The 8-core Zhaoxin KaiXian KX-7000 processor, China’s latest entry into the x86 CPU market, was recently put to the test by PC watchWhile it seems promising, early testing indicates that it won’t be able to compete with AMD and Intel’s offerings in key areas.
Developed by Shanghai Zhaoxin Integrated Circuit Co., the KX-7000 aims to carve out a niche for China in an industry dominated by the two giants. Zhaoxin is backed by Taiwan’s VIA Technologies and the Shanghai Municipal Government, and its CPUs are built on intellectual property acquired from Centaur Technology.
The KX-7000 is the successor to the KX-6000, which was released in 2019. Although the KX-7000 series was initially planned for a 2021 launch, the first compatible hardware only became available this year.
Still way off pace
According to PC watchPerformance benchmarks show that while the KX-7000 has made progress over its predecessor, it lags behind Intel’s older 8th generation Core i3-8100 in single-thread performance. However, multi-threaded workloads show improvement due to the higher number of cores. It is compatible with AVX and AVX2 instructions, but lacks support for AVX-512.
The KX-7000 has the potential to power simple desktop or office applications, but struggles with more demanding software and games. The integrated graphics card, the ZX C-1190, supports DirectX 12 and OpenGL 4.6, but is about the same as a low-end GPU from a decade ago.
Overall, the KX-7000 represents a step forward for Zhaoxin, but its performance and software compatibility need to be improved substantially before it can really hope to compete with global rivals. If PC watch points out: “If this could be distributed cheaply across China it could gain popularity… but with the current dominance of ultra-cheap mini PCs equipped with Intel’s N100 series, unless there is a specific need for China’s unique encryption standards such as SM2, SM3, or SM4, the current low-profile sales strategy is unlikely to change.”
For reference, the KaiXian KX-7000/8 setup costs the equivalent of about $270 for the CPU, with another $135 for the motherboard. The processor uses an LGA1700 socket similar to Intel’s (so suitable for standard CPU coolers), but the internal structure is completely different and not compatible with Intel motherboards.