Intel Core i7-8700 Review: Stock Cooler Falls Flat

VRMark, 3DMark & AotS: Escalation

VRMark & 3DMark

Core i7-8700 fell right where we expected it to in VRMark: slightly below the stock Core i7-8700K.

AMD's Ryzen 7 2700X was a little faster though, as was the Core i5-8400. VRMark tends to reward high IPC throughput and frequency, but it also seems to prefer physical cores over simultaneous multi-threading technology.

Although the Core i7-8700 outstripped its K-series counterpart in the Fire Strike test, its lead isn't significant enough to call a definitive win. The heavily-threaded DX11 and DX12 benchmarks ran for an extended period of time. But frequent breaks in the sequence likely helped Core i7-8700 maintain the same level of performance under Intel's stock cooler and Corsair's Corsair H115i.

Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation

Our three-minute Ashes of the Singularity benchmark scales exceedingly well with additional cores, so it was surprising to see Core i7-8700 perform similarly with both thermal solutions.

MORE: Best CPUs

MORE: Intel & AMD Processor Hierarchy

MORE: All CPUs Content

Intel Core i7-8700 (8th Gen)

$299Amazon