The Sandy Bridge Upgrade Question

Alien Isolation 1,920 x 1,080, ultra settings, SMAA T2x, 16x AF Intel Core i7-6700K (4.8GHz)

Intel Core i7-6700K (4GHz)

Intel Core i7-2600K (4.8GHz)

Intel Core i7-2600K(3.4GHz) 125 154

124 153

123 140

116 139

0 25 50 75 100 125 150 frames per second, higher is better Minimum

Average

Bioshock Infinite 1,920 x 1,080, Very High settings Intel Core i7-6700K (4.8GHz)

Intel Core i7-6700K (4GHz)

Intel Core i7-2600K (4.8GHz)

Intel Core i7-2600K (3.4GHz) 157 178

157 176

155 172

145 173

0 50 100 150 200 frames per second, higher is better Minimum

Average

Unigine Valley 1,920 x 1,080, High settings Intel Core i7-6700K (4GHz/4.8GHz)

Intel Core i7-2600K (3.4GHz/4.8GHz) 4769 4943

4406 4797

0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 Score, higher is better Stock

Overclocked

We've maintained for at least two generations that if you're buying a new PC, the latest tech was the way to go. While we haven't seen the kind of performance increases we saw with Sandy Bridge based CPUs and their predecessors, Intel has consistently increased performance moving from one generation to the next. The exception is Broadwell, which is an oddball to say the least - it has excellent, AMD-beating IGP performance but it's slower and more expensive than what is technically its predecessor - the Core i7-4790K. We digress - the fact of the matter is that these incremental speed bumps across the rest of the family mean that eventually it becomes worth upgrading too.The question that everyone usually asks though is how their 4.8GHz Sandy Bridge CPU fairs against the latest and greatest? Well, we've put together a selection of benchmarks and dug out an old Core i7-2600K, which we've overclocked to the same level as the Core i7-6700K to see just what differences you'll see both at stock speed and when the two CPUs are overclocked to the same frequency.Head over the page for more comparisons between Sandy Bridge and Skylake