Intel Skylake Benchmark Roundup: How The Chips Compare

Benchmarking The Processors

Intel turned up the volume on its Skylake family of processors last week at the IFA trade show in Europe, introducing five families of microprocessors ranging from mobile to ’ultimate mobile’ and desktop processors.

The news precedes Intel's release of Skylake Core i7-6700K and Core i5-6600K SKUs in August. Intel says the family of Skylake chips doubles PC performance, triples the battery life and delivers graphics that are 30 times better. The catch is, Intel is comparing Skylake to 5-year-old systems.

Without a doubt, Skylake delivers on better performance. It's also important to keep in mind that Skylake is just as much about an entire new computing platform and shouldn't be judged solely on benchmark numbers. That said, independent benchmarks for Intel's desktop powerhouse version of Skylake cores (i7-6700K and i5-6600K) are out.

Here is a round robin of benchmarks from a variety of independent testers that highlight the differences among i7-6700K, i5-6600K and previous generation Intel processors.

Testing Parameters

The Core i7-6700K's base clock rate is 4GHz with a Turbo Boost up to 4.2GHz. When overclocked, the chip can run up to 4.7GHz before becoming unstable at 4.9GHz, according to chip tests. Also playing a prominent role in testing is the chip's support for quad-channel DDR4 memory that can significantly impact system performance.

In its benchmark testing, Tom's Hardware used motherboards based on the Z170 chipset in tandem with DDR4 memory kits. We also cite benchmark testing results from AnandTech and The Tech Report. Each of these tests mentioned in the following slides uses a different mix of parameters.

When reviewing any benchmark test, it's vitally important to consider how the tests were conducted. However, what follows should give some indication on Skylake's performance.

Adobe Photoshop (Medium Workload) Test

Using PCMark 8 benchmarking software, Tom's Hardware pitted the i7-6700K and i5-6600K against each other. It also ran both Skylake chips on Windows 10 and Windows 8. Here are the results for Adobe CC Photoshop Light:

(Remember, lower scores are better.)

Windows 10

Intel Core i5 6600K running Windows 10 = 0.57

Intel Core i7 6700K running Windows 10 = 0.64

Windows 8.1

Intel Core i5 6600K running Windows 8.1 = 0.78

Intel Core i7 6700K running Windows 8.1 = 0.82

Previous Generation Intel/AMD Processors

AMD A10 7850K = 0.91

Intel Core i7 5930K = 0.93

Microsoft Office 2013

Using PCMark 8 benchmarking software, Tom's Hardware pitted the i7-6700K and i5-6600K against each other running a ’normal workload’ application of Microsoft Office 2013's Word. For this benchmark test, the OS is not specified. Lower scores are better.

Skylake

Intel Core i5 6600K = 0.67

Intel Core i7 6700K = 0.68

Previous Generation Intel/AMD Processors

Intel Core i7 4790K = 0.71

AMD FX 9590 = .91

TrueCrypt Disk Encryption

Online publication The Tech Report pitted the Skylake i7-6700K processor running a number of legacy Intel chips running on Windows 10 PCs. (Read more about The Tech Report's testing parameters.)

First, let's take a look at The Tech Report's scores for encrypting files on a Windows 10 PC. The scores below indicate the processor and how many gigabits per second the processor was able to compress. Higher scores are better.

Skylake

Intel Core i7 6700K running Windows 10 = 5 GB/s

Previous Generation Intel/AMD Processors

Intel Core i7 5960X running Windows 10 = 8.3 GB/s

Intel Core i7 4790K running Windows 10 = 5 GB/s

AMD FX 8370 running Windows 10 = 3.6 GB/s

Video Encoding

For this benchmark test The Tech Report used the video encoding software Handbrake. The test involved transcoding a 2.5 minute 1080p video file from a large format to a smaller video format optimized for the iPhone. For this test, the lower the score, the better.

Skylake

Intel Core i7 6700K running Windows 10 = 22

Previous Generation Intel/AMD Processors

Intel Core i7 5960X running Windows 10 = 16

Intel Core i7 4790K running Windows 10 = 24

AMD FX 8370 running Windows 10 = 31

3D Rendering

For this benchmark, The Tech Report used the benchmarking software Cinebench based on Maxon's Cinema 4D rendering engine to measure performance for Skylake's Core i7 6700K processor using a single processor thread. For this test, the higher the score, the better.

Skylake

Intel Core i7 6700K running Windows 10 = 181

Previous Generation Intel/AMD Processors

Intel Core i7 4790K running Windows 10 = 175

Intel Core i7 5960X running Windows 10 = 135

AMD FX 8370 running Windows 10 = 101

Linux Overclocked With Skylake

The publication AnandTech used Linux-Bench to pit Skylake Core i7 6700K against itself in various states of being overclocked. It tested the chip running C-Ray, a program that uses complex algorithms to trace interaction of 3-D objects. In this test, lower is better.

Skylake

Intel Core i7 6700K overclocked at 4.8GHz = 71

Intel Core i7 6700K overclocked at 4.6GHz = 75

Intel Core i7 6700K overclocked at 4.4GHz = 81

Intel Core i7 6700K overclocked at 4.2GHz = 85

AutoCAD 2015 – 3-D Performance

Using the benchmarking software Cadalyst 2015, Tom's Hardware looked at Skylake's performance running AutoCAD 2015 and compared it with earlier versions of Intel and AMD chips. The higher the score the better.

Skylake

Intel Core i7 6700K = 1641

Intel Core i5 6600K = 1521

Previous Generation Intel/AMD Processors

Intel Core i5 4790K = 1491

AMD FX 9590 = 913

Power Efficiency

For this test, The Tech Report ran the Skylake Core i7 6700 chip running video encoding software and measured power efficiency and consumption. In this test, the lower the score, the better.

Skylake

Intel Core i7 6700K = 6.5

Previous Generation Intel/AMD Processors

Intel i7 5775C = 5.9

Intel Core i7 4790K = 6.7

AMD FX 8370 = 13.2

Power Consumption Continued

Power consumption is not an insignificant aspect of Intel's Skylake chips. The Tech Report found in its overall power-consumption testing of Skylake that it did indeed have an edge over Intel's Haswell family of processors. With Tom's Hardware's tests of power consumption, it's clear that Skylake pulls ahead of its brethren when it comes to sipping and not chugging power.

The test results here illustrate processor power consumption when systems are idle. In the numbers below, the lower the number, the better the score.

Skylake

Intel Core i7 6700K = 3.4

Intel Core i5 6600K = 3.8

Previous Generation Intel/AMD Processors

Intel Core i5 5675C = 4.6

Intel Core i7 5775C = 4.7

AMD A8 7600 = 9.0