One of the most crucial components of a PC is the processor. Among various other options, the Intel Core i7 CPUs have been a fan favorite of gamers for their performance and capability.
Hello, my name is Ty Robinson. The world of PC gaming is very murky and scary water from the outside looking in. By sharing the knowledge I have accrued over many years, I can make the plunge into PC gaming a bit easier.
The Core i7 may not be the latest and greatest generation of Intel’s CPU; it would be an absolute disservice to count this one out. With great implementations of various features and excellent performance, which I will get into below!
What is the Intel i7?
The Intel i7 belongs to Intel’s pantheon of higher-performance CPUs. Meaning these come equipped with multiple cores and hyper-threading technology, allowing these CPUs to handle highly demanding tasks easily.
This makes them an excellent and popular choice for the gaming community. I will show off two i7 processors and their performances with respective GPUs below.
Intel i7-10700K
The Intel i7-10700K comes at a budget-friendly price and has 8 cores and 16 threads. When pairing it with an RTX 2060, you get a match that will give you a flawless gaming experience with maxed-out graphical settings at not just 1080p but even 1440p.
You can see above that despite a high Power supply being required, the i7-10700k takes center stage, boosting performance. You won’t need to worry much about “if” your PC can run a game; the only thing you’ll need to worry about is your wallet with the games you’ll be buying!
i7-13700K
The Intel i7-13700K is an absolute behemoth of a CPU. Boasting 16 Cores, and 24 threads, makes this a tank of a CPU that will future-proof your rig for years to come.
The image below shows the pairing of the RTX 3060 with the i7-3700K benchmarks.
This blows the performance of the last combination entirely out of the water. Not just providing perfect performance at 1440p and higher than 60fps on 4k! In other words, this combo will give you a buttery smooth 4K performance with any game you could throw at it.
Multithreading
The Intel Core i7 processors support hyperthreading. This enables each core to handle two threads at once. This is especially good in gaming, where most new AAA games use multithreading.
Overall this creates much smoother gameplay, reducing frame drops and improving performance as a whole!
Clockspeed
Clock speed is integral to a processor’s performance; luckily, the i7 provides high clock speeds right out of the box. Intel also implemented Turbo Boost technology, which dynamically adjusts clock speed, allowing it to deliver higher performance when needed.
For reference, the two CPUs I showed off above have speeds of 3.80 GHz and 5.40 GHz, respectively.
Final Thoughts
As gaming advancements and requirements constantly evolve, with more demanding graphics, higher resolutions, and new technologies, the i7 is an excellent solid choice for gaming.
Offering multitasking abilities, multithreading support, and high clock speeds, the i7 can handle the most demanding games without cutting down on gaming performance.
