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: Final Fantasy XV
Upon arriving to PC, Final Fantasy XV: Windows Edition was given a graphical overhaul as it was ported over from console. As a fantasy RPG with a long history, the fruits of Square-Enix’s successful partnership with NVIDIA are on display. The game uses the internal Luminous Engine, and as with other Final Fantasy games, pushes the imagination of what we can do with the hardware underneath us. To that end, FFXV was one of the first games to promote the use of ‘video game landscape photography’, due in part to the extensive detail even at long range but also with the integration of NVIDIA’s Ansel software, that allowed for super-resolution imagery and post-processing effects to be applied.
In preparation for the launch of the game, Square Enix opted to release a standalone benchmark. Using the Final Fantasy XV standalone benchmark gives us a lengthy standardized sequence to record, although it should be noted that its heavy use of NVIDIA technology means that the Maximum setting has problems - it renders items off screen. To get around this, we use the standard preset which does not have these issues. We use the following settings:
- 720p Standard, 1080p Standard, 4K Standard, 8K Standard
For automation, the title accepts command line inputs for both resolution and settings, and then auto-quits when finished. As with the other benchmarks, we do as many runs until 10 minutes per resolution/setting combination has passed, and then take averages. Realistically, because of the length of this test, this equates to two runs per setting.
| AnandTech | Low Resolution Low Quality |
Medium Resolution Low Quality |
High Resolution Low Quality |
Medium Resolution Max Quality |
| Average FPS |  |
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| 95th Percentile |  |
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In more CPU limited scenarios, the 11700K shows generational improvements over other Intel processors, but as the resolution or quality increases, we end up being GPU limited and all the CPUs even out.
All of our benchmark results can also be found in our benchmark engine, Bench.
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Zoeff - Friday, March 5, 2021 - link
Now this is a welcome surprise!nandnandnand - Friday, March 5, 2021 - link
This is actually Intel's best product launch ever. Because you can buy it and get in on the class action lawsuit later.Zoeff - Friday, March 5, 2021 - link
To be clear, I was referring to the article itself.But yes the performance is also a surprise for me after going through the article. I expected a nice performance uplift, perhaps a bit faster than Ryzen 5000 but with a higher power draw as a trade off for being on the same Intel 14nm node still. Definitely did NOT expect it to be slower.
nandnandnand - Friday, March 5, 2021 - link
To be clear, I was replying to you to get a reply at the top of the comments. Completely self-serving manipulation of AnandTech's comment section.Hopefully, terroradagio is right and an update will improve performance and efficiency slightly. Also, I wonder how the 11900K will look going ~200-300 MHz above this.
barich - Friday, March 5, 2021 - link
I have a feeling that the additional power draw required to get that extra 2-300 MHz is going to be well out of proportion to the performance gained by it. This chip is already pushed past the edge just to not regress (usually) over the previous generation.whatthe123 - Friday, March 5, 2021 - link
Considering this chip is already drawing way too much power the 11900's are probably binned like crazy and run a much lower voltage. Even then it'll probably still use more power than the 11700k. I think they should've just accepted that 14nm was not going to work for this backport. There's a market for cometlake in gamers but what market is there for this? Niche scientific computing?terroradagio - Friday, March 5, 2021 - link
Games don't require the type of power people here are crying about. Honestly, do people just sit at their computers and run AVX benchmarks all day?barich - Friday, March 5, 2021 - link
You're still looking at like an 80W difference and a requirement for the best air cooling available if you don't want temps to be out of control. I might be willing to tolerate the extra power draw if I got more performance out of it, but that's not the case.eva02langley - Saturday, March 6, 2021 - link
You mean LIQUID COOLING at this point. You need a good AIO with such power requirements.JimmyTheFish - Friday, March 5, 2021 - link
No, power consumption is exactly as bad as people are "crying" about, this chips is a joke, hotter, slower and more expensive than even the quite Sub-Par cometlake chips on the market, nevermind the superb Zen 3 offerings, which are starting to see increased availability with the single CCD 6 and 8 core 5600X and 5800XTo even be remotely appealing the 10700K need to be cheap, sub $350 cheap, and thats just not gonna happen