Intel Core i7-11700K Review: Blasting Off with Rocket Lake
by Dr. Ian Cutress on March 5, 2021 4:30 PM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
- Intel
- 14nm
- Xe-LP
- Rocket Lake
- Cypress Cove
- i7-11700K
Gaming Tests: GTA 5
The highly anticipated iteration of the Grand Theft Auto franchise hit the shelves on April 14th 2015, with both AMD and NVIDIA to help optimize the title. At this point GTA V is super old, but still super useful as a benchmark – it is a complicated test with many features that modern titles today still struggle with. With rumors of a GTA 6 on the horizon, I hope Rockstar make that benchmark as easy to use as this one is.
GTA doesn’t provide graphical presets, but opens up the options to users and extends the boundaries by pushing even the hardest systems to the limit using Rockstar’s Advanced Game Engine under DirectX 11. Whether the user is flying high in the mountains with long draw distances or dealing with assorted trash in the city, when cranked up to maximum it creates stunning visuals but hard work for both the CPU and the GPU.
We are using the following settings:
- 720p Low, 1440p Low, 4K Low, 1080p Max
The in-game benchmark consists of five scenarios: four short panning shots with varying lighting and weather effects, and a fifth action sequence that lasts around 90 seconds. We use only the final part of the benchmark, which combines a flight scene in a jet followed by an inner city drive-by through several intersections followed by ramming a tanker that explodes, causing other cars to explode as well. This is a mix of distance rendering followed by a detailed near-rendering action sequence, and the title thankfully spits out frame time data. The benchmark can also be called from the command line, making it very easy to use.
There is one funny caveat with GTA. If the CPU is too slow, or has too few cores, the benchmark loads, but it doesn’t have enough time to put items in the correct position. As a result, for example when running our single core Sandy Bridge system, the jet ends up stuck at the middle of an intersection causing a traffic jam. Unfortunately this means the benchmark never ends, but still amusing.
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All of our benchmark results can also be found in our benchmark engine, Bench.
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Makste - Saturday, March 6, 2021 - link
Well.. if it was for the click bait, hre we are 😁half_mexican - Friday, March 5, 2021 - link
This is from anandtech Dr. Ian Cutress"Latest beta BIOS from vendor, was told that they don't know when the next BIOS update will be and this contained everything to date. So unless you've got special information.
Note that this is always the risk of doing reviews even on launch day. At some point you have to lock in a BIOS version for published results. Vendors who send BIOSes 24 hours before embargo lift are told to go away."
terroradagio - Friday, March 5, 2021 - link
It has been well discussed that there is a forthcoming update coming. That is why the release and NDA is the way it is.Spunjji - Saturday, March 6, 2021 - link
I'm sure it will make a huuuuge difference. Especially for all the poor sods who bought Z490 in anticipation of a compatible upgrade. /sOtritus - Saturday, March 6, 2021 - link
I mean the leaks suggest that z590 motherboards having some problems resulting in performance regressions. So some poor sod who bought into z490 got to enjoy a fast cpu and can upgrade to an even faster one. AMD is obviously the best for non-avx-512 workloads, but where I am I can't find one for a reasonable price, so Intel is the only viable option. Perhaps the real travesty here is the lack of capacity in TSMC's 7nm node preventing us from buying excellent cpus and gpus at reasonable prices.Qasar - Saturday, March 6, 2021 - link
the question is, how many things actually use these special avx instructions ?? a handful ? unless you know you can use it, no point in them. seems intel creates these, just so it can win a benchmark.IanCutress - Friday, March 5, 2021 - link
People forget that Anand posted our Sandy Bridge review several months early.terroradagio - Friday, March 5, 2021 - link
So that makes this right? If I were Intel, I'd be revoking your early samples.Ryan Smith - Friday, March 5, 2021 - link
Yes, this makes this right.AnandTech has always honored NDAs, and continues to honor this one. We adhere to the requirements of every agreement we sign, even when doing so is not in our best financial interests. We do this because we're honest people, and just as pragmatically, we need hardware vendors to be able to trust us.
The flip side to that, however, is that retail hardware always has (and always will be) fair game. This was a processor sold by a major European retailer, tested in a motherboard based on a chipset that has been selling at retail for the past couple of months.
Although Intel may not be happy with that retailer over their lapse, at the end of the day this is final silicon running on final silicon. We have done every bit of due diligence both to ensure the accuracy of our results, and to inform the necessary parties in advance about what we intend to do, in case they wish to raise any issues with us.
So we stand by this review both from a technical perspective and an ethical perspective. All of this material was handled in a fair manner that was entirely above the board and legal in all steps of the process.
terroradagio - Friday, March 5, 2021 - link
Using a processor that isn't suppose to be sold is sketchy, plain and simple. And you know full well this. It is not to the benefit of anyone who may be interested in this part. You are thinking about yourselves, full tilt. And that is your choice. You have no idea what could happen with this update they are talking about. Will it be magic? Probably not. But will it have fixes for other things in your review? Perhaps. So therefore you are putting out an inaccurate piece for the purpose of getting out early that may very well be inaccurate in parts at the end of the month. And quite clearly from the comments here, feeding many hungry AMD fanboys.I'm not mad at you, just disappointed. Enjoy the attention.