7th gen Kaby Lake Intel Core processor release date, price, specs rumours: PLUS: Apollo Lake to be like Skylake, only cheaper

Intel's 7th generation Core processors - codenamed Kaby Lake - are coming later this year, but they'll be based on Skylake rather than a new manufacturing process. Here's what there is to know about Kaby Lake release date, features, plus rumoured specs, models and prices.

At Computex 2016, Intel confirmed in its keynote that the 7thgeneration Core processors will launch later in the year. Following on from Skylake, the new chips will be codenamed Kaby Lake. Here's the Intel Kaby lake release date, price and specs.

These will be based on the same 14nm process as Skylake and its predecessor, Broadwell. Intel won’t make the move down to 10nm until the 8th-gen Cannonlake CPUs which are due to launch in 2017. The original plan was to switch to 10nm back in 2015 but, because of manufacturing problems, it will stick with 14nm for Kaby Lake.

This disrupts Intel’s Tick-Tock roadmap, since Kaby Lake should be a Tick – a new manufacturing process – but will instead be an ‘optimised’ version of Skylake (which is already an improved version of Broadwell).

That’s Intel’s plan for the future: no more Tick-Tock, it’s now Process-Architecture-Optimisation. So when we finally get Canonlake, there will be two more generations based on 10mm before the next process switch.

Intel Kaby Lake 7thgen Core processor release date rumours

Update 22 July:On its second quarter earnings call, Intel confirmed that it is now shipping Kaby Lake processors. CEO Brian Krzanich stated to investors and we should hear more about Kaby Lake at IDF (Intel Developer Forum) 2016 in August. After all, shipping in this context means to device manufacturer partners.

No firm launch date has been announced, only that the benefits of the new chips will “come to premium devices in the second half of 2016”.

While on one hand Intel is keen to point out that it’s no longer a PC-focused company, on the other it says that the PC business is “foundational to the company’s strategy”. To this end, we’ll see new processors launched on an annual basis.

Intel Kaby Lake 7thgen Core processor price rumours

We expect a similar lineup of Kaby Lake processors to Skylake, so you’ll have a choice of an entry-level Core i3, right up to a 10-core Extreme Edition Core i7. Prices are unlikely to vary much from the Skylake range, so there will be something to suit every budget.

There will of course be laptop and mobile versions of the Kaby Lake desktop chips. As of June 2016, no pricing or model details were made official.

Intel Kaby Lake 7thgen Core processor features

The 7th-gen Core CPUs were only really teased in the keynote, and Intel said only that they will support Thunderbolt 3 and the special cameras used for Windows Hello – the face scanner that can be used instead of a password in Windows 10.

Other rumours point to expanded capabilities for 4K video playback, HDMI 2.0 and HDCP 2.2 support as well as the ability to decode 10-bit HEVC videos.

We also know that the chips will be compatible with the existing 100-series chipsets, so it’ll be an easy upgrade from Skylake, assuming manufacturers provide BIOS updates for the new chips. Quite whether it will be a worthwhile upgrade is another matter: we’ll have to wait and see what Intel can do to improve performance and power consumption, in addition to new features.

The details of a couple of models have been leaked (spotted on SisoftSandra listings): the Core i7-7700K and Core i7-7500U. They could be the flagships of the desktop and laptop ranges respectively.

Rumours suggest the i7-7700 will be quad-core with HyperThreading – the same configuration Intel has used on all Core i7 chips. The claimed 3.6GHz base clock and 4.2GHz boost speed may not be the final numbers, though.

Nothing is known about graphics chip which will be integrated into the chip, nor the TDP.

Intel Apollo Lake rumours

Apollo Lake processors are also due to launch later in 2016. These are expected to replace the Cherry Trail and Braswell chips used in low-end hardware, and should allow those mobile devices – including laptops, Chromebooks and 2-in-1 tablets – to playback 4K video, have USB-C ports and better battery life. Apollo Lake will also bring support for DDR4 RAM.

At Computex 2016, Intel confirmed in its keynote that the 7thgeneration Core processors will launch later in the year. Following on from Skylake, the new chips will be codenamed Kaby Lake. Here's the Intel Kaby lake release date, price and specs.

These will be based on the same 14nm process as Skylake and its predecessor, Broadwell. Intel won’t make the move down to 10nm until the 8th-gen Cannonlake CPUs which are due to launch in 2017. The original plan was to switch to 10nm back in 2015 but, because of manufacturing problems, it will stick with 14nm for Kaby Lake.

This disrupts Intel’s Tick-Tock roadmap, since Kaby Lake should be a Tick – a new manufacturing process – but will instead be an ‘optimised’ version of Skylake (which is already an improved version of Broadwell).

That’s Intel’s plan for the future: no more Tick-Tock, it’s now Process-Architecture-Optimisation. So when we finally get Canonlake, there will be two more generations based on 10mm before the next process switch.

Intel Kaby Lake 7thgen Core processor release date rumours

Update 22 July:On its second quarter earnings call, Intel confirmed that it is now shipping Kaby Lake processors. CEO Brian Krzanich stated to investors and we should hear more about Kaby Lake at IDF (Intel Developer Forum) 2016 in August. After all, shipping in this context means to device manufacturer partners.

No firm launch date has been announced, only that the benefits of the new chips will “come to premium devices in the second half of 2016”.

While on one hand Intel is keen to point out that it’s no longer a PC-focused company, on the other it says that the PC business is “foundational to the company’s strategy”. To this end, we’ll see new processors launched on an annual basis.

Intel Kaby Lake 7thgen Core processor price rumours

We expect a similar lineup of Kaby Lake processors to Skylake, so you’ll have a choice of an entry-level Core i3, right up to a 10-core Extreme Edition Core i7. Prices are unlikely to vary much from the Skylake range, so there will be something to suit every budget.

There will of course be laptop and mobile versions of the Kaby Lake desktop chips. As of June 2016, no pricing or model details were made official.

Intel Kaby Lake 7thgen Core processor features

The 7th-gen Core CPUs were only really teased in the keynote, and Intel said only that they will support Thunderbolt 3 and the special cameras used for Windows Hello – the face scanner that can be used instead of a password in Windows 10.

Other rumours point to expanded capabilities for 4K video playback, HDMI 2.0 and HDCP 2.2 support as well as the ability to decode 10-bit HEVC videos.

We also know that the chips will be compatible with the existing 100-series chipsets, so it’ll be an easy upgrade from Skylake, assuming manufacturers provide BIOS updates for the new chips. Quite whether it will be a worthwhile upgrade is another matter: we’ll have to wait and see what Intel can do to improve performance and power consumption, in addition to new features.

The details of a couple of models have been leaked (spotted on SisoftSandra listings): the Core i7-7700K and Core i7-7500U. They could be the flagships of the desktop and laptop ranges respectively.

Rumours suggest the i7-7700 will be quad-core with HyperThreading – the same configuration Intel has used on all Core i7 chips. The claimed 3.6GHz base clock and 4.2GHz boost speed may not be the final numbers, though.

Nothing is known about graphics chip which will be integrated into the chip, nor the TDP.

Intel Apollo Lake rumours

Apollo Lake processors are also due to launch later in 2016. These are expected to replace the Cherry Trail and Braswell chips used in low-end hardware, and should allow those mobile devices – including laptops, Chromebooks and 2-in-1 tablets – to playback 4K video, have USB-C ports and better battery life. Apollo Lake will also bring support for DDR4 RAM.

A slide published from a side event at Computex shows that Apollo Lake will offer a 30 percent improvement over Braswell, both for CPU and GPU performance. Battery life is said to be 15 percent longer, thanks to lower power consumption.

The same slide also shows that the processors will use the Celeron and Pentium N and J branding.

By Jim Martin | 22 Jul 16