Intel Skylake: Intel Z170 Chipset and Core i7-6700K Review

Written by Antony Leather

August 5, 2015 | 12:58

Tags: #6600k #lga1151 #skylake #z170

Companies: #intel

The Sandy Bridge Upgrade Question

We've maintained for at least two generations that if you're buying a new PC, the latest tech was the way to go. While we haven't seen the kind of performance increases we saw with Sandy Bridge based CPUs and their predecessors, Intel has consistently increased performance moving from one generation to the next. The exception is Broadwell, which is an oddball to say the least - it has excellent, AMD-beating IGP performance but it's slower and more expensive than what is technically its predecessor - the Core i7-4790K. We digress - the fact of the matter is that these incremental speed bumps across the rest of the family mean that eventually it becomes worth upgrading too.

The question that everyone usually asks though is how their 4.8GHz Sandy Bridge CPU fairs against the latest and greatest? Well, we've put together a selection of benchmarks and dug out an old Core i7-2600K, which we've overclocked to the same level as the Core i7-6700K to see just what differences you'll see both at stock speed and when the two CPUs are overclocked to the same frequency.

Alien Isolation

1,920 x 1,080, ultra settings, SMAA T2x, 16x AF

  • Intel Core i7-6700K (4.8GHz)
  • Intel Core i7-6700K (4GHz)
  • Intel Core i7-2600K (4.8GHz)
  • Intel Core i7-2600K(3.4GHz)
    • 125
    • 154
    • 124
    • 153
    • 123
    • 140
    • 116
    • 139
0
25
50
75
100
125
150
frames per second, higher is better
  • Minimum
  • Average

Bioshock Infinite

1,920 x 1,080, Very High settings

  • Intel Core i7-6700K (4.8GHz)
  • Intel Core i7-6700K (4GHz)
  • Intel Core i7-2600K (4.8GHz)
  • Intel Core i7-2600K (3.4GHz)
    • 157
    • 178
    • 157
    • 176
    • 155
    • 172
    • 145
    • 173
0
50
100
150
200
frames per second, higher is better
  • Minimum
  • Average

Unigine Valley

1,920 x 1,080, High settings

  • Intel Core i7-6700K (4GHz/4.8GHz)
  • Intel Core i7-2600K (3.4GHz/4.8GHz)
    • 4769
    • 4943
    • 4406
    • 4797
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
Score, higher is better
  • Stock
  • Overclocked

Head over the page for more comparisons between Sandy Bridge and Skylake
Discuss this in the forums
YouTube logo
MSI MPG Velox 100R Chassis Review

October 14 2021 | 15:04