How Does i7-7700K Compares to i7-8700K
For a long time, four cores were considered overkill and most of the computer applications required fewer cores. As time passed, the industry felt a great need to increase the core count to improve performance in various fields. In terms of the gaming industry, we can say that most of the games still use four cores, however, the recent AAA titles are seen throttling up to eight cores very easily. You also need to know about 7700k and 8700k Ram Compatibility.
You must also have heard about the optimization of the games, which defines the quality of game development i.e. how much the processes of a game can be processed efficiently in terms of parallel processing. Parallel processing is a difficult task which is why most of the games are only focused on 4-8 cores/threads. In case if you’re looking to buy a Z370 motherboard for your 8700K we’ve already covered the Best Gaming Motherboards for i7-8700K, for your ease.
In this article, we will discuss the performance of Intel’s seventh-generation processor Core i7-7700K and eight generation processor Core i7-8700K, where the suffix ‘K’ denotes that the processors are multiplier-unlocked. Let’s discuss the hardware specifications of each of these processors, after which, we will dive into their real-world usage scenarios.
Specifications: Intel Core i7-7700k vs Intel Core i7-8700k
| Specifications | Core i7-8700K | Core i7-7700K |
|---|---|---|
| Code Name | Coffee Lake | Kaby Lake |
| No. of Cores | 6 | 4 |
| No. of Threads | 12 | 8 |
| Base Frequency | 3.70 GHz | 4.20 GHz |
| Turbo Frequency | 4.70 GHz | 4.50 GHz |
| L3-Cache | 12 MB | 8 MB |
| TDP | 95W | 91W |
| MSRP | Check Price | Check Price |
The most prominent difference in these two processors is the addition of two extra cores in Core i7-8700K which also result in four threads more than the Core i7-7700K (Check Best Motherboards For I7-7700k Here), as Hyper-Threading technology is implemented in these processors. Two cores might not seem much if you think about it but it concludes a 50% improvement over the Core i7-7700K.
Apparently, the core clocks of Core i7-7700K may seem better to you as the i7-8700K has a 3.7-GHz frequency base clock but the turbo core clock of the 8700K is, in fact, a bit better than 7700K at 4.7-GHz, i.e. 0.2-GHz more than the turbo frequency of 7700K.
The Level-3 cache is also improved and just like the cores, i7-8700K features a 50% increase in cache size from 8-MB to 12-MB. All of this performance is free of cost in terms of power consumption as both of these processors share similar TDP. However, as for the market prices, you may get a much better deal on Core i7-7700K. Keep in mind, different motherboards are compatible for 7700k and 8700k.
4K Gaming Loads
There can nothing be more spectacular in the gaming industry than gaming at 4K resolution. 4K resolution comprises of four times the pixel quantity of a Full-HD/1080P resolution. There is a very particular characteristic of “Resolution” that it is totally dependent on the graphics card, and not on the processor. That is why the CPU performance in a game with a processor at 1080P resolution is going to be the same as the performance at 2160P resolution. Since 4K gaming screens feature a refresh-rate of 60-Hz, it should not be difficult to attain that much FPS in even the latest games by using a high-end processor like Core i7-7700K. This processor is enough to handle any game at much more than 60 FPS as long as it is coupled with a powerful graphics card. Therefore, if you own a 4K 60Hz screen, 7700K should be your top priority.
Performance in Computational Workloads
Unlike gaming, computational workloads such as rendering, streaming or other forms of processing are much more efficient at parallel processing, which is why a higher core count results in far better results. Especially if you are interested in rendering or video editing, the difference in performance between Core i7-7700K and Core i7-8700K is almost 50% which indicated that such processes are completely scalable in terms of core count. Consequently, for such workloads, Core i7-8700K will be a much better choice for you and will be more future proof in the longer run.
High Refresh-Rate Gaming
High refresh-rate gaming is very necessary for competitive games and one can not just ignore this particular specification if he/she wants to improve his gaming skills professionally. There are up to 240-Hz screens available in the market which are very demanding in terms of hardware specifications. A 4K screen demands a high-end graphics card such as a GeForce GTX 1080 Ti. While on the other hand, gaming on a 240-Hz screen requires a similar graphics card but additionally, it also requires a four times stronger processor, as the processor must be powerful enough to push that many frames to the graphics card. Therefore, if you are interested in competitive games such as PUBG, Fortnite, Apex Legends, and CS-GO, then the six cores of Core i7-8700K will be much more helpful for you to achieve high FPS.
Benchmarks
Benchmarks are the crux of hardware technologies and an article without benchmarks seems unfair. Therefore, we are including both the gaming benchmarks and the software benchmarks to provide an insight into the performance of both processors. We are thankful to Gamer’s Nexus and Tom’s Hardware for providing us with these benchmarks. The gaming benchmarks are done at 1080p resolution to avoid any GPU bottleneck, which would destroy the essence of these benchmarks. It is to be noted that the processors are clocked at their stock frequencies to avoid any confusion with the overclocking capabilities.
Our Verdict
We believe both of the processors are very high-end and it is not worth upgrading from one to another as the motherboards are also not compatible with each other. However, if you are considering to buy one for your new rig then we will recommend you Core i7-7700K for high-resolution gaming and Core i7-8700K for high refresh-rate gaming or computational workloads as it provides much better performance altogether.
