Intel Core i7-7700: Power Consumption And Temperatures
As opposed to the Core i7-7700K, Intel's Core i7-7700 (without the K) doesn’t have an unlocked multiplier. Its base clock rate is also quite a bit lower. Furthermore, Intel chose some of the other values, such as those for the ring bus, to make overclocking endeavors via the BCLK pointless.
The Core i7-7700’s stock base frequency is 3.6 GHz. However, even under extreme loads, the processor manages to hold a 4 GHz Turbo Boost frequency on all four cores.
Core Voltage (Vcore)
Before we get to the power consumption and temperature numbers, let's take a look at the core voltage (Vcore). This shouldn’t be confused with the voltage identification (VID) that can be set in the BIOS and is always higher than the Vcore.
It’s plain to see that the voltage decreases as the loads increase. This is necessary to ensure the Core i7-7700’s maximum leakage currents aren’t exceeded, which could damage the CPU. The more taxing the load, the less the curve fluctuates as well.
Normal Load: Gaming
We again use Watch Dogs 2 for our gaming load. In this task, Intel’s CPU consumes a total of 50 to 52W. That's a great result, and it comes in well below the processor's TDP. The IA cores only consume 40W, with the rest going to other parts of the die.
Again, the CPU’s power consumption increases along with its temperature. This results in additional leakage currents of up to 1.7W.
The rate of the temperature increase over time depends on the position of the sensor. Readings stabilize after more than 24 minutes, though. The package heats up more slowly than the other components.
Heavy Load: Stress Test (Floating-Point Unit)
We're back to AIDA64's stability test, which results in an increased power consumption measurement of 63W. The temperature and leakage current increases are similar to what we saw during the gaming power consumption benchmark.
The Tcore increases noticeably up to 58°C. Other than that, the readings are similar to what we saw in the gaming power consumption benchmark. Even simple air coolers shouldn’t have a problem coping with this amount of waste heat.
Maximum Load: Intel Power Thermal Utility (100%)
We push the Core i7-7700 just about as far as it will go using Intel’s Power Thermal Utility. A measurement of up to 88W comes close to Intel’s stated TDP. It’s interesting that the increase in leakage currents doesn’t exceed 2W when comparing the cold and warmed-up CPUs.
The temperature results show us that the CPU diode stays a bit cooler than the other parts, whereas the package sensor displays the highest temperatures.
In the end, it looks like we drew an average CPU sample. Cooling the vanilla Core i7-7700 isn't particularly challenging. A maximum clock rate of 4 GHz across all four cores under heavy load strikes a good balance between efficiency, compute power, and waste heat. However, it’s not enough to reach the Core i7-7700K’s performance.
