When comparing Intel i7-6700K vs AMD FX-8350 Black Edition, the Slant community recommends Intel i7-6700K for most people. In the question“What are the best CPUs for desktop gaming?” Intel i7-6700K is ranked 4th while AMD FX-8350 Black Edition is ranked 6th. The most important reason people chose Intel i7-6700K is:
Being a Skylake 6th generation CPU this chip is able to be used with DDR4 RAM as this is what the new LGA 1151 based motherboards are able to use. DDR4 is available in faster speeds over DDR3 RAM (what was used with previous generation CPUs) meaning an overall speed bump in RAM when using this newer technological chip.
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Pros
Pro Able to be paired with DDR4 RAM
Being a Skylake 6th generation CPU this chip is able to be used with DDR4 RAM as this is what the new LGA 1151 based motherboards are able to use. DDR4 is available in faster speeds over DDR3 RAM (what was used with previous generation CPUs) meaning an overall speed bump in RAM when using this newer technological chip.
Pro Can allow for extreme gaming solutions
The chip itself allows for 16 PCIe 3.0 lanes (which was not available in such high numbers in the previous generation chips). This translates into how many PCIe devices can be used at the same time and how fast they can communicate, which makes for a scenario where multiple PCIe GPUs can be used at their top transfer speed of 16x for one and 8x for two.
Pro Easy to overclock
For those interested, this CPU is easily overclockable, which allows for more performance. A third party cooler is recommended, but can be worth it in order to squeeze a bit more out of this chip.
Pro High amount of cores
This is good for games that can utilize multithreading using more than 4 cores in a CPU, meaning better performance. While there are very few games that take advantage of this, the few that do should work quite well.
Cons
Con Does not come with a heatsink
No longer does Intel include a heatsink with their new CPUs, so the user will have to purchase their own. While they are not too expensive, that basically means out of the box this can not be used unless a purchase was made for a heatsink along with this item.
Con Adds another pin to the connection
This processor uses the LGA 1151 CPU socket. For those upgrading from an older generation chip this means the will need to purchase a new motherboard and possibly RAM in order to use this chip. This can be expensive to replace so many components all for a single new pin in the chips connection. While the performance will be better than the last generation, it may not be worth the price of all new gear to see this performance.
Con Power hungry with high heat
This chip uses quite a bit of power when compared to a similar performing chip from Intel, which could mean a higher power bill in the long run. The high power consumption also leads to a lot of heat generated from this chip. While a third party cooler can help with this (and is recommended as the stock cooler is loud and does a poor job of cooling), it is an extra cost to using this chip efficiently.
Con Not the best at single threaded tasks
Considering most games are single threaded using a CPU that does not work as well with them as Intle may be a detriment to ones experience. While this CPU can handle plenty of games it may come down to price for performance whether it is worth it in a hardcore gaming rig.