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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Makaveli - Friday, March 5, 2021 - link
lol the only one looking like a fanboy is you.DigitalFreak - Friday, March 5, 2021 - link
Why so butthurt? You wouldn't be on here whining if the benchmarks were in Intel's favor. Never understood the fanboi mentality.arashi - Friday, March 5, 2021 - link
Because now his website won't get the views he thought they'd get.Spunjji - Saturday, March 6, 2021 - link
Nice projection there.MarcusMo - Sunday, March 7, 2021 - link
”Using a processor that isn't suppose to be sold is sketchy”The operative word you’re missing is “yet”. The batch of processors this one is from is Intel release silicon intended for end customer hands. And there are more out there. This article represents exactly the kind of performance that at least some day one customers should expect. Now maybe there will be updates to the software stack that will improve performance over time, but that doesn’t make this review any less valid.
Slash3 - Friday, March 5, 2021 - link
Appreciate the statement, Ryan.Pre-release content is nothing new for AnandTech, and it's interesting to see how passionately some people feel about the topic. Might be something worth exploring in a future article, as I'd wager that there are a lot of readers who weren't around to see things like the original Sandy Bridge pre-review which Ian referenced in another reply.
CiccioB - Friday, March 5, 2021 - link
I think the criticism on this review is quite justified.You are reviewing a device that is not ready to be sold yet.
Yes, you could buy it at retail but just because, like you, some other "smart guy" made the wrong (would say fraudolent) move to not respect a date.
What we have here is a "preview" of the CPU performances that may (or not, but you don't know now) change when the CPU will really available for the rest of the mortals on the globe.
I would like to think that you will do a new review of the CPU once the motherboards will be updated and make evidence if, how and by how much something has changed since this preview with what are early samples that results being compatible with the device.
However, while you were at it, you could also try PCI4 connected memory storage to see how good Intel implementation of the technology is.
MFinn3333 - Friday, March 5, 2021 - link
"You are reviewing a device that is not ready to be sold yet." How is it Ian or Ryan's fault that Intel released a CPU in this condition? If Intel isn't doing any QA on their end for proper use out of the box then the problem is on their end.And yes, they did release it in that condition because unless they intend to recall all the packages and open them up and replace the CPU inside, it is the product that people are going to be getting and using when they open it up and slapping it in their computer. I used to work retail and getting new product on major releases is usually about 3-4 weeks ahead.
Following your logic then they shouldn't do a review unless they are willing to also update all of the AMD CPU's as well to include their performance and bug fixes which would turn bench-marking into a never ending nightmare because of updates.
Intel whiffed this release, get over it.
CiccioB - Saturday, March 6, 2021 - link
You have misses that Intel has not released the product yet and the samples you can find on the market come from a seller that broke the NDA and start selling them before the official release time.They are actually are in beta support with BIOS, microcode, drivers and such on not final motherboards as well.
Once you understand that you'll understand why this is a preview or a beta test, not a full review of the product.
Qasar - Saturday, March 6, 2021 - link
um THE HAVE RELEASED THEM. the store just started selling them early, that is the stores fault. you are grasping at straws.