Intel Core i7-4770K vs Intel Core i7-6700K

Intel Core i7-4770K

The Intel Core i7-4770K is a high-end quad-core processor for desktops and successor of the i7-3770K. It is based on the Haswell architecture and has been launched in Q2/2013. Due to Hyperthreading, the four cores can handle up to eight threads in parallel leading to better utilization of the CPU. Each core offers a base speed of 3.5 GHz but can dynamically increase clock rates with Turbo Boost up to 3.7 GHz (for 4 active cores), 3.8 GHz (for 2 active cores) and 3.9 GHz (for 1 active core). Furthermore, the Extreme CPUs offer an unlocked multiplicator for easy overclocking.

Haswell is the successor to the Ivy Bridge architecture with improvements on both GPU and CPU performance. The CPUs are produced in 22nm and offer an optimized branch prediction as well as additional execution ports, improving especially the Hyper-Threading performance. Furthermore, new features like AVX2 and FMA should increase the performance in future applications.

Due to these changes, the performance per clock has been improved by about 8 percent compared to the Ivy Bridge Core i7-3770K.

The integrated Intel HD Graphics 4600 offers 20 Execution Units (EUs) clocked at 400 MHz up to 1250 MHz with Turbo Boost, making it about 30 % faster than the HD 4000.

The i7-4770K is rated at a TDP of 84 W including graphics card, memory controller and VRMs. This is significantly higher than the 3770K which is rated at 77 Watt.

Intel Core i7-6700K

The Intel Core i7-6700K is a high-end quad-core desktop processor based on the Skylake architecture, which was announced in August 2015. The CPU, which is manufactured in a 14 nm process, runs at 4.0 up to 4.2 GHz (2 cores: 4.0 GHz, 3 cores: 4.0 GHz, 4 cores: 4.0 GHz) and can execute up to 8 threads simultaneously thanks to Hyperthreading. Being a so called "K"-model, the Core i7-6700K has a free multiplier and can be easily overclocked. 

Performance

Even though the Core i7-6700K has a slightly lower clock than the old i7-4790K (4.0 GHz - 4.4 GHz), the performance is slightly better compared to the Haswell predecessor. Depending on the application, the per-MHz performance was increased by roughly 5-10 %. Even the most demanding applications and games are no problem for the high-end CPU.

Graphics

Graphics are handled by the integrated Intel HD Graphics 530 with 24 EUs (Execution Units), which is clocked at 350 - 1150 MHz. Compared to the HD Graphics 4600 (Haswell, 20 EUs), the performance is increased by around 25 percent. The overall GPU performance is still low-end, so modern games can, if at all, only be played smoothly with low settings. 

Power Consumption

The TDP was slightly raised from 88 to 91 Watts compared to the predecessor.