Intel Core i7-11700 Processor

The Core i7-11700 8-Core 2.5GHz is a top-end CPU based on a refinement of the 14nm++ Comet Lake microarchitecture. It offers 8 physical cores (16 logical), initially clocked at 2.5GHz, which may go up to 4.4GHz using 8 cores with All-Core Turbo Boost, or up to 4.9GHz boost clock on a single or dual-core. The i7-11700K has 16MB of L3 Cache. Among its many features, HyperThreading, Turbo Boost 2.0 and Virtualization are activated and the processor has its multiplier unlocked. This Core i7-11700 8-Core CPU offers the fastest gaming performance of any Intel CPU as of 2021, and will not be the bottleneck in any modern gaming PC. It will be able to play all modern games comfortably on ultra graphics performance at any supported resolution without being a hindrance to the accompanying GPU.

The Intel Core i7-11700K processor slots into Intel’s Rocket Lake product stack at a price point that squeezes between two of AMD’s most popular Ryzen 5000 processors. The 11700K’s pricing should make it an attractive chip if you want the most performance from a mainstream Intel platform that you can get without paying the flagship price, but it faces stiff competition from the AMD chips that have dominated our list of Best CPUs (at least when they’re available at retail).

Cypress Cove, Intel’s first new architecture for desktop PC chips in six years, grants the Rocket Lake chips a 19% increase in IPC in most workloads. But the backported Cypress Cove (which was designed for 10nm) comes with a big tradeoff: Rocket Lake is still etched on the 14nm process and tops out at eight cores and sixteen threads. That’s a step back from the previous-gen 10-core Comet Lake i9 models and pales in comparison to AMD’s beastly 16-core Ryzen 9 5950X flagship.

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