For as much as we’ve harped on about the achievements of Intel’s upcoming, top-of-the-line Skylake CPU, the i7-6700K “Skylake-S”, it’s really Skylake’s architecture that has impressed us most.
The i7-6700K is an impressive piece of silicon, don’t get us wrong, but it’s got many of the same higher-level specifications as its predecessors: 8MB of cache, 4 and 8 cores and threads (respectively), and a 4.0 GHz base clock – we’ve seen it all before.
What makes the processor such a highlight for us is the microarchitectural refinements and improvements made to Skylake’s silicon. And the Skylake family looks to pack a lot of additional punch as a result.
But what are we going to have to pay for these improvements? Thanks to Benchlife.info, we’ve got the alleged prices of the entire Skylake lineup.
| Base Clock | Turbo Clock | Cache | Cores/Threads | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LGA 1151 (95W) | |||||
| Intel Core i7-6700K | 4.0 | 4.2 | 8MB | 4/8 | $316 / R 3994 |
| Intel Core i5-6600K | 3.0 | 3.9 | 6MB | 4/4 | $225 / R2844 |
| LGA 1151 (65W) | |||||
| Intel Core i7-6700 | 3.4 | 4.0 | 8MB | 4/8 | $282 / R3564 |
| Intel Core i5-6600 | 3.3 | 3.9 | 6MB | 4/4 | $199 / R2515 |
| Intel Core i5-6500 | 3.2 | 3.6 | 6MB | 4/4 | $179 / R2262 |
| Intel Core i5-6400 | 2.7 | 3.3 | 6MB | 4/4 | $170 / R 2149 |
| LGA 1151 (35W) | |||||
| Intel Core i7-6700T | 2.8 | 3.6 | 8MB | 4/8 | $282 / R3564 |
| Intel Core i5-6600T | 2.7 | 3.5 | 6MB | 4/4 | $199 / R2515 |
| Intel Core i5-6500T | 2.5 | 3.1 | 6MB | 4/4 | $179 / R2262 |
| Intel Core i5-6400T | 2.2 | 2.8 | 6MB | 4/4 | $170 / R2149 |
*Table courtesy of WCCF Tech. Rand values based on Dollar:Rand exchange of $1:R12.64, and rounded off.
It’s good news all-round. The i7-6700K’s $316 price tag puts it below the launch price of former high-end processors.
The Core i7-4790K “Devil’s Canyon – Haswell” and Core i7-5775C “Broadwell” were $339 USD and $377 respectively, for example.
Sporting only microarchitectural improvements and lacking major manufacturing process changes, an industrial “tock” instead of tick, means Intel has had time to refine production of their chips and likely cheapen the process.
If you aren’t planning on waiting for Intel’s delayed 10nm Cannonlake chips, then Skylake is the perfect family to upgrade to.
But before you do, in spite of reasonable prices and a solid performance, we would suggest waiting for a few peer reviews. You may also want to wait for the final 14nm family instead, Kaby Lake.
According to Intel, it will sport performance enhancements that should make it stand out against Skylake.
Source: WCCF Tech
More Skylake news
Intel Core i7-6700k is faster than 6 core i7-5820K in gaming benchmarks
i7-6700K reaches 6.5 GHz with liquid nitrogen: crushes i7-4790K in synthetic benchmarks
Intel’s Core i7-6700K “Skylake” overclocked to 5.2 GHz with air cooling
Intel delay their next-gen 10nm chips: Moore’s Law shaky at best
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It will never be that price expect 30% hire than stated this is not newegg we’re talking about.