Tested: Intel Core i3-7350K Overclocks to 5.1GHz on Air

Earlier this month, Intel unveiled its 7th generation lineup of Kaby Lake processors aimed at gamers, enthusiasts, and mainstream PC users. The lineup comprises of Core i7, Core i5 and Core i3 models, along with entry-level Pentium and Celeron chips.

The new 7th-gen chips are simply updated versions of the existing Skylake chips. Kaby Lake CPUs feature slightly higher clock speeds than the Skylake parts they replace thanks to Intel’s marginally improved 14nm+ FinFET process.

Intel Core i3-7350K with 4.2GHz base clock and 60W TDP

The only “innovative” product in Intel’s Kaby Lake lineup is the Core i3-7350K, a dual-core processor with four threads and hyper-threading technology. The CPU is one of its kind as, for the first time in this class, it offers an overclocking friendly unlocked multiplier.

The Core i3-7350K runs at a base clock of 4.2GHz, with TDP rated at 60W. The CPU has 4MB of L3 cache and supports 2400 MHz DDR4 memory, up from 2133 MHz.

Intel Kaby Lake-S i3 Desktop CPU Lineup

According to Intel, i3-7350K will be available early next month, but folks over at LegitReviews have already tested the CPU showing its overclocking performance is pretty solid.

Core i3-7350K Overclocking: 5.1GHz on Air

The Core i3-7350K was overclocked using the Gigabyte Aorus Z270X-UD5 motherboard. The process simply involved increasing the multiplier and core voltage until the board and processor hit a wall, and that wall happened to be at 5.1GHz. This is pretty impressive for an i3 processor isn’t it?

Read More: AMD Ryzen Demo: F3 Stepping Clocked At 3.6GHz Base, 3.9GHz Turbo

To achieve 5.1 GHz, the CPU core voltage was increased to 1.40V and the multiplier up to 51x. At stock settings, the i3-7350K temperatures hovered around 52C and hit 69C when overclocked. This is a 33% increase in temperatures due to 900MHz overclock, so you should better keep an eye out on temps if you’re using air cooling.

Meanwhile, the load power consumption reached 94.6W, up from 78.6W – an increase of 20%.

The Intel Core i3-7350K is priced at $168 which is comparatively high, especially when we consider that the smallest Core i5 with four real cores is only $14 expensive. What do you think? Does i3-7350K’s overclocking justify its higher pricing? Let us know in the comments below.