skylake and applied improvements to it: they increased the clock speed and improved the turbo mode. While it is impossible to say for sure that these innovations will significantly improve processor performance (although, essentially, they should), however, the benchmark results shown by Intel look promising. Considering that no new architecture was used when creating Kaby Lake, all innovations and improvements in the processor compared to Sky Lake relate to changes in the hardware itself.
Among these innovations and improvements, one that stands out is the faster clock speed switching of Kaby Lake processors compared to Skylake rivals. The advantages of the new product do not end there: Kaby Lake also received a higher base clock speed and greater efficiency in turbo mode. For a clear example of what the basic and overclocked versions of Skylake and Kaby Lake processors are capable of, we suggest taking a look at the tables below:

Note: In the 7th generation, Intel decided to change the names of processor models, and if in the Skylake line we had three models named m3, m5 and m7, then Kaby Lake named its models m3, i5 and i7. This approach can confuse the average buyer, since he will not understand what is in front of him: either he is purchasing a device with a Core m processor, or the device is equipped with a much more powerful Core i5 or i7. Now, in order not to be misled, you will have to pay close attention to the full name of the processor. "m" models contain the letter "Y" in their name, while more powerful processors will have the letter "U" instead.

Skylake vs Kaby Lake Model "Y": Clock Speed ​​Comparison
Skylake Kaby Lake Skylake Kaby Lake Skylake Kaby Lake
CPU m3-6Y30 m3-7Y30 m5-6Y54 i5-6Y74 m7-6Y75 i7-7Y75
Base clock speed 900 MHz 1 GHz (100 MHz increase) 1.1 GHz 1.2 GHz (100 MHz increase) 1.2 GHz 1.3 GHz (100 MHz increase)
Overclocked mode 2.2 GHz 2.6 GHz (400 MHz increase) 2.7 GHz 3.2 GHz (500 MHz increase) 3.1 GHz 3.6 GHz (500 MHz increase)
Skylake vs Kaby Lake U Model: Clock Speed ​​Comparison
Skylake Kaby Lake Skylake Kaby Lake Skylake Kaby Lake
CPU i3-6100U i3-7100U i5-6200U i5-7200U i7-6500U i7-7500U
Base clock speed 2.3 GHz 2.4 GHz (100 MHz increase) 2.3GHz 2.5 GHz (200 MHz increase) 2.5 GHz 2.7 GHz (200 MHz increase)
Overclocked mode Unknown Unknown 2.8 GHz 3.1 GHz (300 MHz increase) 3.1 GHz 3.5 GHz (400 MHz increase)

Kaby Lake: Default support for new formats

Kaby Lake processors will also be able to support the 2nd generation of USB 3.1, which has throughput at 10 Gbps, which is twice the speed of the currently used version of USB 3.0. Also, the 7th generation of Intel processors will receive by default not only support for encoding and decoding 4K HEVC video with 10-bit depth, but will also be able to perform VP9 decoding - two options that were not available in the previous Skylake family of processors. HEVC, in short, is an encoding method that can reduce the bandwidth of video files by almost 50%, while maintaining video quality thanks to H.264 encoding.

In addition, Kaby Lake processors also support HDCP 2.2. content protection technology. In short, HDCP is an abbreviation for High Bandwidth Digital Content Protection. This technology was developed by Intel itself to prevent illegal copying of audio and video files during their transmission. This technology works like this: before transmitting information, the transmitter asks the receiver for permission to receive data and only after a positive answer begins transmitting content, and the transmission occurs using encryption, so no one else will be able to connect to the connection and eavesdrop/spy on the transmitted information. HDCP is used for connections such as DVI, HDMI, etc.

Not long ago, Intel introduced the 7th generation Kaby Lake microarchitecture. By the way, when developing it, Intel moved away from the “tick-tock” strategy that had existed for 10 years! The essence of the mission was that with each new generation of microprocessors, performance should increase, but if the “tick” branch meant a reduction in the technological process using the existing microarchitecture, then “so,” on the contrary, meant the creation of a new microarchitecture, but based on the existing technological process.

The creation of Kaby Lake destroyed this strategy, since this microarchitecture, which belonged to the teak branch, was manufactured using a 14 nm process, like its predecessor, the 6th generation Skylake. Although at the beginning of its creation it was stipulated that Kaby Lake would be created in accordance with the “tick-tock” strategy for the 10 nm process technology. But Intel's strengths are not limitless, because every year the transistors become thinner and the technological process becomes more complicated, as a result they simply did not have enough time. Therefore, in 2016, Intel updated the “tick-tock” mission, stating that from now on it will be carried out in a cycle consisting of three stages:

  1. "Tick" - reduction of the technical process of an existing core
  2. “So” - creating a new microprocessor, but without changing technology
  3. “So” - optimization of the new microarchitecture

Microarchitecture differences:

If we talk about the differences between these microprocessors, we can highlight 3 clear advantages of Kaby Lake relative to its predecessor:

  1. New integrated video adapter Intel HD 630, providing performance up to 30% higher compared to the previous Intel HD 620. This was demonstrated when testing them in Benchmark, although in games this difference remains small, in the same Rainbow Six (2015) Intel HD 630 it is only 2-3 fps ahead of its “big brother”.
  2. The new microarchitecture has significantly improved power consumption, amounting to 7.5 W for Kaby Lake, which cannot be said about Skylake with its 15 Watt consumption.
  3. Kaby Lake implemented direct USB support 3.1 ports, unlike Skylake, where this required additional controllers on the MP.

Skylake vs Kaby Lake - Performance Testing

For comparison, two processors were taken:

  1. Intel Core I7 7700K with Kaby Lake microarchitecture
  2. Intel Core I7 6700K with Skylake

The comparison was carried out in eight analyzers, including AIDA 64. It would seem that the new microarchitecture should provide much greater performance than the previous one, but no, the difference turned out to be symbolic and in the end amounted to 1% on average. So now it’s worth thinking 100 times whether you need to overpay for a laptop with a processor running on a new microarchitecture, when there is almost no difference in performance compared to the old one?

If we talk about autonomous operation, then by transferring 4K format video processing to the GPU to Kaby Lake, the processor, firstly, receives a much 7-10% less load than the “stone” with Skylake. Secondly, it has a record battery life when playing movies compared to its predecessor. Namely, as much as 10 hours, which cannot but be called a serious advantage.

Summing up:

Thus, despite the fact that the performance of processors with the Kaby Lake microarchitecture is only 1% higher than that of their predecessors with the 6th generation Skylake core. Due to reduced power consumption by almost half and, as a result, much longer battery life. The processor with Kaby Lake turned out to be much more energy efficient than the one with the Skylake core.

In short: these are the same Skylake chips, but with higher frequencies and an advanced hardware video processing engine. Still, some models are quite interesting. In addition, there is an unshakable rule: it is better to build a computer from scratch on the most modern hardware possible.

Intel Core i3-7320

Briefly about the product: 2 cores but 4 threads, 4.1 GHz, 4 MB L3 cache, 51 W TDP
Peculiarities: very high default frequency - 4.1 GHz
Price: US$149
Budget for a gaming computer with this processor: 35-40,000 rubles

Initially, this place in the selection was given to the Core i3-7350K. He is unique. As the song of the Kino group says: our hearts demand change! Indeed, since 2011 Intel has had two overclockable processors. One Core i5 and one Core i7 (there was also an anniversary Pentium G3258, but this is the exception that proves the rule). Such patterns are easy to recognize. They are the fastest, they are the most expensive, they have the letter “K” in their name. The wind of change blew in 2017, precisely with the release of the Core i3-7350K. It's been a long time since Intel released overclocking budget processors. Naturally, you will have to pay extra for overclocking capabilities. The chip costs $168, but it is nevertheless cheaper than the slowest Kaby Lake quad-core Core i5-7400 ($182).

Core i3-7350K is fast without any overclocking. Operates at a frequency of 4.2 GHz. It is quite possible to overclock it up to 4.8-5.0 GHz. Naturally, for this you will need to have a high-quality cooler in your arsenal. In general, overclocking requires a more expensive motherboard based on the Z170/Z270 Express chipset. Read about which devices are required for the seventh generation Core in this material. So saving is a moot point. As well as the possibility of overclocking. But 4.2 GHz out of the box is already serious. And the Core i3-7320 runs at 4.1 GHz. It's only 100 MHz less, but we save $19 right away.

Intel Core i3-7320

Intel Core i5-7400

Briefly about the product: 4 cores, 3.0 (3.5) GHz, 6 MB L3 cache, 65 W TDP
Peculiarities: cheapest quad-core Kaby Lake
Price:$182
Gaming computer budget: 50-55,000 rubles

And Core i5 processors, as you know, have four full cores. A modern games More and more people love multithreading. Perhaps the most clear example- this is Battlefield 1. In it any Core i5 is 100% loaded. But such a chip is still enough to build a gaming computer with a powerful video card, including Radeon RX 480 and GeForce GTX 1060.

Let's not forget about one tempting feature of the new Kaby Lake. The chips have not very fast integrated graphics HD 630, but it has an advanced media block. As a result, all the power of the processor can be “thrown” into ensuring the operation of the video card, and the hardware units of the integrated GPU, for example, will ensure the operation of the OBS streaming program.

Intel Core i5-7400

Intel Core i7-7700

Briefly about the product: 4 cores but 8 threads, 3.6 (4.2) GHz, 8 MB L3 cache, 65 W TDP
Peculiarities: most fast processor with 65W TDP
Price:$303
Gaming computer budget: 60-75,000 rubles

The capabilities of the Core i7-7700 are studied in detail in the review. The tricky part is that with a fairly low TDP for desktop processors (only 65 W), all four cores of the chip operate at 4 GHz under load. We get two things. Firstly, eight streams are useful, including in games. Secondly, high frequency. It will help both in work and in entertainment. The Core i7-7700 will make great friends with a video card of the GeForce GTX 1070 level. A low level typical heat dissipation will allow you to assemble a gaming computer of any complexity. Yes, even the size of a game console!

Intel Core i7-7700

Intel Core i7-7700K

Briefly about the product: 4 cores but 8 threads, 4.2 (4.5) GHz, 8 MB L3 cache, 91 W TDP
Peculiarities: accelerates to 5 GHz. If you're lucky.
Price: $339
Gaming computer budget: 100,000 rubles

The mainstream Intel platform, and LGA1151 is what it is, supports a maximum of quad-core Core i7 processors. Therefore, the Core i7-7700K differs from the Core i7-7700 only in frequency, the presence of an unlocked multiplier and, as a result, an increased TDP level. Overclocker model. With proper luck, it accelerates to 5 GHz using a good cooling system. IN last time Sandy Bridge chips released back in 2011 boasted such overclocking agility. It is clear that any modern video card can be used with the Core i7-7700K. Or even two.