Following the launch of six ultrabook models in the last quarter of last year, Kaby Lake, Intel’s seventh generation of processors, comes fully with more than 20 new models for laptops, all-in-ones, convertibles and more Interesting, desktop PCs. Intel promises 4K for everyone and Optane memory that makes forget the “old” SSD.
The announced end of the tick-tock
Not by expectation, we will stop starting this review to the new Intel Kaby Lake talking about the new strategy of development of chips that Intel starts with this seventh generation. There is no longer a tick-tock, that is, a change of the manufacturing process (Process) and then a micro architecture, but now we move to Process -> Architecture -> Optimization (PAO). And the Kaby Lake are just that, an optimization of the previous generation, Skylake, as we checked in our review of the most outstanding model of this generation, the Intel Core i7-7700k.
Intel Kaby Lake, with its 14 nm third generation, is an optimization that does not improve performance at equal frequency, but achieves the same result more efficiently
So start talking about that the manufacturing process of these Kaby Lake is 14 nm, the same as the Skylake, although according to Intel improved without having to touch any of the microarchitecture. They also share the LGA 1151 socket, although the launch of the new Intel processors has been accompanied by a new generation of chipsets with 200 series chipset with which to make the most of their innovations.
Intel Kaby Lake News
We have already verified in our first tests that Kaby Lake does not suppose a performance improvement by MHz as such. Intel has focused on achieving the same result with greater energy efficiency, but also with some temperature problem.
Without a real generation jump, at least as has always happened with Intel, the new features associated with Kaby Lake are more an evolution of the previous ones than they did with Skylake and we explain in detail.
An example: Speed Shift. Introduced with Skylake, the improvement at Kaby Lake halves the time needed to vary the operating frequency and give the maximum in case the user experience improves. That control is of the operating system and an advantage that for now only is taken advantage of natively in Windows 10.
Optane arrives to stay
If Skylake enthusiastically welcomed the DDR4 memory that is logically maintained at Kaby Lake, with the seventh generation of processors comes something called to be much more significant in the short term: Optane. Intel has long been clear that it is the future in the short / medium term and with the support for this memory sets an interesting precedent.
Optane is the first and hopeful step to have non-volatile memories a thousand times faster than the current ones. With Kaby Lake you can already use
The best thing is that it is not limited to the best known so far, Optane SSD, but leaves open the possibility that it is something global. The technology is based on XPoint 3D, an idea to bring advantages and speed of RAM to non-volatile format.
Intel has put the base on both its processors and the series 200 chipset that accompany them. Now it’s on the side of the manufacturers, with Lenovo at the top, for now the only one that includes 16 GB of Optane SSD in some of its recently launched CES 2017.
With the update of the Intel Core comes improvements in security. In vPro models, Intel Authenticate is renewed, both locally and by hardware, where fingerprint / iris biometrics is fully integrated. In connectivity, Thunderbolt 3 and PCIe third generation are already fully integrated and enabled.
Regarding the aspect of the integrated GPU, there is no revolution at generation level and we still have Gen9 that already exist in SkyLake. The novelty we have to look at the energy aspect, but above all in that the coding / decoding of 4K is done exclusively via hardware, both for 10-core HEVC and Google VP9.
You may also like to read another article on YellowTube: Intel Kaby Lake only be support for Windows 10
Intel Kaby Lake processors
The chip division at Kaby Lake is the same chip that Intel has been using since Skylake. There are chips targeting both Stick and Convertible miniPCs (Y Series), lightweight notebooks and All-In-One PCs, plus miniPCs (U Series), more powerful notebooks (H Series) and powerful desktops S). This last series is also in turn has the variant “K” with multipliers unlocked to give access to overclocking tasks.
From Core M3 to Intel Core i7 for teams two in one
Of the two-in-one convertible equipment we will see with Kaby Lake, the highlight is the low power consumption and HyperThreading technology we find on all new chips.
The most basic is the Core m3-7Y30 , often base very low (1 Ghz) and TurboBost of 2 Ghz. From there up we go through the Core i5 (1.2 / 3.2 Ghz) to reach the Core i7-7Y75 with two cores at 1.3 Ghz that almost triple in Turbo mode. In all cases the memory L3 is 4 MB, include the GPU HD 615 and if TDP is only 4.5 W.
Iris Plus for the best ultrabooks
The U series will end up being the most we see this year in the market in almost all kinds of ultrabooks and computers two in one. There will be versions of Core i3, Core i5 and Core i7 , with TDP of 15 W in most models, and some of more frequency that reaches 28 W. The majority cache is of 4 MB, with some specific models lowering that figure to 3 MB.
All the chips of the series U are double core with base frequencies of between 2.2 and 3.5 Ghz, reaching at most in Turbo mode the 4 Ghz of the model i7-7660U.
| PROCESSOR | CORE / THREADS | FREQUENCY (BASE / TURBO) | GPU | CACHÉ L3 | TDP | |
| I7-7660U | 2/4 | 2.5 / 4.0 | Iris Plus 640 | 4 MB | 15 W | |
| I7-7600U | 2/4 | 2.8 / 3.9 | HD 620 | 4 MB | 15 W | |
| I7-7560U | 2/4 | 3.5 / 4.0 | Iris Plus 650 | 4 MB | 28 W | |
| I7-7567U | 2/4 | 2.4 / 3.8 | Iris Plus 640 | 4 MB | 15 W | |
| I7-7500U | 2/4 | 2.7 / 3.5 | HD 620 | 4 MB | 15 W | |
| I5-7360U | 2/4 | 2.3 / 3.6 | Iris Plus 640 | 4 MB | 15 W | |
| I5-7300U | 2/4 | 2.6 / 3.5 | HD 620 | 3 MB | 15 W | |
| I5-7200U | 2/4 | 2.5 / 3.1 | HD 620 | 3 MB | 15 W | |
| I5-7287U | 2/4 | 3.3 / 3.7 | Iris Plus 650 | 4 MB | 28 W | |
| I5-7267U | 2/4 | 3.1 / 3.5 | Iris Plus 650 | 4 MB | 28 W | |
| I5-7260U | 2/4 | 2.2 / 3.4 | Iris Plus 640 | 4 MB | 15 W | |
| I3-7167U | 2/4 | 2.8 / – | Iris Plus 640 | 3 MB | 28 W | |
| I3-7100U | 2/4 | 2.4 / – | HD 620 | 3 MB | 15 W |
For more powerful laptops there are Core i7 chips that are the most interesting, with 4 cores up to 3.1 / 4.2 Ghz, 8 MB L3 cache, GPU HD 630 and TDP 45 W in all cases.
The most powerful Intel Core Kaby Lake
And we come to the S series of processors whose main destination are desktop computers, among them gaming and passionate about overclocking, in which case we find the surname k.
In this series there are models with higher consumption, even reaching 91 W. As a graphics processor, all include the new Intel HD 630 and the frequencies of the most powerful models, with four cores and 8 wires, are up to 4.5 Ghz in TurboBost mode.
| PROCESSOR | CORE / THREADS | FREQUENCY (BASE / TURBO) | GPU | CACHÉ L3 | TDP |
| I7-7700K | 4/8 | 4.2 / 4.5 | HD 630 | 8 MB | 91 W |
| I7-7700 | 4/8 | 3.6 / 4.2 | HD 630 | 8 MB | 65 W |
| I7-7700T | 4/8 | 2.9 / 3.8 | HD 630 | 8 MB | 35 W |
| I5-7600K | 4/4 | 3.8 / 4.2 | HD 630 | 6 MB | 91 W |
| I5-7600 | 4/4 | 3.5 / 4.1 | HD 630 | 6 MB | 65 W |
| I5-7600T | 4/4 | 2.8 / 3.7 | HD 630 | 6 MB | 35 W |
| I5-7500 | 4/4 | 3.4 / 3.8 | HD 630 | 6 MB | 65 W |
| I5-7500T | 4/4 | 2.7 / 3.3 | HD 630 | 6 MB | 35 W |
| I5-7400 | 4/4 | 3.0 / 3.5 | HD 630 | 6 MB | 65 W |
| I5-7400T | 4/4 | 2.4 / 3.0 | HD 630 | 6 MB | 35 W |
| I3-7350K | 2/4 | 4.2 / – | HD 630 | 4 MB | 60 W |
| I3-7320 | 2/4 | 4.1 / – | HD 630 | 4 MB | 51 W |
| I3-7300 | 2/4 | 4.0 / – | HD 630 | 4 MB | 51 W |
| I3-7300T | 2/4 | 3.5 / – | HD 630 | 4 MB | 35 W |
| I3-7100 | 2/4 | 3.9 / – | HD 630 | 3 MB | 51 W |
| I3-7100T | 2/4 | 3.4 / – | HD 630 | 3 MB | 35 W |
The prices of these models, which will be found by the user in the market for their equipment, will be between 100 dollars of the basic model Core i3-7100T up to the more than 300 dollars that will cost the highest of range: Core i7-7700K.