Intel Core i5-7600K vs Intel Core i7-1065G7 vs Intel Core i7-7820HK

Intel Core i5-7600K

The Intel Core i5-7600K is a fast quad-core processor for desktops based on the Kaby Lake architecture and was announced in January 2017. It is the top model of the consumer Kaby-Lake-H Core i5 series at the time of the announcement. The i5 does not support HyperThreading (4 threads only) and runs from 3.8 (base speed) up to 4.2 GHz. As a K-model, the i5-7600K offers an open multiplicator for overclocking.

Architecture

Intel basically uses the same micro architecture compared to Skylake, so the per-MHz performance does not differ. The manufacturer only reworked the Speed Shift technology for faster dynamic adjustments of voltages and clocks, and the improved 14nm process allows much higher frequencies combined with better efficiency than before.

Performance

The performance of the i5-7600K is about 10 percent above the predecessor Core i5-6600K, thanks to clock speed increases and long hold Turbo Boost clocks. Matching clock speed, there is no speed improvement from Skylake. The old top model Core i7-4790K however is still slightly faster.

More information with gaming benchmarks and power measurements can be found in our AMD Ryzen 7 versus Intel CPUs review (upcoming).

Graphics

The integrated Intel HD Graphics 630 has 24 Execution Units (similar to previous HD Graphics 530) running at 350 - 1150 MHz. The performance depends a lot on the memory configuration; it should be comparable to a dedicated Nvidia GeForce 920M in combination with fast DDR4-2133 dual-channel memory.

Contrary to Skylake, Kaby Lake now supports hardware decoding for H.265/HEVC Main 10 with a 10-bit color depth as well as Google's VP9 codec. The dual-core Kaby Lake processors, which were announced in January, should also support HDCP 2.2.

Power Consumption

The chip is manufactured in an improved 14nm process with FinFET transistors, which improves the efficiency slightly. Intel still specifies the TDP with 91 Watts, which is a lot more than the 45 Watts of the mobile Kaby-Lake-H CPUs.

Intel Core i7-1065G7

The Intel Core i7-1065G7 is a power efficient quad-core SoC of the Ice Lake U product family designed for thin laptops and Ultrabooks. It was announced in May 2019 (Computex). The CPU has four Sunnycove processor cores (8 threads thanks to Hyper-Threading) clocked at 1.3 (base) - 3.9 (single core Turbo) GHz. 2 cores can reach 3.8 GHz and all four 3.5 GHz using Turbo Boost. According to Intel the Sunnycove cores achieve 18% more IPCs (Instructions per Clock).

Other improvements for Ice Lake are the AI hardware acceleration and the partial integration of Thunderbolt and Wi-Fi 6 in the chip. The integrated DDR4 memory controller supports modules with up to 3200 MHz (and LPDDDR4 3733).

The biggest improvement of Ice Lake is the integrated Gen 11 graphics adapter called Iris Plus Graphics. The Core i7-1065G7 integrates the biggest G7 variant with 64 EUs clocked at 300 - 1100 MHz. The Iris Plus G7 should be twice as fast as the predecessors and best the AMD Vega 10 GPU from current Ryzen APUs.

Performance

The average 1065G7 in our database is most comparable to the AMD Ryzen 7 2700U and the Intel Core i5-8259U, as far as multi-thread benchmark scores are concerned. This is a so-so result and a direct consequence of Intel's inability to make the best of its brand-new 10 nm node. The Core i7-10710U, a 10th generation processor built with an older 14 nm process, will easily rip a 1065G7 to pieces. That said, the 1065G7 will surely beat a 10710U in terms of energy efficiency.

Thanks to its decent cooling solution and sufficiently high CPU power limits, the Galaxy Book Flex 15-NP950 is among the fastest laptops powered by the 1065G7 that we know of. It can be around 40% faster in CPU-bound workloads than the slowest system featuring the same chip in our database, as of August 2023.

Power consumption

This Core i7 has a default TDP, also known as the long-term power limit, of 15 W. Laptop makers are free to change that value to anything between 12 W and 25 W with clock speeds and performance changing accordingly as a result. Either way, that's a tad too high to allow for passively cooled designs.

The quad-core Intel CPU is built with Intel's second-gen 10 nm process (not 10 nm SuperFin or Intel 7) for average, as of late 2022, energy efficiency.

Intel Core i7-7820HK

The Intel Core i7-7820HK is a fast quad-core processor for notebooks based on the Kaby Lake architecture and was announced in January 2017. It is the second fastest model of the consumer series at the time of the announcement. Only the i7-7920HQ and Xeon E3-1535M v6 are faster. Besides four cores including Hyper-Threading support running at 2.9 - 3.9 GHz (4 cores up to 3.5 GHz, 2 cores up to 3.7 GHz), the processor is also equipped with the HD Graphics 630 GPU as well as a dual-channel memory controller (DDR3L-1600/DDR4-2400). It is manufactured in a 14nm process with FinFET transistors.

Compared to the Core i7-7820HQ, the 7820HK lacks business features like vPro or TXT support.

Architecture

Intel basically uses the same micro architecture compared to Skylake, so the per-MHz performance does not differ. The manufacturer only reworked the Speed Shift technology for faster dynamic adjustments of voltages and clocks, and the improved 14nm process allows much higher frequencies combined with better efficiency than before.

Performance

Due to the higher clock speeds, the performance of the i7-7820HK is slightly faster than the old Skylake top model Core i7-6920HQ (2.9 - 3.8 GHz). The performance is sufficient even for very demanding tasks and on par with powerful desktop quad-core processors.

Graphics

The integrated Intel HD Graphics 630 has 24 Execution Units (similar to previous HD Graphics 530) running at 350 - 1100 MHz. The performance depends a lot on the memory configuration; it should be comparable to a dedicated Nvidia GeForce 920M in combination with fast DDR4-2133 dual-channel memory.

Contrary to Skylake, Kaby Lake now supports hardware decoding for H.265/HEVC Main 10 with a 10-bit color depth as well as Google's VP9 codec. The dual-core Kaby Lake processors, which were announced in January, should also support HDCP 2.2.

Power Consumption

The chip is manufactured in an improved 14nm process with FinFET transistors, which improves the efficiency even further. Intel still specifies the TDP with 45 Watts, but it can also be reduced to 35 Watts by the notebook manufacturers (cTDP down). This will obviously affect the performance, because the Turbo Boost cannot be maintained for longer periods.