The Intel Core i3-7350K (60W) Review: Almost a Core i7-2600K
by Ian Cutress on February 3, 2017 8:00 AM ESTProfessional Performance: Windows
Agisoft Photoscan – 2D to 3D Image Manipulation: link
Agisoft Photoscan creates 3D models from 2D images, a process which is very computationally expensive. The algorithm is split into four distinct phases, and different phases of the model reconstruction require either fast memory, fast IPC, more cores, or even OpenCL compute devices to hand. Agisoft supplied us with a special version of the software to script the process, where we take 50 images of a stately home and convert it into a medium quality model. This benchmark typically takes around 15-20 minutes on a high-end PC on the CPU alone, with GPUs reducing the time.
Here we report the overall time to complete the test – sub-test results can be found in Bench.
Photoscan is a mix of single and multi-threaded segments, but overall the extra cores in the i5/i7 beat the Core i3, but not by much.
Cinebench R15
Cinebench is a benchmark based around Cinema 4D, and is fairly well known among enthusiasts for stressing the CPU for a provided workload. Results are given as a score, where higher is better.
All the Kaby Lake processors seem to do well in CB15 single threaded performance, given that all the K-processors can reach 4.2 GHz or higher one way or another. Nonetheless, the age of the Core i7-2600K is showing here.
Turning the tables with actual cores, and the Core i7-2600K gets a significant leg up here. The Core i5 also sits above the Core i3.
HandBrake v0.9.9: link
For HandBrake, we take two videos (a 2h20 640x266 DVD rip and a 10min double UHD 3840x4320 animation short) and convert them to x264 format in an MP4 container. Results are given in terms of the frames per second processed, and HandBrake uses as many threads as possible.
For video conversion, having small frames puts all three CPUs in a similar spot. But ramp up the frame size and we see the Kaby Lake i5 pull ahead due to IPC and instructions. The Core i3 has enough oomph to match the extra threads on the Core i7-2600K though.
Hybrid x265
Hybrid is a new benchmark, where we take a 4K 1500 frame video and convert it into an x265 format without audio. Results are given in frames per second.
With a different video conversion tool and render, the extra cores and threads of the Core i7 is more than enough to give it a 30% advantage over the Core i3-7350K. It makes me wonder if another +30% frequency would help the Core i3.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
186 Comments
View All Comments
Bullwinkle J Moose - Sunday, February 5, 2017 - link
Correction: Can I record what I hear on the desktop with the DRM crippling API's found in Windows Vista / 7 / 8 and 10 ?should be > Can I record what I hear on the desktop with the DRM "crippled" API's found in Windows Vista / 7 / 8 and 10 ?
The API's do not cripple the DRM
The DRM does all the crippling !
Bullwinkle J Moose - Sunday, February 5, 2017 - link
Finally got Optical SPDIF working in both Windows 8.1 AND Windows 10 after that rant above!Yes, I Really did think that was a DRM issue
My original USB Soundblaster had optical in and out disabled in software updates after all the hysterical copyright violation complaints
Meteor2 - Sunday, February 5, 2017 - link
RE: why are there no 150-200W consumer CPUs. Because there's no consumer software which could take advantage of 24C/48T CPUs, unlike GPUs.Of course, if you want a 150W CPU, you can buy a big Xeon. But there's not a lot of software out there which can make use of them.
The_Assimilator - Monday, February 6, 2017 - link
Should've rather used an i5-2500K in the comparison; 2c/4t vs 4c/4t is fairer than 4c/8t. Although, a real comparison at 4.6GHz on both chips (or whatever the i3 can hit) would see the KBL obliterated regardless.evilpaul666 - Wednesday, February 8, 2017 - link
I think they said they're working on an overclocking article, but I agree the i5-2500K with both chips overclocked would have been a much more interesting test.Anato - Monday, February 6, 2017 - link
Intel should make all K-processors fully enabled, HT, ECC, Cache and sell them cheaply as 2.0-3GHz parts. Then give user tools to make changes to cache, ECC etc and after that its users task to find out what CPU can do. That would bring back good old days and Intel could get rid of cores that are otherwise unsellable.Still no need to upgrade from Sandy Bridge i5-2500k and just bought GTX 1080 for it.
evilpaul666 - Wednesday, February 8, 2017 - link
So is Optane ever actually coming out? And is it going to actually work as a 16/32GB cache for mechanical storage the ~1500/500 read/write speeds I saw quoted for it a while back would be nice as a cache for HDDs, but are slower than NVMe drives at this point.evilspoons - Wednesday, February 8, 2017 - link
Well, I guess I'm *still* sitting on my i7-2600k overclocked to 4.6 GHz. I pushed it from stock clocks in ~2013 assuming I'd replace it soon but four years later it's still ticking along just fine and I still don't have a compelling upgrade path!ANobody - Wednesday, February 8, 2017 - link
Slow is the death of IPC progress. Painful to watch.Ubercake - Friday, February 10, 2017 - link
I would hope an i3 marketed as 5 generations later could match an i7 from 5 generations before?Intel has had the market cornered for too long...