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FRONTPAGE Intel Skylake i7 6700K CPU Review

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If you look in the Z170 Gaming M7 review, I did a H2H at 2666 MHz...though the timings were off (think CL11 vs CL14).

MOving forward, we believe we settled on DDR4 3K @ CL15-15-15-35.

The CPU review was using DDR4 3600MHz. Hence Dave's concerns.
 
Skylake has faster memory controller so even at 2133 it should perform good in most tests. However memory performance in skylake is based on cache clock while in older gens base on CPU clock ( which is tied with IMC ). Hard to explain that so all understand but skylake can offer high memory performance at low CPU clock ( if cache isn't really low ) even while using slow memory when older gens need higher cpu clock to show higher memory performance.
( personally tested that last weekend )

I don't know where is the problem with higher clocked memory kits for reviews when these kits are designed for this platform and soon we will see even higher clocks. DDR4-3200 kit cost not much more than 2666 or 2800. Even if you use 3600 then timings are higher than for 3200 kits what means that effective performance will be not much higher.
 
wow, that's an impressive gain that they received from stock (from what I can understand from the graphs)
 
What do you guys what to know about skylake?

Some of you were confused about the voltage regulators on die: Every CPU has some sort of "voltage regulator" that maintains the voltage across the die. The VRM that everyone is used to that actually powers the chip has always been off chip. Last generation Intel did place a bigger part of their VR on the die, but it was not the VRM that you are used to.

NVM Earthdog got the gist of it: http://www.overclockers.com/forums/...K-CPU-Review?p=7847578&viewfull=1#post7847578
 
I do actually have a question for you about Skylake, Dolk... and in reference to the FIVR.

Typically, a die/process shrink tends to bring with it lower stock voltages. However with Skylake, it did not, and vcore overall went up. For example, our samples are around 1.3v give or take, versus Haswell that was 1.1v give or take. Is part of that reason because the FIVR off die?
 
Regarding FIVR and die TDP:

In the case of Bradwell to Skylake, the FIVR did contribute to Skylake increasing power on the CPU but not too much. From what I can gather it didn't really do too much. Intel will implement things like this because, at the time, they believed it would have a larger impact to their CPUs. After some time and testing they figure out it doesn't do much.

Skylake TDP:
Even though we have gone down in feature size (22nm to 14nm), Skylake saw an increase in power consumption. It is true that smaller FETs allow for lower power, but they also allow for higher current to pass through. With every CPU, current consumption will either rise or stay somewhere close to the last generation. Its pretty easy to understand why with looking at one part of the cpu: transistor count. Each area of the CPU grows in transistor count with a smaller feature size. Now that areas are more compact, a higher density of current needs to be delivered. In order to do this, voltage needs to rise. Remember, voltage maintains current, and when it goes to low, current can bounce voltage around causing instability.

So how come we saw a drop in voltage with Haswell/Broadwell? If you can recall, Intel went to FinFET at this time. This type of semiconductor process allowed for lower voltage to drive higher current, because it had more surface area. Now we are returning to the point we were at with typical CMOS FETs. That is, voltage needs to rise just a bit to keep current happy. Higher voltage doesn't always mean TDP rises. Current consumption can lower in some places when voltage rises.

To put this in physics terms:

V=IR (R = resistance from surface area of FET). Decreasing feature size decreases R. In order to maintain TDP while keeping current the same as last generation, V must rise.
 
Regarding FIVR and die TDP:

In the case of Bradwell to Skylake, the FIVR did contribute to Skylake increasing power on the CPU but not too much. From what I can gather it didn't really do too much. Intel will implement things like this because, at the time, they believed it would have a larger impact to their CPUs. After some time and testing they figure out it doesn't do much.

Skylake TDP:
Even though we have gone down in feature size (22nm to 14nm), Skylake saw an increase in power consumption. It is true that smaller FETs allow for lower power, but they also allow for higher current to pass through. With every CPU, current consumption will either rise or stay somewhere close to the last generation. Its pretty easy to understand why with looking at one part of the cpu: transistor count. Each area of the CPU grows in transistor count with a smaller feature size. Now that areas are more compact, a higher density of current needs to be delivered. In order to do this, voltage needs to rise. Remember, voltage maintains current, and when it goes to low, current can bounce voltage around causing instability.

So how come we saw a drop in voltage with Haswell/Broadwell? If you can recall, Intel went to FinFET at this time. This type of semiconductor process allowed for lower voltage to drive higher current, because it had more surface area. Now we are returning to the point we were at with typical CMOS FETs. That is, voltage needs to rise just a bit to keep current happy. Higher voltage doesn't always mean TDP rises. Current consumption can lower in some places when voltage rises.

To put this in physics terms:

V=IR (R = resistance from surface area of FET). Decreasing feature size decreases R. In order to maintain TDP while keeping current the same as last generation, V must rise.

What happened to Intels 3D transistor?
 
FinFET, Tri-gate, 3D Transistor is the same thing.

Stacked or 3D-NAND is not the same as FinFET though.
 
I'm confused by your question. Cooling a socket 1151 processor or cooling the socket (like from behind)?
 
Same as any socket 115X processor. The hole spacing hasn't changed.
 
I'm using the same waterblock for all 775/1150/1155/1156/1366/2011/2011-3 and 1151 sockets ... let's say it was good investment as I have it for 3 or 4 years and I got it for half price :)

Regarding skylake, I'm wondering if anyone was able to set higher memory clock than 3466 fully stable ... on 2x8GB or higher capacity kits. Looks like officially it's not supported and these 3733+ results are available only on 2x4GB kits.
Personally I stuck at 3466 in 1st memory channel while 2nd channel is able to run up to 3800+ on the same memory.
 
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