The Intel Core i7-11700K ($399 MSRP) is the eight-core, 16-thread desktop CPU that the Core i9-11900K should have been. The AMD Ryzen 7 5800X mostly beats it in flat-out performance, but the Core i7-11700K’s reasonably competitive pricing (especially if you can find it at a discount) keeps the contest from being a runaway. Clear of many of the BIOS problems we ran into while testing the Core i9-11900K at launch, the Core i7-11700K shows that with a bit of platform maturity and some more aggressive pricing, Intel’s not out of the desktop processor race just yet.
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To start off, if you’d prefer a deeper dive into all the 11th Generation goodness we’ve got to spare (including info on motherboard compatibility and cost of adoption), head on over to our review of the Core i9-11900K flagship for all the details.
For now, here’s how the various CPUs in the “Rocket Lake” lineup shake out. (Note that for legibility’s sake we’ve left out the low-power 35-watt “T” versions of these chips, which will be of interest mostly to OEMs.)
Let’s zoom in on the Core i7-11700K’s placement in the stack against similar Intel processors, as well as what the competition is up to over at AMD:
No, you’re not seeing double: Intel really has released two eight-core processors in its 11th Gen stack, with the $539 eight-core, 16-thread Core i9-11900K (a downgrade from last year’s 10-core, 20-thread Intel Core i9-10900K) matching the Core i7-11700K nearly spec for spec, save for differences in the max boost capabilities and maximum memory clock speeds. First up is the max boost clock: the Core i7-11700K tops out at 5.0GHz in very specific usage scenarios, while the Core i9-11900K is rated to peak at 5.3GHz (for a more detailed breakdown of how Intel is classifying boost speeds these days, see that review). As for the max memory speed, Intel claims the Core i7 part is locked to DDR4-2933 while the i9 supports up to DDR4-3200.
Overall, though, with just those two slight differences between chips priced $140 apart, there’s almost no scenario where the Core i7-11700K isn’t the better choice if you’re looking for an eight-core, 11th Gen Intel processor.
Moving on to our AMD matchup, comparing the Intel Core i7-11700K to the Editors’ Choice award-winning Ryzen 7 5800X is an uphill battle across the board. The AMD processor outdoes the Core i7-11700K in almost every way except price and single-core boost limits (which don’t always translate to single-core wins, as you’ll see below), including a 105-watt TDP (versus the Core i7’s 125-watt rating), a larger 32MB versus 16MB L3 cache, and compatibility with AMD’s venerable Socket AM4 (although motherboard support gets spottier for 5000 Series CPUs compared to the older, cheaper 3000 Series).
For one area where Intel’s 11th Generation wins, the Core i7-11700K includes a new Intel UHD Graphics 750 integrated graphics processor (IGP). However, if you’re going to rely on integrated graphics for gaming, we’d recommend going with a much cheaper option such as the Core i5-11600K, which, while not reliably competitive with AMD’s Ryzen 5 3400G, still provides a decent uplift in gaming performance compared to the Core i5-10600K.
Finally, Intel has no plans to include a bundled cooler with its Core i7-11700K, which makes sense once you move beyond six-core options up to the eight-core tier. But you’ll have to factor the cooler cost into the equation, assuming you don’t have an LGA1200-compatible one on hand already. For stock running, air cooling should do.
Testing the Core i7-11700K: Who Needs an i9, Anyway?
We tested the Core i7-11700K on an Asus ROG Maximus XIII Hero (Wi-Fi) Z590 motherboard, with 16GB of G.Skill memory clocked to 3,000MHz (for comparability with our earlier CPU reviews), and a Mushkin Pilot-E PCI Express 3.0 solid-state boot drive paired with a Samsung SSD 860 QVO SATA secondary drive.
All this was packed in an ADATA XPG Invader chassis fitted with a Deepcool GamerStorm Captain 240 EX 240mm liquid cooler and an 850-watt MSI MPG A850GF power supply. For our gaming tests, we used an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, at Founders Edition clocks, as we have on all recent mainstream and high-end CPU reviews.
We test processors using a variety of synthetic benchmarks that offer proprietary scores, as well as real-world tests using consumer apps like 7-Zip and 3D games such as Far Cry 5.
CPU-Centric Tests: A Stable Showing
Over the last couple of years, Intel’s midrange options have struggled against AMD’s in productivity tasks. That’s because with the 9th Generation Core line, Intel nixed thread-doubling Hyper-Threading Technology below the Core i9 level. The company restored it with 10th Gen and it’s here again with 11th Gen Rocket Lake.
As a chip that backports Intel’s 10-nanometer “Ice Lake” architecture into 14nm+++ lithography, the Core i7-11700K, like the rest of 11th Gen so far, struggles against AMD’s Ryzen 5000 Series and its 7nm chiplet design.
The Ryzen 7 5800X beats the Core i7-11700K in every single benchmark we run, save for our legacy iTunes AAC conversion test and (by one second) our Blender 3D model render. Though we expected the Intel chip to trail the AMD, the other single-core losses are especially sore points given Intel’s usual strongholds in that area.
As for the chip’s performance versus the Core i9-11900K, it’s a value win across the board. Sure, the Core i9 is regularly ahead of the i7, but not by $140 worth—not even close. This is the only eight-core Intel 11th Generation chip you should consider in most cases, although that’s less a plug for the Core i7 than a condemnation of the Core i9.
Gaming at the Midrange: Intel Core i7-11700K Frame Rates With Discrete GPU
Here’s what we saw in our bank of gaming tests with our GeForce RTX 2080 Ti card running the show. This top-end consumer GPU is the primary arbiter of performance at 4K with all of the CPUs that we have laid out below. At 1080p resolution, however, the card gets out of the way a bit more and lets the CPU differences shine.
In the gaming race, AMD once again showed that it has no intention of handing easy wins to Intel anymore. While the Ryzen 7 5800X does lose quite a few battles to the Core i7-11700K throughout our runs, the margin is far too close to ignore the cost of adoption that the Z590 platform demands compared to Socket AM4.
Intel has its frame rate victories, to be sure, but on a value basis we’d still recommend the Ryzen 7 5800X as the best eight-core option for gamers on shelves right now. If you’ll settle for six cores, the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X and even the Intel Core i5-11600K hit the best price/performance balance overall for desktop gaming for 2021.
A Brief Look at Overclocking and Thermals
The Core i7-11700K never topped 80 degrees C in our stress testing, which is oddly lower than the Core i5-11600K during the same run. We checked this result in three separate runs, but no matter the circumstance the Core i7 always ran cooler than the Core i5. A strange result to be sure!
Even with a newer BIOS installed on our Asus Z590 motherboard since the launch of Intel’s 11th Gen desktop chips back in March, we still hit the same stability issues that arose during our attempts to overclock both the Core i9-11900K and the Core i5-11600K. While the chip would now power on with a slight (5%) overclock applied, attempting to run any games or benchmarks quickly summoned a Blue Screen of Death.
If you want to overclock an eight-core chip, the Ryzen 7 5800X and the older Core i7-10700K are more stable bets.
Verdict: AMD Continues Its Eight-Core Reign
As a straight-up competitor to Editors’ Choice prize-winning CPUs like the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X, Intel’s Core i7-11700K can’t quite keep pace. Its slower performance, platform upgrade requirement, and increased power draw (plus the heat output that comes with it) put it a few steps behind what AMD has on offer this year.
The main selling point for this processor, as has been the case for most other Intel 11th Gen parts, is availability. Retailers’ stock of AMD processors remains stretched as the semiconductor pinch hits overseas outfits like TSMC the hardest, while Intel, with its domestic production, has had an easier time filling shelves through one of the biggest semiconductor shortages in decades. At this writing, you can not only find a Core i7-11700K in stock at all major online outlets, you can even get one on discount at places like Micro Center where the chip was selling for $40 under MSRP (just $360 a pop).
For comparison’s sake, while Amazon had the Ryzen 7 5800X back in stock at this writing, it was selling for $420—a discount from the $449 MSRP, to be sure, but still substantially more than what you’d pay for a Core i7-11700K on its own. Pricing on the chip has wavered up and down for months, when you’ve been able to find it in stock.
But for Intel’s 11th Gen, buying a chip without a new Z590 or lesser 500-Series-chipet motherboard simply isn’t an option, possibly erasing the value lead the Core i7-11700K may temporarily enjoy. For Z490 owners or those looking to shop on discount, the older Core i7-10700K is still a fine processor in its own right, but the Core i7-11700K and the rest of its generation don’t do enough to justify the higher cost of Z590 adoption based on performance alone.
If you want the best eight-core processor that Intel makes today, the Core i7-11700K is it. However, only Intel loyalists are likely to do that; AMD’s Ryzen 7 5800X and 3700X are both still the preferred choices if you can find them at or below MSRP. That’s the big “if,” though—and what keeps our rating on the Rocket Lake Core i7 as high as it is.
