Intel’s upcoming 6th Generation Intel Core Skylake processors, together with the 100 series chipset are just around the corner. Prior to its official launch, the actual retail box art of the Skylake-S processors, Core i7-6700K and Core i5-6600K, surfaced online, along with its US retail prices. These new processors are based on a 14nm fabrication process and are designed for Intel 100 series motherboards with socket LGA1151, like the Z710 motherboards we saw these past few months. All the 6th Gen Skylake processors are not compatible with the previous 9 and 8 series motherboards, and most 100 series motherboards (specially the high-end ones) are using DDR4 memory already. In addition, both the enthusiast Skylake-S processors might/will be shipped without stock coolers. Well, users don’t use stock coolers with these types of processors anyway. Check out the box art of the Skylake-S processors below.
UPDATE: Here’s another picture showing lots of i7-6700K and i5-6600K processors.
Intel Core i7-6700K and Core i5-6600K Skylake Processors
The Intel Core i7-6700K and Core i5-6600K are Intel’s 6th generation core processors, codenamed Skylake-S. These two are the flagship processors geared towards the enthusiasts, and will replace the more popular Core i7 and Core i5 Haswell-Refresh. Well, technically speaking, Skylake is the successor of Broadwell, if you count Broadwell.
The Intel Core i7-6700K is a 95W processor featuring 4 cores and 8 threads, base clock speed of 4GHz and with a boost clock speed of 4.2GHz. It also has an 8MB L3 Cache and supports both DDR4-2133 and DDR3L-1600 memory modules. Meanwhile, the Intel Core i5-6600K features 4 cores and 4 threads, with a base clock speed of 3.5GHz and a boost clock speed of 3.9GHz. It has a 6MB of L3 cache and supports both DDR4 and DDR3L memory as well.
A couple of weeks ago, we saw an Intel Core i7-6700K overclock to 5.2GHz using air cooling alone. This could really be exciting, while at the same time don’t expect a huge leap in terms of performance vs its 4th and 5th gen counterpart. However, some rumors claim that while there is no huge jump in terms of the actual processing power, we may see a significant improvement in terms of the Skylake’s integrated graphics processor (Intel HD Graphics 530) compared to its predecessors.
Other Skylake processors include the 65W family, namely: Core i7-6700, Core i5-6600, Core i5-6500 and Core i5-6400. And there are also the 35W processors: Core i7-6700T, Core i5-6600T, Core i5-6500T and Core i5-6400T.
6th Gen Intel Skylake Processors US Retail Price
The Intel Core i7-6700K is reported to have a retail price of $316 USD, while the Core i5-6600K retails for $225 USD. These prices are not confirmed yet, but if these prices are true, then the Skylake processors will have a lower retail price (at launch) compared to their 4th gen and 5th gen counterpart.
