The Intel Core i7-11700F was a desktop processor with 8 cores, launched in March 2021, at an MSRP of $298. It is part of the Core i7 lineup, using the Rocket Lake-S architecture with Socket 1200. Thanks to Intel Hyper-Threading the core-count is effectively doubled, to 16 threads. Core i7-11700F has 16 MB of L3 cache and operates at 2.5 GHz by default, but can boost up to 4.9 GHz, depending on the workload. Intel is making the Core i7-11700F on a 14 nm production node, the transistor count is unknown. The multiplier is locked on Core i7-11700F, which limits its overclocking potential.
With a TDP of 65 W, the Core i7-11700F consumes typical power levels for a modern PC. Intel's processor supports DDR4 memory with a dual-channel interface. The highest officially supported memory speed is 3200 MT/s, but with overclocking (and the right memory modules) you can go even higher. For communication with other components in the system, Core i7-11700F uses a PCI-Express Gen 4 connection. This processor does not have integrated graphics, you will need a separate graphics card.
Hardware virtualization is available on the Core i7-11700F, which greatly improves virtual machine performance. Additionally, IOMMU virtualization (PCI passthrough) is supported, so that guest virtual machines may directly use host hardware. Programs using Advanced Vector Extensions (AVX) can run on this processor, boosting performance for calculation-heavy applications. Besides AVX, Intel has added support for the newer AVX2 and AVX-512 instructions, too.