The Intel 6th Gen Skylake Review: Core i7-6700K and i5-6600K Tested
by Ian Cutress on August 5, 2015 8:00 AM ESTWhat You Can Buy: Windows Professional Performance
Agisoft Photoscan – 2D to 3D Image Manipulation: link
Agisoft Photoscan creates 3D models from 2D images, a process which is very computationally expensive. The algorithm is split into four distinct phases, and different phases of the model reconstruction require either fast memory, fast IPC, more cores, or even OpenCL compute devices to hand. Agisoft supplied us with a special version of the software to script the process, where we take 50 images of a stately home and convert it into a medium quality model. This benchmark typically takes around 15-20 minutes on a high end PC on the CPU alone, with GPUs reducing the time.
Cinebench R15
Cinebench is a benchmark based around Cinema 4D, and is fairly well known among enthusiasts for stressing the CPU for a provided workload. Results are given as a score, where higher is better.
HandBrake v0.9.9: link
For HandBrake, we take two videos (a 2h20 640x266 DVD rip and a 10min double UHD 3840x4320 animation short) and convert them to x264 format in an MP4 container. Results are given in terms of the frames per second processed, and HandBrake uses as many threads as possible.
Hybrid x265
Hybrid is a new benchmark, where we take a 4K 1500 frame video and convert it into an x265 format without audio. Results are given in frames per second.
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nsteussy - Tuesday, August 11, 2015 - link
Ian, under the Linux benchmarks you have the graphic for the NAMD Mol Dynamics twice but none for the NPB fluid dynamics. That said, that is quite the nice bump for NAMD (~24% from a 4770 to a 6770). Very tempting.Visual - Wednesday, August 12, 2015 - link
I kinda don't like how you keep repeating the generic benchmark descriptions before each graph. I'd prefer if it were hidden by default, visible on hover or toggled by clicking of some info button or similar, or at the very least formatted a bit different than actual article text.I'd also like if you had some comments on the actual results, at least where there are some peculiarities in them.
Case in point: Why is the 5775C IGP so much better in some games?
mapesdhs - Wednesday, August 12, 2015 - link
Agree re comments on results, eg. why does the 2600K dip so badly for Shadow of Mordor @ 4K with the GTX 770? It doesn't happen with the 980, but if the dip was a VRAM issue @ 4K then the 3770K shouldn't be so close to the other CPUs. Weird...wyssin - Wednesday, August 12, 2015 - link
Has anyone published a review comparing i7-6700k with other cpus all overclocked to, say, 4.5 GHz? For those who typically run an overclocked system, it's not an apples-to-apples comparison to put the new entry up against the older all at stock settings.So to make the best-informed decision, it would be very useful to be able to see head-to-head trials at both (1) stock settings and (2) overclocked to a speed they can all reasonably manage (apparently around 4.4 or 4.5 GHz).
I have the same problems with the Guru3D review and the Gamestar.de review that were mentioned in earlier comments.
Oxford Guy - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
The key is to pick a speed that the worst overclocking examples would be able to get to with reasonable voltage. That takes the luck of the draw out of the scenario.beatsbyden - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
Not much improvent. Only worth the money if you're coming from an I5Darkvengence - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
This lack of CPU power needed in gaming is only temporary once u have photorealistic graphics in 4k u gonna need crazy powerful GPUs which need feeding by beastly CPUs . our current technology will seem like a dinosaur CPU in comparison. That is of course a fair few years away but still one day it will happen . I'm glad current CPU are not being taxed by today's games even less with dx12. Gives my gen 1 MSI nightblade more life with 4970k as u can't change motherboard it all custom front panel connectors and stuff. I used to have a i7 920 and got to say that is still a good CPU especially for single GPU systems. I really like sandy bridge tho very impressive for its age. But older CPUs lose out mainly being tied to older chipsets so u lose new connector and bus speeds for hardware thogasparmx - Thursday, November 19, 2015 - link
I think you're kinda wrong, the point of DX12 is depending less on CPU, NVIDIA says in the future probably you're not going to need a beast CPU to play 4k games.djscrew - Friday, August 14, 2015 - link
I'm so disappointed in SB/DDR4. After all this wait and the IPC gains with discreet graphics are negative? WTF Intel. I Guess my Nehalem system will survive another generation, or maybe three? No compelling reason to upgrade. It's such a shame because I was really looking forward to building a $3k rig. I think I'll shop for a nice 4k panel instead.Ninjawithagun - Friday, August 14, 2015 - link
And just when I was about to purchase the 6600K and a Z170 mini-ITX motherboard as an upgrade to my 4690K and Z97i Plus motherboard...man, am I glad I ran across this article. Saved myself about $600 for a useless upgrade!