Kaby Lake

Kaby Lake is Intel's codename for its seventh generation Core microprocessor family announced on August 30, 2016.[7] Like the preceding Skylake, Kaby Lake is produced using a 14 nanometer manufacturing process technology.[8] Breaking with Intel's previous "tick–tock" manufacturing and design model, Kaby Lake represents the optimized step of the newer process–architecture–optimization model.[9] Kaby Lake began shipping to manufacturers and OEMs in the second quarter of 2016,[10][11] with its desktop chips officially launched in January 2017.

Kaby Lake
Intel Celeron G3930
General information
LaunchedAugust 30, 2016; 7 years ago (August 30, 2016)
DiscontinuedOctober 9, 2020 (desktop processors)[1]
CPUID code0806e9h, 0806eah, 0906e9h
Product code80677
Performance
Max. CPU clock rate1.00 GHz to 4.5 GHz
Cache
L1 cache64 KB[a] per core (32 KB instructions + 32 KB data)
L2 cache256 KB per core
L3 cacheUp to 8 MB, share
L4 cache64 MB of eDRAM (on models with Iris Plus graphics)
Architecture and classification
Technology nodeIntel 14FF+
MicroarchitectureSkylake
Instruction setx86-64
Instructionsx86-64
Extensions
Physical specifications
Cores
  • 2–4
Socket(s)
Products, models, variants
Product code name(s)
  • KBL
Brand name(s)
    • Core m3
    • Core i3
    • Core i5
    • Core i7
    • Celeron
    • Pentium
    • Xeon
History
Predecessor(s)Skylake
Successor(s)
Support status
Legacy support for iGPU

In August 2017, Intel announced Kaby Lake Refresh (Kaby Lake R) marketed as the 8th generation mobile CPUs, breaking the long cycle where architectures matched the corresponding generations of CPUs and meanwhile also supporting Windows 11.[12][13] Skylake was anticipated to be succeeded by the 10 nanometer Cannon Lake, but it was announced in July 2015 that Cannon Lake had been delayed until the second half of 2017.[14][15] In the meantime, Intel released a fourth 14 nm generation on October 5, 2017, named Coffee Lake. Cannon Lake would ultimately emerge in 2018, but only a single mobile CPU was released before it was discontinued the following year.[16][17]

Development history

As with previous Intel processors (such as the 8088, Banias, Dothan, Conroe, Sandy Bridge, Ivy Bridge, and Skylake), Kaby Lake's development was led by Intel's Israeli team, based in Haifa.[18] Intel Israel Development Centers manager Ran Senderovitz said: "When we started out on the project, we were only thinking about basic improvements from the previous generation. But we began looking at things differently with a lot of innovation and determination and we achieved major improvements." He added that the performance of the seventh generation chips was improved by 12% for applications and 19% for Internet use compared with the sixth generation chips.[19] Third-party benchmarks do not confirm these percentages as far as gaming is concerned.[20]

Features

Built on an improved 14 nm process (14FF+), Kaby Lake features faster CPU clock speeds, clock speed changes, and higher Turbo frequencies. Beyond these process and clock speed changes, little of the CPU architecture has changed from Skylake,[21] resulting in identical IPC (Instructions Per Clock).[7]

Kaby Lake features a new graphics architecture to improve performance in 3D graphics and 4K video playback.[7][22] It adds native HDCP 2.2 support,[23] along with fixed function decode of H.264 (AVC), HEVC Main and Main10/10-bit, and VP9 10-bit and 8-bit video.[21][24][25][26] Hardware encode is supported for H.264 (AVC), HEVC Main10/10-bit, and VP9 8-bit video. VP9 10-bit encode is not supported in hardware. Both OpenGL 4.6 and OpenCL 3.0 are now supported.[27]

Kaby Lake is the first Core architecture to support hyper-threading for the Pentium-branded desktop CPU SKU. Kaby Lake also features the first overclocking-enabled i3-branded CPU.

Architecture changes compared to Skylake

Kaby Lake features the same CPU core and performance per MHz as Skylake. Features specific to Kaby Lake include:

CPU

GPU

  • Gen 9.5 (From Gen 9)
  • Improved graphics core: full hardware fixed function HEVC/VP9 (including 4K@60fps/10bit) decoding;[31] improved hardware HEVC encoding; full hardware fixed function VP9 8bit encoding; higher GPU clock speeds for select CPUs

I/O

  • 200 series (Union Point) chipset on socket 1151 (Kaby Lake is compatible with 100 series chipset motherboards after a BIOS update)
  • Up to 16 PCI Express 3.0 lanes from the CPU, 24 PCI Express 3.0 lanes from PCH
  • Support for Intel Optane Memory storage caching (only on motherboards with the 200 series chipsets)
  • Support for PTWRITE instruction to write data to an Intel Processor Trace packet stream

Starting from this generation, the built-in GPus core supports HAGS in the Windows 10 version of 2004 or newer, but currently support is only provided with insider drivers.

Operating system support

Intel began to add Kaby Lake support to the Linux kernel on version 4.5.[32] A P state bug was fixed in kernel 4.10 that had prevented motherboards from activating the processors' turbo frequencies.[33]

Under new policies established in January 2016, Microsoft only supports an NT 10.0-based Windows platform on newly-released CPU microarchitectures, beginning with Kaby Lake and AMD Bristol Ridge. Therefore, Microsoft only supports Kaby Lake under Windows 10,[34][35] and Windows Update blocks updates from being installed on Kaby Lake systems running versions older than Windows 10. In support of this restriction, Intel provides chipset drivers for Windows 10 only, although VirtualBox provides drivers for other versions.[36][37][38] An enthusiast-created modification was released that disabled the Windows Update check and allowed Windows 8.1 and earlier to continue to be updated on Skylake and later platforms.[39]

Support for every Kaby Lake processor and older was dropped by Windows 11, excluding all Kaby Lake R, Skylake-X and Amber Lake processors as well as the Core i7-7820HQ and X series.[40]

Known issues

Kaby Lake has a critical flaw where some short loops may cause unpredictable system behavior. The issue can be fixed if the motherboard manufacturer releases a BIOS update with the fix.[41][42]

TDP classification

Thermal design power (TDP) is the designed maximum heat generated by the chip running a specific workload at base clock. On a single microarchitecture, as the heat produced increases with voltage and frequency, this thermal design limit can also limit the maximum frequency of the processor.[43] However, CPU testing and binning allows for products with lower voltage/power at a particular frequency, or higher frequency within the same power limit.[44][45]

Desktop processors:

  • High-power (K/X):
    • For dual-core: 60 W
    • For quad-core: 91 W (LGA1151) - 112W (LGA2066)
  • Medium-power:
    • For dual-core: 51...54 W
    • For quad-core: 65 W
  • Low-power (T): 35 W

Mobile processors:

  • High-power (H): 45 W with configurable TDP-down to 35 W
  • Medium-power (U): 15...28 W with configurable TDP-down to 7.5 W
  • Low-power (Y): 5...7 W with configurable TDP-down to 3.5 W

List of 7th generation Kaby Lake processors

Desktop processors

Intel Celeron G3930 die shot
Intel Celeron G3930 top view
Intel Celeron G3930 bottom view

Features common to desktop Kaby Lake CPUs:

  • LGA 1151 socket (Except the Core i7-7740X and Core i5-7640X, which use the LGA 2066 socket.)
  • DMI 3.0 and PCIe 3.0 interfaces
  • Dual channel memory support in the following configurations: DDR3L-1600 1.35 V (32 GB maximum) or DDR4-2400 1.2 V (64 GB maximum)
    • The Core i7-7740X and Core i5-7640X support DDR4-2666 (64 GB maximum), but not DDR3L memory.
  • A total of 16 PCIe lanes
  • The Core-branded processors support the AVX2 instruction set. The Celeron and Pentium-branded ones support only SSE4.1/4.2.
  • 350 MHz base graphics clock rate
    • The Core i7 7740X and Core i5 7640x do not have an integrated GPU.
  • No L4 cache (eDRAM)
  • A release date of January 3, 2017 (KBL-S) and June 2017 (KBL-X)
Processor
branding
ModelCores
(threads)
CPU
clock

rate

Turbo clock GHz

Num of cores

GPUMax GPU
clock rate
L3
cache
TDPSocketPrice
(USD)
124
Core i77740X4 (8)4.3 GHz4.54.54.58 MB[a]112 WLGA 2066$350
7700K4.2 GHz4.54.44.4HD 6301150 MHz91 WLGA 1151
77003.6 GHz4.24.14.065 W$312
7700T2.9 GHz3.83.73.635 W
Core i57640X4 (4)4.0 GHz4.24.24.06 MB112 WLGA 2066$250
7600K3.8 GHz4.24.14.0HD 6301150 MHz91 WLGA 1151
76003.5 GHz4.14.03.965 W$224
7600T2.8 GHz3.73.63.51100 MHz35 W
75003.4 GHz3.83.73.665 W$202
7500T2.7 GHz3.33.23.135 W
74003.0 GHz3.53.43.31000 MHz65 W$182
7400T2.4 GHz3.02.92.735 W$187
Core i37350K2 (4)4.2 GHz1150 MHz4 MB60 W$179
73204.1 GHz51 W$157
73004.0 GHz$147
7300T3.5 GHz1100 MHz35 W
71003.9 GHz3 MB51 W$117
7100T3.4 GHz35 W
7101E3.9 GHz54 W
7101TE3.4 GHz35 W
PentiumG46203.7 GHz51 W$93
G46003.6 GHz$82
G4600T3.0 GHz1050 MHz35 W$75
G45603.5 GHzHD 61054 W$64
G4560T2.9 GHz35 W
CeleronG39502 (2)3.0 GHz2 MB51 W$52
G39302.9 GHz$42
G3930T2.7 GHz1000 MHz35 W

Mobile processors

High power

Maximum PCIe Lanes: 16. Release date: Q1 2017.

Processor
branding
ModelCores
(threads)
CPU
clock
rate
Turbo clock GHz

Num of cores

GPUMax GPU

clock rate

L3
cache
TDPcTDPPrice
(USD)
124Max.UpDown
Core i77920HQ4 (8)3.1 GHz4.13.93.7HD 6301100 MHz8 MB45 W35 W$568
7820HQ2.9 GHz3.93.73.5$378
7820HK
7700HQ2.8 GHz3.83.63.46 MB
Core i57440HQ4 (4)1000 MHz$250
7300HQ2.5 GHz3.53.33.1
Core i37100H2 (4)3.0 GHz950 MHz3 MB35 W$225

Low/medium power

Processor
branding
ModelCores
(threads)
CPU
clock
rate
Turbo clockGPUMax GPU
clock rate
L3
cache
L4
cache
Max.
PCIe
lanes
TDPcTDPRelease
date
Price
(USD)
Single
core
Dual
core
UpDown
Core i77Y752 (4)1.3 GHz3.6 GHz3.4 GHzHD 6151050 MHz4 MB104.5 W7 W3.5 WQ3 2016$393
7500U2.7 GHz3.5 GHz3.5 GHzHD 6201215 W25 W7.5 W
7560U2.4 GHz3.8 GHz3.7 GHzIris Plus 64064 MB9.5 WQ1 2017$415
7660U2.5 GHz4.0 GHz3.8 GHz1100 MHz
7567U3.5 GHz4.0 GHz3.9 GHzIris Plus 6501150 MHz28 W23 W?
7600U2.8 GHz3.9 GHz3.9 GHzHD 62015 W25 W7.5 W$393
Core i57200U2 (4)2.5 GHz3.1 GHz3.1 GHzHD 6201000 MHz3 MB1215 W25 W7.5 WQ3 2016$281
7Y541.2 GHz3.2 GHz2.8 GHzHD 615950 MHz4 MB104.5 W7 W3.5 W
7Y571.2 GHz3.3 GHz2.9 GHz15 WQ1 2017
7260U2.2 GHz3.4 GHz3.4 GHzIris Plus 64064 MB129.5 W$304
7267U3.1 GHz3.5 GHz3.5 GHzIris Plus 6501050 MHz28 W23 W?
7287U3.3 GHz3.7 GHz3.7 GHz1100 MHz
7300U2.6 GHz3.5 GHz3.5 GHzHD 6203 MB15 W25 W7.5 W$281
7360U2.3 GHz3.6 GHz3.6 GHzIris Plus 6401000 MHz4 MB64 MB9.5 W?
Core i37100U2 (4)2.4 GHzHD 6201000 MHz3 MB1215 W7.5 WQ3 2016$281
7167U2.8 GHzIris Plus 65064 MB28 W23 WQ1 2017?
7130U2.7 GHzHD 62015 W7.5 WQ2 2017$281
7020U2.3 GHzQ2 2018
Core m37Y322 (4)1.1 GHz3.0 GHz?HD 615900 MHz4 MB104.5 W7 W3.75 WQ2 2017$281
7Y301.0 GHz2.6 GHz3.5 WQ3 2016
Pentium Gold4410Y2 (4)1.5 GHzHD 615850 MHz2 MB106 W4.5 WQ1 2017$161
4415Y1.6 GHz
4415U2.3 GHzHD 610950 MHz15 W10 W
Celeron3965U2 (2)2.2 GHzHD 610900 MHz2 MB1015 W10 WQ1 2017$107
3865U1.8 GHz
3965Y1.5 GHzHD 615850 MHz6 W4.5 WQ2 2017

Server/workstation Xeon processors

Target
segment
Cores
(threads)
ModelCPU
clock
rate
Turbo clock GHz

Num of cores

GPUMax GPU

clock rate

L3
cache
TDPRelease
date
Price
(USD)
124
Server4 (8)E3-1285 v64.1 GHz4.5?HD P6301150 MHz8 MB79 WQ3 2017$450
E3-1280 v63.9 GHz4.272 WQ1 2017$612↘383
E3-1275 v63.8 GHzHD P6301150 MHz73 W$339
E3-1270 v672 W$328
E3-1245 v63.7 GHz4.1HD P6301150 MHz73 W$284
E3-1240 v672 W$272
E3-1230 v63.5 GHz3.9$250
4 (4)E3-1225 v63.3 GHz3.7HD P6301150 MHz73 W$213
E3-1220 v63.0 GHz3.572 W$193
Mobile4 (8)E3-1535M v63.1 GHz4.2HD P6301100 MHz45 W$623
E3-1505M v63.0 GHz4.0$434
EmbeddedE3-1505L v62.2 GHz3.01000 MHz25 W$433

List of 8th generation Kaby Lake R processors

Mobile processors

Low/medium power

In late 2016, it was reported that Intel had been working on a processor family codenamed “Kaby Lake R” ("R" for "Refresh").[46] On August 21, 2017, the eighth generation mobile CPUs were announced.[47] The first products released were four "Kaby Lake R" processors with a 15W TDP.[48] This marketing is distinct from previous generational changes of the Core product line, where a new generation coincided with a new microarchitecture.[49] Intel has stated that the 8th generation would be based on multiple microarchitectures, including Kaby Lake R, Coffee Lake, and Cannon Lake.[50]

Processor
branding
ModelCores
(threads)
CPU
clock
rate
Turbo clock GHz

Num of cores

GPUMax GPU

clock rate

L3
cache
TDPcTDPRelease

date

Price
(USD)
124UpDown
Core i78650U4 (8)1.9 GHz4.24.23.9UHD 6201150 MHz8 MB15 W25 W10 WQ3 2017$409
8550U1.8 GHz4.04.03.7
Core i58350U1.7 GHz3.63.63.61100 MHz6 MB$297
8250U1.6 GHz3.43.43.4
Core i38130U2 (4)2.2 GHz3.43.41000 MHz4 MB15 W10 WQ1 2018$281
Pentium Gold4417U2.3 GHzHD 610950 MHz2 MB15 W12.5 WQ1 2019$161

List of 8th generation Kaby Lake G processors

Mobile processors

High power

Maximum number of PCIe lanes: 8. One-package processors with discrete graphics chip - it is connected with main CPU core using a PCI Express link through an embedded multi-die interconnect bridge (EMIB).[51] Release date: Q1 2018.

Processor
branding
ModelCores
(threads)
CPU
clock
rate
Turbo clock GHz

Num of cores

GPUMax GPU

clock rate

Discrete GPUL3
cache
TDPPrice
(USD)
124
Core i78809G4 (8)3.1 GHz4.2Un­knownHD 6301100 MHzRadeon RX Vega M GH8 MB100 W?
8709G4.1?
8706GRadeon RX Vega M GL65 W?
8705G$523[52]
Core i58305G2.8 GHz3.86 MB?

Discrete GPU specifications

Discrete GPUUnitsClock rateMemory
ComputingShadingBaseMax.SizeBandwidthBus typeBus width
Radeon RX Vega M GH2415361063 MHz1190 MHz4 GB204.8 GB/sHBM21024 bit
Radeon RX Vega M GL201280931 MHz1011 MHz179.2 GB/s

List of 8th generation Amber Lake Y processors

On August 28, 2018, Intel announced a refreshed lineup of ultra low power mobile Kaby Lake CPUs under the moniker Amber Lake.[53]

Mobile processors

Low power

Processor

branding

ModelCores

(threads)

CPU clock rateGPUMax GPU

clock rate

L3

cache

TDPcTDPRelease

date

Price
BaseMax turboUpDown
Core i78500Y2 (4)1.5 GHz4.2 GHzUHD 6151050 MHz4 MB5 W7 W3.5 WQ1 2019$393
Core i58310Y1.6 GHz3.9 GHzUHD 6177 W$281
8210Y3.6 GHz
8200Y1.3 GHz3.9 GHzUHD 615950 MHz5 W7 W3.5 WQ3 2018$291
Core i38100Y1.1 GHz3.4 GHz900 MHz8 W4.5 W$281
Pentium Gold4425Y1.7 GHz850 MHz2 MB6 W4.5 WQ1 2019$161

List of 10th generation Amber Lake Y processors

On August 21, 2019, Intel announced[54] their 10th generation Amber Lake[55] ultra low power CPUs.

Mobile processors

Processor

branding

ModelCores

(threads)

CPU clock rateGPUMax GPU

clock rate

L3

cache

TDPcTDPPrice
BaseMax turboUpDown
Core i710510Y4 (8)1.2 GHz4.5 GHzUHD1150 MHz8 MB7 W9 W4.5 W$403
Core i510310Y1.1 GHz4.1 GHz1050 MHz6 MB5.5 W$292
10210Y1.0 GHz4.0 GHz
Core i310110Y2 (4)1000 MHz4 MB$287
Pentium Gold6500Y2 (4)1.1 GHz3.4 GHz900 MHz4 MB5 W7 W3.5 W

See also

Notes

References