Intel SR2L2

The Core i7-6700 is a 4-core, 8-thread Skylake chip that still holds up for everyday tasks and light gaming, especially at used prices under USD 100. Its 65W TDP keeps power draw low, and owners rate it 4.5 stars across 806 reviews. But it's on a dead platform with no overclocking and no upgrade path. Buy it only if you already have an LGA 1151 board and need a cheap upgrade.

Let's talk numbers. The i7-6700 scores 8,032 in PassMark multi-thread and 2,274 in single-thread. For context, that single-thread score puts it in the 65th percentile among all CPUs in our database, which is solidly middle of the pack by today's standards. But here's the thing: for everyday tasks like web browsing, office apps, and even a lot of games, single-thread performance matters more than raw core count. And 2,274 is still enough to keep things feeling snappy.

The multi-thread score of 8,032 tells a more nuanced story. It's fine for a 4-core chip from 2015, but modern 6-core and 8-core budget CPUs absolutely crush it in heavily threaded workloads. Video editing, 3D rendering, streaming while gaming, that's where you'll feel the age. The 8 threads help, but they don't hide the fact that this is a quad-core in a world where six cores is the new baseline. For light productivity and older games, though? It's genuinely fine. The 4.0GHz boost clock keeps latency-sensitive tasks moving, and the 8MB of L3 cache does its job without drama.

The i7-6700's biggest competitor isn't another Skylake chip, it's the modern budget landscape. The AMD Ryzen 5 7600 absolutely demolishes this thing in every metric that matters, multi-thread, single-thread, efficiency, platform features. But it also costs significantly more and requires a new motherboard and DDR5 memory. So the comparison isn't really fair. The i7-6700 wins when your budget is tight and you already own an LGA 1151 board. The Ryzen 5 7600 wins when you're building from scratch and want something that'll last.

Then there are the weird entries in our competitor list, like the Dell Xeon E5-2637 V2 and the PC Server and Parts E5-2697 v2-cr. Those are old server chips that show up cheap on the used market. They offer more cores in some cases, but they're on even older platforms with worse single-thread performance and higher power draw. For a desktop user, the i7-6700 is the more sensible choice. The be quiet! and Thermal Grizzly entries are cooling products, not CPUs, so they're not really in the same conversation. The point is, among actual CPU alternatives at this price point, the i7-6700 holds its own surprisingly well.

Here's where things get interesting. The i7-6700 shows up in our database with USD prices ranging from USD 47 to USD 390 across 7 listings. That's a massive spread, and it tells you everything about the used market for this chip. At USD 47, this is an absolute steal for anyone with an LGA 1151 board looking for a cheap upgrade. At USD 390, you're getting robbed, plain and simple. The best deal we're seeing is on the low end of that range, and honestly, anything under USD 100 is a reasonable buy if you already have the motherboard.

In EUR, the spread is tighter but still notable: EUR 128 to EUR 209 across 8 listings in Germany, Spain, France, and Italy. Again, the lower end of that range is where the value lives. Paying EUR 200 for a 2015 quad-core in 2024 doesn't make sense when you could put that money toward a modern platform. But at EUR 128? If you're reviving an old system or building a budget office PC, that's a defensible purchase. The key is patience and knowing what you're getting into.

The Core i7-6700 is one of those chips that quietly did everything right back in 2015 and somehow still shows up in budget builds and office PCs nearly a decade later. It's a 4-core, 8-thread Skylake part with a 3.4GHz base and 4.0GHz boost, 8MB of L3 cache, and a modest 65W TDP. Nothing about it screams exciting on paper, but the whole package just works. And for a lot of people, that's exactly what they need.

Who's this for? Mostly folks trying to squeeze more life out of an LGA 1151 motherboard, or people building a cheap used system for everyday tasks, light gaming, or a home office. The i7-6700 sits in a sweet spot where it's fast enough to feel responsive in Windows 11, handles multitasking without choking, and sips power compared to the K-series chips. You're not going to set benchmark records, but you're also not going to hear your fans spin up every time you open Chrome.

What makes it interesting is the value angle. In our database, this chip lands in the 81st percentile for affordability, which means it's cheaper than most comparable CPUs out there. And with a 4.5-star rating across 806 reviews, people genuinely like it. The catch? You're buying into a dead platform. DDR4 is the ceiling, PCIe 3.0 is the ceiling, and there's no upgrade path beyond this generation. But if you know that going in, the i7-6700 can be a genuinely smart purchase.

If you're building a new PC from scratch, skip the i7-6700. The platform is dead, there's no upgrade path, and you'd be better off putting your money into a modern budget CPU like a Ryzen 5 or a newer Intel i3 or i5. The multi-thread performance just doesn't hold up for modern workloads, and you'd be locking yourself into old tech from day one.

Also skip it if you need serious multi-threaded performance. Video editors, 3D artists, streamers, and anyone running heavily threaded applications will feel the 4-core limit immediately. The 8,032 PassMark multi-thread score is fine for light work, but it's nowhere near what a modern 6-core or 8-core chip delivers. If that's your use case, save up for something newer instead of trying to make this work.

If you've got an LGA 1151 motherboard sitting around with a Pentium or i3 in it, and you want a cheap, meaningful upgrade, the i7-6700 is a no-brainer at the right price. It'll make Windows feel faster, handle multitasking better, and give you enough headroom for light gaming and productivity work. The 65W TDP means you probably won't even need to upgrade your cooler or power supply. It's the easiest performance bump you can get for under USD 100.

But if you're building a new system from scratch, or you need real multi-threaded performance for video editing, streaming, or modern AAA gaming, skip this. Put your money toward a modern platform instead. The i7-6700 is a great chip for what it is, but what it is, is a nearly decade-old quad-core on a dead socket. Know your use case before you buy.