Which 6th-gen Intel Core processor should I get?

John Jorell · February 27, 2016

I've already done some researches about my planned CPU upgrade. Right now I'm currently using an Intel Core i3-2100 Sandy Bridge CPU and I use that for everyday productivity and HD gaming as well since I wanna play some of the newly released games for the current-gen. Now I wanna upgrade to a 6th-gen Intel Skylake processor especially Core i5-6500. Do you think it's worth the grab for me?

Here are my current specs:

OS: Windows 7 Ultimate x64

CPU: Mentioned above earlier

RAM: 8 GB DDR3-1333 RAM

GPU: ZOTAC GeForce GTX 950 AMP! Edition

HDD: 500 GB

Ryzza5 · February 27, 2016

Have a look for some benchmark graphs that show scores for both your current and planned CPU and see if the jump is as high as you'd like for the spend.

Andreas¹ · February 27, 2016

Why do you want to upgrade your CPU first of all? Do you feel your current one can't keep up? You'll gain some performance but I'm not sure the cost of a new CPU, motherboard and RAM would be worth it. You might be better off trying to find a used i5 or i7 that fits your current motherboard.

John Jorell · February 27, 2016

Like I said, I wanna upgrade my CPU primarily for gaming and productivity. My CPU is already 5 years ever since I bought it. So I think it's time for my old Sandy Bridge i3-2100 CPU to be upgraded. And right now, I'm still watching some YouTube users upload their videos using the i5-6500 and a GTX 950 which, I currently own the latter. I got no problems with the RAM module, I already bought it earlier because I know that DDR3 RAM's won't work well. Therefore, I bought in a DDR4-2133 16GB RAM.

And besides, here in my place, don't expect to see used i5's or i7's.

Ryzza5, I'm now looking in to that case. I'll post at a later time about my findings. Thank you so much!

Andreas¹ · February 27, 2016

Then by all means go ahead. I'm not convinced the big cost will be worth it for gaming but the productivity department should see a big bump. If you're interested in overclocking at all go for the 6600K with Z170 motherboard and that option will be open to you in a few years time.

John Jorell · February 28, 2016

Yup, I was planning to get that ASUS Z170 Motherboard. Thanks Andreas.

Andreas¹ · February 28, 2016

Then you should definitely go for the 6600K, overclocking can squeeze quite a bit of extra usable time out of your system in a few years. Just remember if you do that it doesn't come with a cooler so you'd need to get one of those as well.