Overclocking Intel Kaby Lake Core i3-7350K

FrgMstr

FrgMstr

Just Plain Mean
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Mad Marco of Hot Hardware fame has gotten into the spirit of trying our best to void warranties and having fun while doing it. He puts the fairly inexpensive Core i3-7350K Kaby Lake CPU ($180) on the grill to see what he can get out of it in terms of clock speeds.


The fact that the Core i3-7350K is unlocked and so power friendly means you won’t have to go nuts with a pricey, ultra-exotic cooling solution to hit some pretty high frequencies. With a mainstream, 120mm closed-loop liquid cooler, we hit a perfectly stable 5GHz. And with air, 4.9GHz was doable, though we were hitting the upper temperature threshold and may have had to deal with some throttling under prolonged load conditions.

Monoprice has and eBay deal doing on for the 7700K at $310, no tax or shipping.
 
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They got it to boot at 5.2, which unfortunately really isn't much better than the quad core parts. If I thought there was any chance it could get to 5.5 by delidding it and putting it in my old WC loop, I'd consider swapping out of my godivari.
 
2C/4T at the $180 price point -- in 2017, when the new games like Watch Dogs 2 utilize any number of threads you throw at them?
This ridiculous offer can only be beaten by the 4C/8T flagship good for cooking eggs (unless delidded).
AMD won't even have a dual core CPU in their new desktop lineup, and the prices will likely start at $150 for the unlocked 4C/4T. Oh, and 4C/8T processors will compete with i5 for the money while providing i7-class performance. Which leaves 6C/12T and 8C/16T Zen models peerless (Intel HEDT is out of question for 99% of home users).
All those reviews of delidded Intel CPUs only add insult to injury. Keeping things cool under 5 GHz pressure would sweeten the deal quite a bit, and make all the IPCxGHz talk relevant, but nope. Besides, delidding only fixes the temperature problem, and does not really help with higher clocks. So, now we'll have to pay more for the new AMD stuff because of lack of competition from Intel... sad.
 
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Some of us are still limited at times to single-threaded performance. I have a couple of custom programs for DNA sequence analysis that I wrote back in grad school that I still use because more sophisticated (i.e., multi-threaded) programs don't necessarily do what I want them to do, or prepping the data for them is a time-consuming manual process. Why spend $240 when $180 will suffice? Anyway, seems like one of my 7350Ks performed worse than theirs, and the other performed better: https://hardforum.com/threads/overclocking-the-intel-i3-7350k-cpu.1923010/
 
Gigantopithecus said:
Some of us are still limited at times to single-threaded performance. I have a couple of custom programs for DNA sequence analysis that I wrote back in grad school that I still use because more sophisticated (i.e., multi-threaded) programs don't necessarily do what I want them to do, or prepping the data for them is a time-consuming manual process. Why spend $240 when $180 will suffice? Anyway, seems like one of my 7350Ks performed worse than theirs, and the other performed better: https://hardforum.com/threads/overclocking-the-intel-i3-7350k-cpu.1923010/
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Why spend $180 for a dual core processor if you can get a quad core with similar single-threaded performance for this money?
7350K is not an upgrade option, but rather a cheaper CPU for a new platform. For the new build Zen looks more promising: you start with a quad core and work your way up to a 6- or 8-core. With Intel we have the same motherboard and memory costs, but the CPU upgrade path is merely from dual core to a quad (if you want the unlocked option). And you pay more for Intel CPU anyway, unless you start with Pentium.
 
For the new build Zen looks very promising: you start with a quad core and work your way up to a 6- or 8-core.
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I expect Zen will have dual core (2C / 4T) APUs later this year. And Intel will have 6C / 12T CPUs on the mainstream platform next year. Intel will not have 8C / 16T CPUs on the mainstream for years however.
 
drescherjm said:
I expect Zen will have dual core (2C / 4T) APUs later this year. And Intel will have 6C / 12T CPUs on the mainstream platform next year. Intel will not have 8C / 16T CPUs on the mainstream for years however.
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Who knows if Intel Z270 will support 6C/12T... Zen platform is 8C/16T from the start
 
drescherjm said:
I believe there will be a new platform.
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Right, so what's the point to buy Intel Z270 + Core i3 to start with? This Zen could be the new Sandy Bridge, good for 5+ years of upgrades.
I need a new system this year, there is no reason to wait for the new 6C/12T mainstream platform from Intel next year.
 
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Oh, I see what Intel did there: introduced a lower end 4C/8T Kaby Lake-X for their next HEDT platform. Now it looks quite upgradeable, for those who wouldn't mind paying extra $300+ for the Intel badge and quad channel RAM
 
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I'm going to necro this thread given that Ryzen 3s have dropped, and for those geographically blessed, MC sells 7350k for $130, vs 120 for the 1300x, changing the price dynamic. You lose the $30 mobo bundle discount AFAIK for the cheaper cpu's (both brands), and of course the Z chipset boards are more expensive than AMD however. ~4.8GHz dual core HT vs. ~3.8 quad core
 
Ruiner said:
I'm going to necro this thread given that Ryzen 3s have dropped, and for those geographically blessed, MC sells 7350k for $130, vs 120 for the 1300x, changing the price dynamic. You lose the $30 mobo bundle discount AFAIK for the cheaper cpu's (both brands), and of course the Z chipset boards are more expensive than AMD however. ~4.8GHz dual core HT vs. ~3.8 quad core
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Simple : across the board, at every price point, dollar per dollar : Intel is ahead of Ryzen in gaming by about 5-10%.

In literally everything else Ryzen is 50-100% faster.
 
I noticed that the bundle discount triggers for the R5 1400x, making it equal in price to the 1300x with a board, assuming one couldn't convince a clerk to honor the discount on the cheaper chip.
 
I wish intel would have done this a few years back when a dual core was really a good option, IE I3 2100 , that chip was great for a budget gamer, but sucked in terms of clock speeds. These days if you stream at all, you need those extra cores.
 
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