Tick is followed by Tock: After Intel introduced a new manufacturing process with Broadwell last autumn, the chip giant now launches its second 14 nm generation with the completely reworked microarchitecture: Skylake.
Contrary to previous launches, Intel has not (yet) shown the full lineup today, but only announced two desktop processors. While the Core i7-6700K replaces the current top model Core i7-4790K, the Core i5-6600K replaces the Core i5-4690K.
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Name | CPU Clock | Cores/Threads | L3-Cache | Memory | TDP | RRP |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Skylake | ||||||
Core i7-6700K | 4.0 - 4.2 GHz | 4/8 | 8 MB | DDR3(L)-1600 / DDR4-2133 | 91 Watts | $ 350 |
Core i5-6600K | 3.5 - 3.9 GHz | 4/4 | 6 MB | DDR3(L)-1600 / DDR4-2133 | 91 Watts | $ 243 |
Broadwell | ||||||
Core i7-5775C | 3.3 - 3.7 GHz | 4/8 | 6 MB + 128 MB L4 | DDR3(L)-1600 | 65 Watts | $ 377 |
Core i5-5675C | 3.1 - 3.6 GHz | 4/4 | 4 MB + 128 MB L4 | DDR3(L)-1600 | 65 Watts | $ 277 |
Haswell | ||||||
Core i7-4790K | 4.0 - 4.4 GHz | 4/8 | 8 MB | DDR3(L)-1600 | 88 Watts | $ 350 |
Core i5-4690K | 3.5 - 3.9 GHz | 4/4 | 6 MB | DDR3(L)-1600 | 88 Watts | $ 243 |
The new Skylake models hardly differ from their Haswell predecessors at first glance (Broadwell desktop processors were not launched everywhere): Clocks, TDP, size of the L3 cache and also the price of the i5 and i7 models are almost identical. Intel still promises a 10 percent higher CPU performance, which is a result of several microarchitectural improvements. However, the manufacturer did not want to go into the details – more information should follow at the IDF in San Francisco on August 18th.
We already have the first Cinebench R15 benchmark results from a Clevo barebone, but they do not really show a performance increase, at least in this benchmark. Both the Single as well as the Multi test determine similar results for the Core i7-6700K (179/879 points) and the i7-4790K (176/873 points), and the same applies for the i5-6600K (161/602 points) compared to the i5-4690K (155/600 points). It is possible that the promised IPC improvements will have a bigger effect in other applications or that upcoming BIOS updates will improve the results a bit – we will have to wait for further tests in the next couple of weeks before we can say more.
Cinebench R15 | |
CPU Single 64Bit (sort by value) | |
Intel Skylake 6700K Sample | |
Intel Skylake 6600K Sample | |
SCHENKER XMG U505 | |
SCHENKER XMG U705 | |
Alienware 17 R2 | |
MSI GT72-2QE16SR21BW | |
Asus G751JY | |
CPU Multi 64Bit (sort by value) | |
Intel Skylake 6700K Sample | |
Intel Skylake 6600K Sample | |
SCHENKER XMG U505 | |
SCHENKER XMG U705 | |
Alienware 17 R2 | |
MSI GT72-2QE16SR21BW | |
Asus G751JY |
One of the new features that we already know of is the support for DDR4 memory with an effective clock of up to 2133 MHz for the first time, while Haswell (except for the high-end platform Haswell-E) and Broadwell only support DDR3(L) modules. The additional memory bandwidth should be an advantage for the integrated HD Graphics 530 GPU in particular, which is also supposed to have 20 percent more shader units in the GT2 version (24 instead of 20 EUs with Haswell).
Being "K" models, both the i7-6700K and i5-6600K have free multipliers that allows easy overclocking. Contrary to Haswell, you can once again overclock Broadwell via base clock, but this should not be the case for the non-K chips that will follow later. Another highlight for fans of overclocking: The frequency of the DRAM memory can now be adjusted in finer 100/133 MHz steps, so it is easier to find the limit.
Skylake also follows the trend for faster flash storage with the significantly improved Z170 chipset, which is now equipped with 20 PCIe 3.0 lanes instead of just 8x PCIe 2.0 lanes (Z97). DMI was also updated to version 3.0, so the connection to the processor won't be a bottleneck. It is, however, a bit doubtful that the wider CPU interface would really provide enough bandwidth for all PCIe lanes: It seems that DMI 3.0 is only based on four PCIe 3.0 lanes and therefore barely reaches 4 GB/s, which could easily slow down a RAID configuration with multiple high-end M.2 SSDs. Still: It is roughly twice as fast compared to Haswell and should be more than sufficient for the next couple of years.
The processor itself still has 16 PCIe 3.0 lanes, which can be distributed (x16, x8/x8, x8/x4/x4) for the communication with a dedicated graphics card.
So what's in the pipeline for the upcoming weeks? The lineup is obviously not limited to the two chips that were announced today: If you believe the colleagues from CPU-World, there will already be many desktop and notebook chips across the whole TDP range in September. There were rumors in the past that there will also be Ultrabook CPUs with GT3e graphics (48 EUs plus eDRAM memory) as well as the new top IGP called GT4e (72 EUs plus eDRAM memory) – so Intel may be better able to compete with current dedicated mainstream GPUs.
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