A few months after Intel unveiled seventh-generation CPUs for ultraportables, the chipmaker is now also including far more powerful machines into its Kaby Lake mix.
Coming onboard are H-series chips, which are targeted at performance laptops and workstations; and the S-series chips, which are meant to traditional desktop or all-in-one computers. These series will complement the Y-series chips, meant for laptops with ultra-thin designs, and the "U-series" chips, which are meant to power ultraportables.
With the new additional series released, Intel has essentially made its Kaby Lake processors available across the whole spectrum of Intel-powered machines, from mobile workstations to high-profile gaming laptops to consumer desktops.
Intel Kaby Lake Core i7-7700K
Needless to say that these new processors perform far better than their predecessors, but by how large a margin? Well, according to Intel, the S-series i7-7700K clocks 25 percent faster than the i7-4770K.
Additionally, Intel claims that the aforementioned chip can "create, share and stitch" 360-degree videos with 4K resolution 35 percent faster than the i7-4770K.
Sure, such a scenario is arcane at best, but it's good to know that Intel's new batch of chips can easily support the power-hungry chore associated with 360-degree 4K content, especially as 360-degree video hauls more traction.
What's more, Intel says that the chip is unclocked, and users who wish to overclock the processor to squeeze more performance can do so via simplified voltage controls, which according to Intel can execute overclocking in a much more stable manner.
For some perspective on how much power the chips can overclock to, a Russian blog had recently been able to squeeze a staggering clock speed of 7 GHz from the i7-7700K, which is nearly unheard of for what's poised to be a mass-market chip. As it stands, the i7-7700K will feature a base clock speed of 4.2 GHz, packing four cores, eight threads, and Intel HD 630 graphics.
On the other hand, Intel says the that H-series chips will perform nearly 20 percent faster than a fourth-generation chip, and will be able to handle 360-degree 4K content 65 percent faster.
The H-series will be outfitted in gaming machines or desktop-replacement laptops, and the chip is looking to be a seemingly perfect mesh with modern mobile GPUs, such as the 10-series from Nvidia, and the Polaris chips from AMD.
Intel Kaby Lake Core i5-7600K
Intel also unveiled the Core i5-7600 chip, a four-core, four-thread chip, but with no support for hyperthreading; usually the case with Core i5 chips from previous generations.
Intel Kaby Lake Core i3-7350K
Not to be missed is the unclocked Core i3-7350K chip, the first time such a configuration would ever be available on a Core i3 processor, featuring two cores and four threads. This essentially makes extensive overclocking available for a budget chip, costing only $168.
Both the Core i3 and i5 chips have been benchmark-tested by AnandTech, with the chips performing steadily where they should in terms of gains over previous-generation Skylake chips.
The whole lineup is also poised to mark the ongoing prevalence of 4K video, even for devices that don't have discrete graphics cards. Each Kaby Lake processor, even the Core i3, can support 4K graphics off the bat — provided that, of course, the user has an Ultra HD screen, a high-speed broadband connection, and a video service that particularly offers 4K content.
There's certainly a lot to look forward to from Intel's Kaby Lake processors, for those looking to upgrade their age-old machines.
