News Intel Readies K-Series Core i3 "Kaby Lake" Processor

Well this was unexpected. One processor line that has never had an unlocked variant, the Intel i3, may now get that extra special letter denoted only to i5's and i7's. Even the Pentium Anniversary Edition G3258 did not get that 'K' tag. Possibly in response to the apparently negligible IPC gains, Intel appears to be adding this third 'K' CPU to Kaby Lake, meaning next generation will bring the i7-7700K, the i5-7600K, and the i3-7350K. While the '50' bugs my OCD nature, the purportedly $177 processor will add much needed flexibility to the lower end of the market. (Please Intel, i7-7700K, i5-7500K and i3-7300K...).

Read more here.

 

[Phuncz]

Like @EdZ said in the HEDT topic, this might be Intel covering all grounds to make sure Zen's debut doesn't hurt them too much. I like it as a entry overclocker in Intel's lineup, although that price is still mesmerizing for a dual-core.

 

[BirdofPrey]

It's not a bad move I guess. It covers all their bases. I am hopeful for Zen, but I still doubt it will be much of a threat to Intel, at least in the short term. As for the minimal IPC gains for Kaby Lake, it's not really all that unexpected since it's just a refinement of Skylake rather than an entirely new micro architecture or node shrink.

Honestly, with Zen boasting simultaneous multithreading, I think it might benefit Intel to offer i5 chips with hyperthreading in the desktop space.

 

[Kmpkt]

I notice the TDP on this unit is 91W, same as the i5 and i7. Technically with only two cores shouldn't this have a lower TDP (normally i3 have a ~55W TDP as opposed to 65W for i5 and i7)? Makes me wonder if they've eaten into the overclocking headroom to achieve the clocks they're advertising at.

 

[Phuncz]

Good point, that is curious, certainly is a lot of power consumption for two cores, especially with core clocks equal to the i5-7600K.

 

[GuilleAcoustic]

91W ... And people criticize AND for their FX TDP ?

 

[K888D]

The i5-6400 is stated at the same 65w TDP as the i7-6700 even though it doesn't draw as much power.

 

[Stumbler]

What are people's thoughts on the 7350k? Im thinking about it for my NFC mini instead of the 7700

 

[Phuncz]

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1829?vs=1826

The theory seems to follow the practice, as the dual-core is about half as fast as the quad-core in optimized multithreaded applications. With games it's not as clear-cut and it will matter which game is run. Though with most games it doesn't differ much.

So if you use the rig for content-creation a lot, I'd think about investing in the 7700(K), otherwise the i3 will be a good choice considering the price is about half that of a 7700K.

 

[Brokoii]

What are people's thoughts on the 7350k? Im thinking about it for my NFC mini instead of the 7700

At least here in Germany the i5 7400 costs less than the i3 7350k, but you get a real quad core. Additionally the 7500k is ~50€ (25%) more expensive. I feel like the 7350k is just to expensive for a dual core, even with the unlocked multipler.