The leaks keep on coming. Just after the specs for Intel’s upcoming 7th-generation Kaby Lake Core i3 hit the web, a hardware sample of Intel’s forthcoming i7-7700K made its way into the hands of review editors over at Tom’s Hardware.
Now, the Intel Core i7-7700K received by Tom’s Hardware may or may not be a retail sample of the upcoming processor –- it could just as easily be an engineering sample but nevertheless, the benchmarks and stats are interesting. First up, the Core i7 is an unlocked quad-core processor capable of eight threads, with an out-of-the-box clock speed of 4.2GHz.
According to testing though, the Core i7’s remarkable speed is eclipsed by high power consumption and it runs hot — particularly after a bit of overclocking. The unlocked chip was capable of hitting an overclocked frequency of 4.8GHz at 1.30V, but excess heat builds up quickly.
“The overclocking experiment even required a 15 degree C room temperature, which is something most readers won’t be able to accomplish,” wrote Thomas Soderstrom of Tom’s Hardware. “Liquid might help, but since the cooler’s heatpipes were barely warm to the touch, there’s a possibility that 4.8 GHZ may be the limit of this sample while using any ambient-temperature cooling solution.”
So it looks like the Intel Core i7-7700K might be capable of hitting some impressive speeds, but only if you have some serious (liquid) cooling solutions available. The other benchmarks point to an otherwise impressive chip, with the i7-7700K outperforming its older cousins in the 6th-generation Skylake family.
In mixed workload tests, the i7-7700K narrowly edged out the Core i7-6700K in all benchmarks other than a video conversion test. It’s a narrow lead, but it points to some of the performance gains the latest round of 7th-generation Kaby Lake quad-core processors can offer.
The absolutely absurd idea of putting a touchscreen display on a mouse isn't exactly new. Turtle Beach already did it with its Command Series MC7, which features a 2.25-inch control screen. But apparently, even that wasn't ridiculous enough for Arctic Fox Technologies. Its new Super Mouse looks like someone took the chunky old Atari ST mouse, slapped a touchscreen and scroll wheel on it, and called it an upgrade.
The result is a rather unusual-looking mouse that is now on Kickstarter, starting at $199. And as ridiculous as it looks, some of its features are genuinely intriguing.
Apple is less than a day away from launching its highly anticipated OLED MacBook Pro with a touch-sensitive screen. But it appears that the upgrade is going to cost a pretty penny. According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple is reportedly eyeing a starting price of $2,899 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro, while the 16-inch version could start at $3,399 in the US.
"At $2,899, the 14-inch model would mark the highest starting price for a new MacBook Pro model, surpassing the $2,799 Apple charged for a 17-inch version introduced in 2006," says the report. The report claims that Apple is targeting a minimum price hike of $400 for its upcoming redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models.
I've spent a good amount of time digging into the spec sheet of the new M6 MacBook Pro (14-inch), and for all intents and purposes, this is a classic Apple "chip and connectivity" refresh. It's not a full redesign. The chassis, Liquid Retina XDR panel, speakers, ports, and battery, all of them carry over unchanged.
However, the M6 brings more cores, stronger on-device AI, higher memory bandwidth on the larger configs, and modern wireless. Here’s the practical rundown of what actually improved, and whether those gains are worth your money.