Intel Skylake Review

[SameSelf]

EDIT: My 6700 box is acting a little weird and somehow this posted while I was still typing it.

I just upgraded from an Intel Ivybridge Core i7-3770 to an Intel Skylake Core i7-6700. Just as I anticipated, the performance difference is meh for apps that are no longer cpu bound which are, for those who are wondering, nearly all of them. This is not my video editing workstation, so no comment on that performance.

I don't want to undersell Skylake architecture as the new instructions sets, AVX2 and FMA, do offer a modest performance boost over previous gens which improves encoding speeds. Rather, I am just reporting that if you already have an Ivybridge, or even Sandybridge, the difference is marginal. Rather Skylake is more about the whole "package," for lack of a better term.

For example, with Skylake you get DDR4 RAM. And while DDR4 ram prices have come down to DDR3 prices, it will be a while before DDR4 speeds are significantly faster than DDR3 speeds.

So how does one derive a noticeable benefit from Skylake? Well, more pcie lanes, if that is a constraint. For example, the ability to run a SLI/X-fire setup alongside a pcie ssd. However, this is less about Skylake and more about the Z170 chipset. Skylake still only offers 16 pcie 3.0 lanes while the Z170 chipset offers another 4 lanes. But if you are really pcie lane hungry, then the Extreme sku's are a much better choice.

At the end of the day, do I care that I have a Skylake versus my old Ivybridge? Honestly, no. The only thing I care about now when it comes to a new build for my video editing workstation is more and faster cores as found in the Extreme sku's.

Finally, these are just my initial impressions since I have only had this new cpu for a couple of days. I might post back with more updates as I get more runtime with the new box.