

It supports DDR4 memory, gets more 元 cache than the Haswell option and improved integrated graphics. On a first glance, the Core i7-6700HQ CPU is barely an improvement over its predecessors, especially for a “Tock” update. This post shares a few more insides on the Skylake architecture. Both of these translate in improved battery life. First, the Core i7-6700HQ now supports DX12 and that means some low-end games won’t even have to trigger the dedicated graphics anymore, and second, the platform now integrates a hardware video decoder, which means it will deal more smoothly and more efficiently with video content, including 4K clips or the H.265/HEVC standard.

There are two aspects to keep in mind though. However, the Core i7-6700HQ CPU is going to be paired with dedicated graphics in 95% of the available configurations, which means most of you won’t be interested in how the Intel graphics perform. The higher end Core i7 processors will get GT3e and GT4e graphics, with 42 or 72 EUs and eDRAM, which will provide a significant performance boost. It’s also just 10% slower than the Nvidia 920M dedicated chip. It’s 15-20% faster than the Intel HD 4600 chip inside the Haswell CPUs and a smaller update of the Intel HD 5600 variant bundled with the Broadwell versions. This solution is a GT2 version of Intel’s Skylake integrated graphics (Generation 9) and includes 24 Execution Units, but no eDRAM. On top of these, the Core i7-6700HQ die reserves a significant part of its size for the Intel HD 530 integrated graphics, running at up to 1050 MHz. The Core i7-6700HQ is the mainstream Skylake quad-core i7 and will make its way in a vast range of multimedia and gaming notebooks In other words, this processor will be mostly found in high-performance consumer laptops. It does not support vPro, which means it might not be a suitable solution for professional business rigs. The CPU has a max TDP of 45W, 6 MB of 元 Cache and can be paired with either DDR3 and LPDDR3 (up to 1866 Mhz) or DDR4 (up to 2166 MHz) memory.

These frequencies are important, and you’ll see exactly why further down, when we compare this Skylake processor with its predecessors. The cores are clocked at 2.6 GHz, but with TurboBoost they can go up to 3.1 GHz (Max Quad Core Turbo – all 4 cores active), 3.3 GHz (Max Dual Core Turbo) or 3.5 GHz (Max Single Core Turbo). It’s a Quad-Core processor with HyperThreading and TurboBoost. The Core i7-6700HQ processor is part of Intel’s Skylake-H family. later update: In the meantime I’ve reviewed many other Core i7-6700HQ configurations, all available here, and updated the results in this post. The results gathered below are based on my tests and experience with three different laptops powered by the Core i7-6700HQ processor, the MSI GS60 Ghost Pro (Thanks Catalin for your time and effort!), the Asus ROG GL552 and the Acer Predator 17, which we’ll be reviewed here on the site in the next few days.
