Intel Core i7-6800K vs Apple M1

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CPU comparison with benchmarks


Intel Core i7-6800K CPU1 vs CPU2 Apple M1
Intel Core i7-6800K Apple M1

CPU comparison

Intel Core i7-6800K or Apple M1 - which processor is faster? In this comparison we look at the differences and analyze which of these two CPUs is better. We compare the technical data and benchmark results.

The Intel Core i7-6800K has 6 cores with 12 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 3.60 GHz. Up to 128 GB of memory is supported in 4 memory channels. The Intel Core i7-6800K was released in Q2/2016.

The Apple M1 has 8 cores with 8 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 3.20 GHz. The CPU supports up to 16 GB of memory in 2 memory channels. The Apple M1 was released in Q4/2020.
Intel Core i7 Extreme Edition (24) Family Apple M series (23)
Intel Core i 6000 (24) CPU group Apple M1 (9)
6 Generation 1
Skylake S Architecture M1
Desktop / Server Segment Mobile
-- Predecessor --
-- Successor Apple M2

CPU Cores and Base Frequency

The Intel Core i7-6800K is a 6 core processor with a clock frequency of 3.40 GHz (3.60 GHz). The Apple M1 has 8 CPU cores with a clock frequency of 0.60 GHz (3.20 GHz).

Intel Core i7-6800K Characteristic Apple M1
6 Cores 8
12 Threads 8
normal Core architecture hybrid (big.LITTLE)
Yes Hyperthreading No
Yes Overclocking ? No
3.40 GHz (3.60 GHz) A-Core 0.60 GHz (3.20 GHz)
4x Firestorm
-- B-Core 0.60 GHz (2.06 GHz)
4x Icestorm

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Processors with the support of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) can process many calculations, especially audio, image and video processing, much faster than classic processors. Algorithms for ML improve their performance the more data they have collected via software. ML tasks can be processed up to 10,000 times faster than with a classic processor.

Intel Core i7-6800K Characteristic Apple M1
-- AI hardware Apple Neural Engine
-- AI specifications 16 Neural cores @ 11 TOPS

Internal Graphics

The integrated graphics unit of a processor is not only responsible for the pure image output on the system, but can also significantly increase the efficiency of the system with the support of modern video codecs.

no iGPU GPU Apple M1 (8 Core)
GPU frequency 0.39 GHz
-- GPU (Turbo) 1.30 GHz
-- GPU Generation 1
Technology 5 nm
Max. displays 2
-- Compute units 128
-- Shader 1024
No Hardware Raytracing No
No Frame Generation No
-- Max. GPU Memory 8 GB
-- DirectX Version --

Hardware codec support

A photo or video codec that is accelerated in hardware can greatly accelerate the working speed of a processor and extend the battery life of notebooks or smartphones when playing videos.

no iGPU GPU Apple M1 (8 Core)
No Codec h265 / HEVC (8 bit) Decode / Encode
No Codec h265 / HEVC (10 bit) Decode / Encode
No Codec h264 Decode / Encode
No Codec VP9 Decode / Encode
No Codec VP8 Decode
No Codec AV1 No
No Codec AVC Decode
No Codec VC-1 Decode
No Codec JPEG Decode / Encode

Memory & PCIe

The Intel Core i7-6800K supports a maximum of 128 GB of memory in 4 memory channels. The Apple M1 can connect up to 16 GB of memory in 2 memory channels.

Intel Core i7-6800K Characteristic Apple M1
DDR4-2400 Memory LPDDR4X-4266
128 GB Max. Memory 16 GB
4 (Quad Channel) Memory channels 2 (Dual Channel)
76.8 GB/s Max. Bandwidth 68.2 GB/s
No ECC No
-- L2 Cache 16.00 MB
15.00 MB L3 Cache --
3.0 PCIe version 4.0
28 PCIe lanes --
27.6 GB/s PCIe Bandwidth --

Thermal Management

The TDP (Thermal Design Power) of a processor specifies the required cooling solution. The Intel Core i7-6800K has a TDP of 140 W, that of the Apple M1 is 18 W.

Intel Core i7-6800K Characteristic Apple M1
140 W TDP (PL1 / PBP) 18 W
-- TDP (PL2) --
-- TDP up 20 W
-- TDP down 10 W
100 °C Tjunction max. --

Technical details

The Intel Core i7-6800K has a 15.00 MB cache, while the Apple M1 cache has a total of 16.00 MB.

Intel Core i7-6800K Characteristic Apple M1
14 nm Technology 5 nm
Monolithic Chip design Chiplet
x86-64 (64 bit) Instruction set (ISA) Armv8.5-A (64 bit)
SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AVX2 ISA extensions Rosetta 2 x86-Emulation
LGA 2011-3 Socket --
VT-x, VT-x EPT, VT-d Virtualization Apple Virtualization Framework
Yes AES-NI Yes
Windows 10, Linux Operating systems macOS
Q2/2016 Release date Q4/2020
628 $ Release price --
show more data show more data


Rate these processors

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Here you can rate the Apple M1 to help other visitors make their purchasing decisions. The average rating is 4.8 stars (201 ratings). Rate now:


Average performance in benchmarks

⌀ Single core performance in 3 CPU benchmarks
Intel Core i7-6800K (59%)
Apple M1 (100%)
⌀ Multi core performance in 4 CPU benchmarks
Intel Core i7-6800K (78%)
Apple M1 (100%)

Cinebench R23 (Single-Core)

Cinebench R23 is the successor of Cinebench R20 and is also based on the Cinema 4 Suite. Cinema 4 is a worldwide used software to create 3D forms. The single-core test only uses one CPU core, the amount of cores or hyperthreading ability doesn't count.
Intel Core i7-6800K Intel Core i7-6800K
6C 12T @ 3.60 GHz
949 (63%)
Apple M1 Apple M1
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
1503 (100%)

Cinebench R23 (Multi-Core)

Cinebench R23 is the successor of Cinebench R20 and is also based on the Cinema 4 Suite. Cinema 4 is a worldwide used software to create 3D forms. The multi-core test involves all CPU cores and taks a big advantage of hyperthreading.
Intel Core i7-6800K Intel Core i7-6800K
6C 12T @ 3.40 GHz
6645 (86%)
Apple M1 Apple M1
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
7759 (100%)

Geekbench 5, 64bit (Single-Core)

Geekbench 5 is a cross plattform benchmark that heavily uses the systems memory. A fast memory will push the result a lot. The single-core test only uses one CPU core, the amount of cores or hyperthreading ability doesn't count.
Intel Core i7-6800K Intel Core i7-6800K
6C 12T @ 3.60 GHz
1080 (62%)
Apple M1 Apple M1
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
1742 (100%)

Geekbench 5, 64bit (Multi-Core)

Geekbench 5 is a cross plattform benchmark that heavily uses the systems memory. A fast memory will push the result a lot. The multi-core test involves all CPU cores and taks a big advantage of hyperthreading.
Intel Core i7-6800K Intel Core i7-6800K
6C 12T @ 3.40 GHz
6314 (83%)
Apple M1 Apple M1
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
7650 (100%)

Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)

Geekbench 6 is a benchmark for modern computers, notebooks and smartphones. What is new is an optimized utilization of newer CPU architectures, e.g. based on the big.LITTLE concept and combining CPU cores of different sizes. The single-core benchmark only evaluates the performance of the fastest CPU core, the number of CPU cores in a processor is irrelevant here.
Intel Core i7-6800K Intel Core i7-6800K
6C 12T @ 3.60 GHz
1267 (53%)
Apple M1 Apple M1
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
2369 (100%)

Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)

Geekbench 6 is a benchmark for modern computers, notebooks and smartphones. What is new is an optimized utilization of newer CPU architectures, e.g. based on the big.LITTLE concept and combining CPU cores of different sizes. The multi-core benchmark evaluates the performance of all of the processor's CPU cores. Virtual thread improvements such as AMD SMT or Intel's Hyper-Threading have a positive impact on the benchmark result.
Intel Core i7-6800K Intel Core i7-6800K
6C 12T @ 3.40 GHz
5960 (69%)
Apple M1 Apple M1
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
8576 (100%)

Estimated results for PassMark CPU Mark

Some of the CPUs listed below have been benchmarked by CPU-monkey. However the majority of CPUs have not been tested and the results have been estimated by a CPU-monkey’s secret proprietary formula. As such they do not accurately reflect the actual Passmark CPU mark values and are not endorsed by PassMark Software Pty Ltd.
Intel Core i7-6800K Intel Core i7-6800K
6C 12T @ 3.40 GHz
10752 (74%)
Apple M1 Apple M1
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
14463 (100%)

Cinebench 2024 (Single-Core)

The Cinebench 2024 benchmark is based on the Redshift rendering engine, which is also used in Maxon's 3D program Cinema 4D. The benchmark runs are each 10 minutes long to test whether the processor is limited by its heat generation.
Intel Core i7-6800K Intel Core i7-6800K
6C 12T @ 3.60 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple M1 Apple M1
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
112 (100%)

Cinebench 2024 (Multi-Core)

The Multi-Core test of the Cinebench 2024 benchmark uses all cpu cores to render using the Redshift rendering engine, which is also used in Maxons Cinema 4D. The benchmark run is 10 minutes long to test whether the processor is limited by its heat generation.
Intel Core i7-6800K Intel Core i7-6800K
6C 12T @ 3.60 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple M1 Apple M1
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
509 (100%)

iGPU - FP32 Performance (Single-precision GFLOPS)

The theoretical computing performance of the internal graphics unit of the processor with simple accuracy (32 bit) in GFLOPS. GFLOPS indicates how many billion floating point operations the iGPU can perform per second.
Intel Core i7-6800K Intel Core i7-6800K
@ 0.00 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple M1 Apple M1
Apple M1 (8 Core) @ 1.30 GHz
2610 (100%)

Blender 3.1 Benchmark

In the Blender Benchmark 3.1, the scenes "monster", "junkshop" and "classroom" are rendered and the time required by the system is measured. In our benchmark we test the CPU and not the graphics card. Blender 3.1 was presented as a standalone version in March 2022.
Intel Core i7-6800K Intel Core i7-6800K
6C 12T @ 3.40 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple M1 Apple M1
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
117 (100%)

Blender 2.81 (bmw27)

Blender is a free 3D graphics software for rendering (creating) 3D bodies, which can also be textured and animated in the software. The Blender benchmark creates predefined scenes and measures the time (s) required for the entire scene. The shorter the time required, the better. We selected bmw27 as the benchmark scene.
Intel Core i7-6800K Intel Core i7-6800K
6C 12T @ 3.40 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple M1 Apple M1
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
314 (100%)

CPU-Z Benchmark 17 (Multi-Core)

The CPU-Z benchmark measures a processor's performance by measuring the time it takes the system to complete all benchmark calculations. The faster the benchmark is completed, the higher the score.
Intel Core i7-6800K Intel Core i7-6800K
6C 12T @ 3.40 GHz
3194 (100%)
Apple M1 Apple M1
8C 8T @ 0.60 GHz
0 (0%)

CPU performance per watt (efficiency)

Efficiency of the processor under full load in the Cinebench R23 (multi-core) benchmark. The benchmark result is divided by the average energy required (CPU package power in watts). The higher the value, the more efficient the CPU is under full load.
Intel Core i7-6800K Intel Core i7-6800K
3.40 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple M1 Apple M1
7,759 CB R23 MC @ 18 W
431 (100%)

Performance for Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML)

Processors with the support of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) can process many calculations, especially audio, image and video processing, much faster than classic processors. The performance is given in the number (trillions) of arithmetic operations per second (TOPS).
Intel Core i7-6800K Intel Core i7-6800K
6C 12T @ 3.40 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple M1 Apple M1
8C 8T @ 0.60 GHz
11 (100%)

Devices using this processor

Intel Core i7-6800K Apple M1
Unknown Apple iMac 24 (2021)
Apple MacBook Pro 13 (L2020)
Apple MacBook Air (2020)
Apple Mac mini (2020)
Apple iPad Pro 11 (2021)
Apple iPad Pro 12.9 (2021)
Apple iPad Air (2022)

News and articles for the Intel Core i7-6800K and the Apple M1


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