SKYLAKE: THE 6TH GENERATION OF CORE I-SERIES

Skylake: The 6th Generation of Core i-Series

The Gamescom video game trade show in Germany has brought smiles on the faces of gamers. The brand new 6th generation of Core i-series CPUs, also known as Skylake, has arrived.


Now if you are a gamer and you are reading this, you might be tempted to go full “shut up and take my money” on this new generation of baddies. Your excitement is understandable, but the investment might not be worth it just yet.

These new Skylake processors only include a pair of high-end chips: the Core i5-6600K and the Core i7-6700K. And they are not easy to get. You can only find them in high-end desktops from PC makers like Velocity Micro, Digital Storm and Origin PC. While we know that these companies make great built-to-order PCs, we also know that they are very expensive.

But you do not have much to worry about. Within the next few months we will have a wider set of processors to choose from. Intel is planning to release processors for mainstream PCs, laptops and tablets.

So what are the bonus features that we are looking at? Intel has promised us to see an overall 10% increase in performance, easier overclocking and support for the newer DDR4 RAM. While gaming scores were very high, the spotlight was given to the Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 cards running in the tested systems.

The gaming test was performed with Metro: Last Night and the overclocked Core i7-6700K came out victorious with a score way higher than that of its competition: 128. Second place was awarded to the overclocked Core i7-5690X which scored 90 points. However, the new i7 which was not overclocked came very close to the overclocked i5-6600, scoring just 1 point ahead: 69 above 68.

But the final decision is neither made by Intel, nor by PC makers. The power is given to the players. If you, by any chance, want the new i7, then do not let us stop you. It remains to be seen whether gamers will decide to make a transition to the 6th generation or if they consider that the gear they have now is good enough. Either way, the new generation will provide a great experience.