Broadwell-E: Intel Core i7-6950X, 6900K, 6850K & 6800K Review

Features
By ,
published

Is Broadwell more attractive to enthusiasts without graphics and up to 10 Hyper-Threaded cores? We test against two previous generations, plus Skylake to find out.

Office Productivity Results

No collection of desktop benchmarks is complete without Microsoft’s popular Office suite. We’re leaving control over the workloads (as well as computing and reporting the geometric mean of the three benchmark runs per application) to PCMark 8 Professional once again.

Microsoft Word 2013

Swipe to scroll horizontally
Header Cell - Column 0 File SizePagesWordsPictures
Original Document3.25MB7717,9875
Target Document57MB13830,80010
Actions- Start Word.- Open the source document.- Open the destination document into a separate window.- Copy a long segment from the source document to the destination document.- Save the destination document with a new file name.- Stretch the destination document window.- Cut and paste a long segment within the destination document.- Save the destination document.- Type text into the document, simulating keystrokes by sleeping after each character.- Save the destination document.- Add images into the destination document.- Save the destination document.

Microsoft Excel 2013

Swipe to scroll horizontally
Header Cell - Column 0 File SizeWorksheetsActive Cells
Original Files4.62MB2.33MB4240,800
Target File4.18MB210,930
Actions- Start Excel.- Open the source and destination workbooks.- Stretch the application window.-Copy data from the source workbook into the destination workbook to cells that trigger formula evaluation. The data set is approximately 75,000 cells.- Copy more data from the source work book to the destination workbook to cells that do not trigger formula evaluation. The data set is approximately 75,000 cells.- Copy formulas from inside the destination workbook so that data evaluation for the data copied in task 5 is triggered. The copied data is 3 cells in size and it is pasted into approximately 15,000 cells.- Copy more data from the source workbook to the destination workbook to cells that trigger formula evaluation. The data set is approximately 20 cells.- Plug specific values to three individual cells triggering formula evaluation.- Save the destination workbook into a new file.

Microsoft PowerPoint 2013

Swipe to scroll horizontally
Header Cell - Column 0 File SizeSlidesPictures
Original File27.1MB1512
PDF Export2.83MB1613
Actions- Start PowerPoint.- Open the presentation.- Stretch the application window.- Browse through each slide in turn and simulate reviewing by sleeping each slide.- Add a slide to the presentation.- Add an image to the new slide and crop it.- Add text to the new slide.- Save the finished presentation into a new file.- Export the presentation into a PDF file.


MORE: Best CPUs

MORE: All CPU Content
MORE: Intel & AMD Processor Hierarchy

Chris Angelini
Chris Angelini
Chris Angelini is an Editor Emeritus at Tom's Hardware US. He edits hardware reviews and covers high-profile CPU and GPU launches.
126 Comments Comment from the forums
  • jt AJ
    was expecting a bit more info and review usage of turbo 3.0. also looks like most of broadwell E chip is junk.. except that one 6850k chip you received probably lucky 1.25v for 4.4v would be good thats only because its broadwell. got one here for 4.8ghz at just 1.22v.
    Reply
  • Nuckles_56
    Chris, how likely is it that a noctua NH-D15 would be able to cool these heat producing monsters if your h100i struggled and failed with the i7-6800k @4.4GHz.

    But a truly excellent review, even if it does show that there is little reason to go to broadwell-E over Haswell-E
    Reply
  • elho_cid
    I'd love to step up to the realm of higher core count, but given the results of Adobe SW when scaling to many threads, meas it is not really useful right now. :/
    That's a pity, because the most time I spend staring at a progress bar is when I'm using Adobe products. I don't really need more power to "background tasks" like zipping or lame encoding.
    Reply
  • AdmiralDonut
    Standard SLI is not limited on the new NVIDIA cards. The only thing that's limited is the new High Bandwidth SLI. Normal 3 and 4-way SLI can be enabled easily by simply asking NVIDIA for an unlock code, something any half way serious enthusiast will most certainly do. Here's some more info on this matter:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wBDt9tN5-c
    Reply
  • bit_user
    I don't really see the point of having a $1700 non-Xeon SKU. Of the few people who can afford it, even less would bother/dare to overclock it.

    I'm still wishing for the rumored 5 GHz SKU to surface. I've rarely needed more than 4 cores, but a couple extra GHz always comes in handy. Even so, I'll not be upgrading until at least Skylake-E or perhaps Kaby-E.
    Reply
  • Cerunnir
    Chris, how likely is it that a noctua NH-D15 would be able to cool these heat producing monsters if your h100i struggled and failed with the i7-6800k @4.4GHz.

    But a truly excellent review, even if it does show that there is little reason to go to broadwell-E over Haswell-E

    NH-D15 is arguably better or atleast equal to the H100i when it comes to cooling, and its noise levels is definatly lower both in load and while idle.

    http://www.relaxedtech.com/reviews/noctua/nh-d15-versus-closed-loop-liquid-coolers/2
    Reply
  • arabesc
    Does it have support for ECC ram?
    Reply
  • bit_user
    18045773 said:
    Does it have support for ECC ram?
    No. Buy a Xeon version, for that. It's practically the only difference. It's artificial product differentiation, known as "market segmentation".

    Here, you can find links to the specs of the CPUs mentioned in this article: http://ark.intel.com/products/family/79318/Intel-High-End-Desktop-Processors#@Desktop If you view their individual specs, you can see that none support ECC.

    Intel hasn't yet announced the E5-16xx v4 series CPUs, but you can turn up leaked specs with a bit of searching.

    And you'll need motherboard support, too.
    Reply
  • cats_Paw
    Good review (excellent if its only the heads up for a more in-depth one).
    I have to say that I would love to have a 6 or even 8 core CPU but these prices and performances dont add up.

    In my country a 6700K and a 5820K are priced almost the same, but its still a hard choice (Do i want a "maybe" future proof 6 core that can be good for some work or a 4 core that is flat out faster and cheaper to build around for gaming?).
    Reply
  • pyoverdin
    Am I correct in saying I could build a PC that's 5 FPS off the 6950X for it's price?
    Reply