The Intel Core i3-7350K (60W) Review: Almost a Core i7-2600K
by Ian Cutress on February 3, 2017 8:00 AM ESTLegacy and Synthetic Tests
At AnandTech, I’ve taken somewhat of a dim view to pure synthetic tests, as they fail to be relatable. Nonetheless, our benchmark database spans to a time when that is all we had! We take a few of these tests for a pin with the latest hardware.
Cinebench R10
The R10 version of Cinebench is one of our oldest benchmarks, with data going back more than a few generations. The benchmark is similar to that of the newest R15 version, albeit with a simpler render target and a different strategy for multithreading.
With high frequency in tow, the Core i3-7350K makes its mark.
When more threads come to play, the Core i5-7400 and Core i7-2600K battle it out in terms of four cores and IPC vs hyperthreading. The Core i3-7350K sits around ~25% behind.
Cinebench R11.5
CB11.5 has been popular for many years as a performance test, using easy to read and compare numbers that aren’t in the 1000s. We run the benchmark in an automated fashion three times in single-thread and multi-thread mode and take the average of the results.
Similar to CB10, the single thread results show that a 4.2 GHz Kaby Lake is nothing to be sniffed at. In the multithreaded test, CB11.5 is more able to leverage the hyperthreads, showing that a Core i7-2600K will run rings around the low end Kaby i5, but is bested by the higher frequency Kaby i5-K. The Core i3 still has that dual core deficit.
7-zip
As an open source compression/decompression tool, 7-zip is easy to test and features a built-in benchmark to measure performance. As a utility, similar to WinRAR, high thread counts, frequency and UPC typically win the day here.
The difference between the i3-7350K and the i5-7400 shows that 7-zip prefers cores over threads, but the Core i7-2600K results show it can use both to good effect, even on older microarchitectures, scoring almost double the i3-7350K.
POV-Ray
Ray-tracing is a typical multithreaded test, with each ray being a potential thread in its own right ensuring that a workload can scale in complexity easily. This lends itself to cores, frequency and IPC: the more, the better.
POV-Ray is a benchmark that is usually touted as liking high IPC, high frequency and more threads. The i7-2600K, despite having double the resources of the Core i3-7350K, is only 30% ahead.
AES via TrueCrypt
Despite TrueCrypt no longer being maintained, the final version incorporates a good test to measure different encryption methodologies as well as encryption combinations. When TrueCrypt was in full swing, the introduction of AES accelerated hardware dialed the performance up a notch, however most of the processors (save the Pentiums/Celerons) now support this and get good speed. The built-in TrueCrypt test does a mass encryption on in-memory data, giving results in GB/s.
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allanmac - Friday, February 3, 2017 - link
G4600T HD 610 ⬅ TYPO: HD 630G4560 HD 630 ⬅ TYPO: HD 610
Ian Cutress - Friday, February 3, 2017 - link
Updated :)KLC - Friday, February 3, 2017 - link
I have an 8+ year old Q6600 desktop and am thinking about a new build. I do mostly office work and photography with Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop, no gaming at all, I'll use the integrated graphics. Both LR and PS seem to not utilize multiple cores very well and respond mostly to clock speed. I'm wondering if my best bet is to buy one of these i3K cpus and mildly overclock. I will get the highest clock speed at a price lower than an i5K or i7K. What do you think?t.s - Friday, February 3, 2017 - link
Me: $168 is way to overpriced. I'll get i3 7100. Or go with i5 7500.KLC - Friday, February 3, 2017 - link
i3 7100 is not a bad alternative. Like I said, most photography oriented tests show LR and PS to perform better with just a higher clock speed, not to multiple cores or anything else. With this cpu with a mild overclock up to say 4.5ghz I'm faster than an i7 clock for hundreds less. I'm wondering if that is worth $50 over the 7100. I'm thinking it is, $50 more factored into a complete new build is not much. Thanks for the comments.CaedenV - Friday, February 3, 2017 - link
Dude... you are coming from a Core2Quad. Even the weakest i3 is going to blow your mind!Seriously though; the CPU you buy essentially does not matter. If you are running on the iGPU then just get a chip with the best iGPU you can afford and call it a day. Pair it with a SSD (does not even need to be NVMe), and you will be absolutely blown away with the performance gains!
You should probably look at a simi-custom build like an Intel NUC, or Brix, or other such system where you just add ram, SSD, and OS. There is little to no point in building a whole tower PC unless you are doing something heftier than lightroom.
For that matter, look into a laptop with a decent dock. You can do most of your work in the field while taking pictures, and dock it to a nice color correct screen for the fine-tuning end of work.
Elsote - Friday, February 3, 2017 - link
"just get a chip with the best iGPU you can afford"Are you talking about AMD?
Michael Bay - Saturday, February 4, 2017 - link
He said "best", not "the only reason anybody will even look at this case heater".Iris Pro.
KLC - Friday, February 3, 2017 - link
Oh, I know anything I build will be a big step up from what I have. I am going for a desktop but probably a mini ITX mb maybe in a nice Lian Li case, definitely an SSD. I'm still thinking about the details.fanofanand - Friday, February 3, 2017 - link
I am still on a Q6600 at home and a Skylake CPU at work. The difference isn't as "mind blowing" as some would suggest. It depends on what you do, and yes things that are IPC dependent will be much faster on newer systems, but the Q6600 is still no slouch.