Intel Core i7-6900K Benchmark, Test and specs

Last updated: 2024-04-16

The Intel Core i7-6900K has 8 cores with 16 threads and is based on the 6. gen of the Intel Core i7 Extreme Edition series. The processor uses a mainboard with the LGA 2011-3 socket and was released in Q2/2016. The Intel Core i7-6900K scores 1,086 points in the Geekbench 5 single-core benchmark. In the Geekbench 5 multi-core benchmark, the result is 7,651 points.

CPU lineage
The segment in which we have classified the Intel Core i7-6900K. Here you can see if it is a desktop processor or a mobile processor or which processor may be the successor of the Intel Core i7-6900K.
Name:	Intel Core i7-6900K
Family:	Intel Core i7 Extreme Edition (24)
CPU group:	Intel Core i 6000 (24)
Architecture:	Skylake S
Segment:	Desktop / Server
Generation:	6
Predecessor:	--
Successor:	--

CPU Cores and Base Frequency

The Intel Core i7-6900K has 8 CPU cores and can calculate 16 threads in parallel. The clock frequency of the Intel Core i7-6900K is 3.20 GHz (3.70 GHz). The number of CPU cores greatly affects the speed of the processor and is an important performance indicator.

CPU Cores / Threads:	8 / 16
Core architecture:	normal
Cores:	8x

Hyperthreading / SMT:	Yes
Overclocking:	Yes
Frequency:	3.20 GHz
Turbo Frequency (1 Core):	3.70 GHz
Turbo Frequency (8 Cores):	--

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.

AI hardware:	--
AI specifications:	--

Internal Graphics

The Intel Core i7-6900K has integrated graphics, called iGPU for short. Specifically, the Intel Core i7-6900K uses the no iGPU, which has -- texture shaders and -- execution units. The iGPU uses the system's main memory as graphics memory and sits on the processor's die.

GPU name:	no iGPU
GPU frequency:
GPU (Turbo):	No turbo
Compute units:	--
Shader:	--
Hardware Raytracing:	No
Release date:

Max. displays:
Generation:	--
Direct X:	--
Technology:
Max. GPU Memory:	--
Frame Generation:	No

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.

h265 / HEVC (8 bit):	No
h265 / HEVC (10 bit):	No
h264:	No
VP8:	No
VP9:	No

AV1:	No
AVC:	No
VC-1:	No
JPEG:	No

Memory type:	Memory bandwidth:
Memory & PCIe The processor can use up to 128 GB memory in 4 (Quad Channel) memory channels. The maximum memory bandwidth is 76.8 GB/s. The memory type as well as the amount of memory can greatly affect the speed of the system.

DDR4-2400	76.8 GB/s
Max. Memory:	128 GB
Memory channels:	4 (Quad Channel)
ECC:	No
PCIe:	3.0 x 40
PCIe Bandwidth:	39.4 GB/s

Thermal Management The thermal design power (TDP for short) of the processor is 140 W. The TDP specifies the necessary cooling solution that is required to cool the processor sufficiently. The TDP usually gives a rough idea of the actual power consumption of the CPU.

TDP (PL1 / PBP):	140 W
TDP (PL2):	--
TDP up:	--
TDP down:	--
Tjunction max.:	--

Technical details

The Intel Core i7-6900K is made in 14 nm. The smaller the manufacturing process of a CPU, the more modern and energy-efficient it is. Overall, the processor has 20.00 MB cache. A large cache can greatly speed up the processor's speed in some cases such as games.

Technology:	14 nm
Chip design:	Monolithic
Socket:	LGA 2011-3
L2-Cache:	--
L3-Cache:	20.00 MB
AES-NI:	Yes
Operating systems:	Windows 10, Linux

Virtualization:	VT-x, VT-x EPT, VT-d
Instruction set (ISA):	x86-64 (64 bit)
ISA extensions:	SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AVX2
Release date:	Q2/2016
Release price:	--
Part Number:	--
Documents:	Technical data sheet

Intel Core i7-6900K
8C 16T @ 3.20 GHz (3.70 GHz)

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Benchmark results

The benchmark results for the Intel Core i7-6900K have been carefully checked by us. We only publish benchmark results that have been created by us or that have been submitted by a visitor and then checked by a team member. All results are based on and fullfill our benchmark guidelines.

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 i9-9880H 8C 16T @ 4.80 GHz	1162
	Intel Core i5-10500H 6C 12T @ 4.50 GHz	1161
	Intel Core i7-1065G7 4C 8T @ 3.90 GHz	1153
	Intel Core i7-6900K 8C 16T @ 3.70 GHz	1151
	AMD Ryzen 5 4500U 6C 6T @ 4.00 GHz	1151
	Intel Core i7-10810U 6C 12T @ 4.90 GHz	1147
	Intel Core i5-10300H 4C 8T @ 4.50 GHz	1147

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 Xeon W-2150B 10C 20T @ 3.70 GHz	11463
	Intel Core i7-1260P 12C 16T @ 3.10 GHz	11420
	Intel Core i7-1270P 12C 16T @ 3.20 GHz	11336
	Intel Core i7-6900K 8C 16T @ 3.20 GHz	11326
	Intel Core i5-1250P 12C 16T @ 2.70 GHz	11280
	Intel Core i5-11600KF 6C 12T @ 4.60 GHz	11277
	Intel Core i5-11600K 6C 12T @ 4.60 GHz	11277

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 Xeon E5-1660 v3 8C 16T @ 3.50 GHz	1088
	Intel Xeon Gold 5220 18C 36T @ 3.90 GHz	1087
	Intel Xeon Gold 6212U 24C 48T @ 3.90 GHz	1087
	Intel Core i7-6900K 8C 16T @ 3.70 GHz	1086
	Intel Core i5-8500B 6C 6T @ 4.10 GHz	1086
	AMD EPYC 7282 16C 32T @ 3.20 GHz	1086
	Intel Core i5-8500 6C 6T @ 4.10 GHz	1086

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 i9-11900T 8C 16T @ 3.60 GHz	7680
	Intel Xeon Silver 4215R 8C 16T @ 3.80 GHz	7658
	AMD Ryzen 9 5980HS 8C 16T @ 4.00 GHz	7656
	Intel Core i7-6900K 8C 16T @ 3.20 GHz	7651
	Apple M1 (7-GPU) 8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz	7650
	Apple M1 8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz	7650
	AMD Ryzen Embedded V2546 6C 12T @ 3.00 GHz	7647

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 i7-7660U 2C 4T @ 4.00 GHz	1258
	AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2950X 16C 32T @ 4.40 GHz	1255
	Intel Core i5-8279U 4C 8T @ 4.10 GHz	1255
	Intel Core i7-6900K 8C 16T @ 3.70 GHz	1254
	AMD Ryzen 7 4700S 8C 16T @ 4.00 GHz	1254
	AMD EPYC 7232P 8C 16T @ 3.20 GHz	1254
	Intel Core i5-8300H 4C 8T @ 4.00 GHz	1254

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 Xeon Gold 6134 8C 16T @ 3.50 GHz	7488
	AMD EPYC 7351P 16C 32T @ 2.90 GHz	7485
	Intel Core i9-10900T 10C 20T @ 3.70 GHz	7476
	Intel Core i7-6900K 8C 16T @ 3.20 GHz	7471
	Apple A17 Pro 6C 6T @ 3.78 GHz	7462
	Intel Core i3-12100F 4C 8T @ 4.00 GHz	7428
	Intel Core i3-12100 4C 8T @ 4.00 GHz	7428

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 i7-9700K 8C 8T @ 4.60 GHz	14555
	Intel Core i9-9980HK 8C 16T @ 3.40 GHz	14481
	Intel Core i7-8086K 6C 12T @ 4.30 GHz	14480
	Intel Core i7-6900K 8C 16T @ 3.20 GHz	14474
	Intel Xeon W-1250P 6C 12T @ 4.60 GHz	14467
	Apple M1 (7-GPU) 8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz	14463
	Apple M1 8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz	14463

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 i7-9800X 8C 16T @ 3.80 GHz	4467
	AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D 6C 12T @ 3.30 GHz	4436
	Intel Xeon E-2286M 8C 16T @ 2.40 GHz	4421
	Intel Core i7-6900K 8C 16T @ 3.20 GHz	4402
	Intel Core i7-7820X 8C 16T @ 3.60 GHz	4398
	Intel Core i5-11600 6C 12T @ 2.80 GHz	4383
	AMD Ryzen 7 5800U 8C 16T @ 1.90 GHz	4314

Benchmarks

Cinebench R23 (SC)
586 entries

Cinebench R23 (MC)
565 entries

Geekbench 5 (SC)
2,488 entries

Geekbench 5 (MC)
2,461 entries

Geekbench 6 (SC)
1,755 entries

Geekbench 6 (MC)
1,703 entries

PassMark CPU-Mark
2,392 entries

CPU-Z Benchmark 17 (MC)
733 entries

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