The i7 6800k was ahead of its time

you can still buy Six core CPUs based on the 14 nanometer process in 2023 like brand new inbox with a warranty and everything in fact despite Intel having made chips on this node for some eight years at this point it's still only one iteration removed from their current bleeding edge CPUs nobody would blame you for buying one of these 10th and 11th gen i5s for gaming today especially if you're on a budget so if I told you there was one Intel 14 nanometer 6 core an overclockable one even available for half the price of a newer non-k chip you'd assume there's a catch right there's got to be a catch well actually there's more than one [Music] I didn't have the easiest time with the i7 6800k despite years of personal experience and word of mouth telling me that overclocking is always best achieved via the BIOS that option wasn't open to me every OC I dialed in from my Gigabyte G1 Gaming's bios failed to take hold always returning to the default 3.8 gigahertz one of my goals in this series of CPU tests is to try and normalize them to 4.5 gigahertz wherever possible I managed this in the Sandy bridge and Sandy Bridge ecpus ivybridge e even Haswell e on this exact motherboard had no issues so it was pretty important to me that I try and squeeze some extra clocks out of this Broadwell e CPU Broadwell was the first architecture from Intel using 14 nanometer lithography a process note that would remain key to Intel's CPUs for six years it's tempting to look on this period of Intel history as one of stagna Nation but in truth they made some significant refinements to the various architectures built on this process while late generation rocket Lake ships could push 14 nanometers to 5 gigahertz and Beyond I failed to reach my 4.5 gigahertz Target after downloading an older version of Intel XTU I was able to get my OCS to take but I couldn't get a stable frequency above 4.3 gigahertz now with a pretty big disparity between the clock speeds of Intel's 2020 era chips and this 2016 model I didn't have the highest of hopes however the 6800k still has a few factors going in its favor as is the norm for agdt chips Intel's Broadwell ecpus have larger than normal level 3 caches and this i7's 15 megabytes outweighs the 9 to 12 megabytes of some of the succeeding six cores if you saw my last CPU review on the i7 5775c you'll know that it was also based on Broadwell and had a massive 128 megabytes of Ed RAM on board which it could use as a level 4 cache you might be thinking that Broadwell e might have had that too alas that isn't the case the Ed Ram was ostensibly there to benefit the desktop CPUs integrated Graphics which the 2011 V3 chips don't have for memory I was able to run four eight gigabyte sticks in Quad channel to gain higher memory bandwidth even though I could only clot them up to 3200 Mega transfers a second this should still outperform all but the fastest dual Channel ddr4 rounding out the test system specs I kept the CPU cool using an old Cooler Master 240mm AIO powered everything with a 1000 watt EVGA GQ power supply and the GPU is my usual gigabyte RTX 3070 perhaps as a result of not hitting my four and a half gigahertz Target this scenario may be one you have to get used to over the course of this video in valorant the i7 6800k manages a terrific 255 FPS exceedingly playable and perfect for pairing with a high refresh monitor but noticeably slower than a 5930k clocked at 4.5 gigahertz if the 6800k could clock that high I dare say it would do as well or even better but in my case that just wasn't happening on the positive side it's a good 20 faster than earlier Generation 6 cores [Music] Battlefield 5 sees the 6800k extend its lead over old school 6 cores like the 3960x thanks no doubt to its avx2 compatibility and improved IPC the 155 FPS average is some 40 faster than the Sandy Bridge chip it's still a little worse than the 5930k but not so much in averages which are basically equal the 6800k suffers a little worse in the one percent lows though again this is most likely down to the lower clock speeds [Music] fortnite however is a great result for the 6800k this is a functional match for the 200 megahertz higher clocks 5930k and actually sees slightly higher minimums though of course expecting consistent one and point one percent lows in a large scale online game is a little unrealistic if you have better luck on the Silicon Lottery than I did you may even see an advantage at higher clock speeds [Music] all right flight simulator's results on higher end CPUs are mostly academic as people flying these Sims don't care all that much about high FPS however I'm here to compare CPU performance mostly academic is my middle name averages once more match the previous Gen 6 core at about 50 FPS the ideal frame rate for smooth gameplay do not at me it does score a little lower at the minimum end but this isn't Sim breaking by any stretch of the imagination [Music] the 6800k joins the elite few in my CPU archive that can handle Spider-Man remastered in both standard and Ray traced modes the latter is more demanding naturally but the Broadwell e-chip can average approximately 60 FPS one percent on point ones dropped significantly but then again I've yet to see a setup in which they don't without RT The 6800k Falls a few places in the rankings older CPUs like the 3960x and E5 1680 V2 seem to do much better when RC isn't involved but while the 6800k can't really make a case for itself against other chips on the same socket it can still offer a great near 90 FPS experience [Music] foreign despite its fearsome reputation cyberpunk 2077 doesn't seem to mind older architectures all that much or alternatively I suppose it's possible that I've yet to find an arch new enough to satisfy it either way the 6800k sees some stiff competition from some surprising chips the non-rt result of 66 FPS on average places it just about equal to the Sandy Bridge i7 3960x but just below the 10 core Ivy Bridge 26 adv2 once RT is factored in however the older ships fall away as the 6800k joins the Haswell ease and even the Zen 3 at the top of the table [Music] Red Dead Redemption 2 is another excellent result for the i7 6800k averaging a very robust 77 FPS on average though with 1 and 0.1 characteristic of lower clocks chips sadly as playable a result as this is it is blown away by the Haswell ease I'm not even sure I can explain this the 5930k shouldn't be over 10 faster than the newer chip even if it is about four percent higher clocked [Music] I did test with Alden ring but like most higher end chips the result was a margin of error difference from the others so I'll move right along to The Witcher 3 remastered in dx12 at 1440 Ultra with dlss balanced the 6800k does top the chart with a very playable 63 FPS and with lows in the 40s however I haven't actually tested the Haswell ease in this title so maybe the 6800k shouldn't celebrate too soon [Music] finally at an average turn time of 6.87 seconds the Civ 6 results are extremely close to both the i7 5930k and the E5 1680v2 in fact the age of the game might account for why it tolerates older architectures so well because the i7 3960x is only at little behind its newer relative and the Zen 3 chip isn't that much further ahead [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] every now and again we reviewers come across comments from people who maybe expect us to be a little bit kinder to a particular product if I were to appease these comments I'd say the i7 6800k is a great CPU capable of keeping up in modern games that would however ignore the superior options available for the same socket often for lower prices if you can get a 6800k or the almost identical but better bin 6850k to run at 4.5 gigahertz or higher your mileage may vary but I found that the 5930k and 5960x can easily run at 4.5 gigahertz even with my rudimentary skills as a result they can easily match or exceed the 6800k and usually as a more reasonable price and that's not even taking into account new options an i5 11 400 and matching b560 motherboard should consume less than half the power have better IPC and connectivity and depending on where you are in the world shouldn't cost all that much more while I look forward to testing more Broadwell ecpus in the future alas a lot of these i7 extremes are holding a disproportionate amount of value so it may be a while before my 6950x review in the meantime check out my review of the excellent i7 5960x thanks for watching kindly do the usual to YouTube things if you feel so inclined and I'll see you next time [Music] thank you [Music]

Channel: Iceberg Tech

Views: 47,477

Keywords: iceberg, i7-6800K civ 6, i7-6800K cyberpunk 2077, i7-6800K fortnite performance mode, i7-6800K red dead redemption 2, i7-6800K spider-man remastered, i7-6800K, i7-6800K battlefield v, i7-6800K benchmark, i7-6800K civilization vi, i7-6800K elden ring, i7-6800K gameplay, i7-6800K in 2023, i7-6800K flight simulator, i7-6800K rdr 2, i7-6800K valorant, i7-6800K witcher 3 remaster

Id: zqo_45AUXmA

Length: 11min 43sec (703 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 27 2023