It seems like Intel has botched up the thermal interface in the forthcoming Core i7-7700K processor. The revelation comes from a member of the Anandtech forums who posted some interesting findings after delidding the processor and then reapplying a new thermals interface.
The forum member who goes by the username “RichUK” managed to receive a retail sample of Intel’s next-generation Core i7-7700K. Apart from posting several benchmarks, the forum member also went on delidding the chip in order to apply a new Thermal Interface Material (TIM). The result was quite shocking as it virtually proved beyond doubt that Intel once again resorted to poor quality TIM on their processors.
As you are already aware, the overheating issue with Intel Ivy Bridge lineup was sometimes pretty nasty — to the point that at times it would start messing around with overclocks, resulting in a lack of stability. Intel later recognised the issue and fixed it by using higher quality packaging materials and improved TIM in the new Devil’s Canyon (Haswell Refresh) family.
Ever since, through the last three generation, Intel hasn’t had to deal with any major heating issues in its processors. However, that’s probably about to change with the arrival of the new lineup.
A number of tech websites have already reviewed the Core i7-7700K and pretty much all of them are claiming to come across higher temperature for the Kaby Lake part as compared to Skylake chips. It is possible that the higher temperature is caused by the higher clock speeds of the Kaby Lake chips that do not fit too well with unoptimized boards (as pointed out by the folks over at Expreview.
However, other factors may also include the application of poor TIM between the IHS and the CPU die.