Intel Core i7-6900K Processor Review

By Nathan Kirsch

Final Thoughts and Conclusions

The Intel Core i7-6900K is a very capable consumer desktop processor since it has 8-cores and is perfectly suited for power users and researchers that are crunching highly threaded workloads all day long. If you are looking for the fastest processor around that would still be the Intel Core i7-6950X, but most people have a budget they need to adhere to and that is where we feel the Intel Core i7-6900K comes into the picture. At $1635 shipped, the Intel Core i7-6950X is a bit much for most people. The Intel Core i7-6900K at $1030 shipped will give you a couple extra cores and significantly improved performance on heavy workloads for over $600 less than Intel’s flagship part.


Intel Core i7-6900K ProcessorThe million dollar question is how will the Intel Core i7-6900K hold up against AMD’s upcoming Ryzen processors. We can’t answer that just yet, but the latest rumors have AMD’s flagship Ryzen processor priced at around $749 and AMD’s CEO stated they Ryzen will have a higher ASP (average selling price) than the current CPU offerings. If, AMD Ryzen is competitive and priced $250 lower than Intel we can see that competition forcing some price changes by Intel in the months ahead. We found the Intel Core i7-6900K to be an impressive processor, but with AMD Ryzen coming in just weeks with the promise of similar performance we suggest waiting for it to be released before you pull the trigger on a $1000+ processor. The Intel Core i7-6900K has been out since Q2 2016 and is almost a year old, so waiting 3-4 weeks to see what the real Ryzen numbers are from independent review sites like this one is advised. The AMD Ryzen R7 1800X is supposed to be the flagship processor that is a direct competitor to the Intel Core i7-6900K and we hope to have that review for you to see in the next 30 days or less!

Legit Bottom Line: The Intel Core i7-6900K processor is a beast, but it will be interesting to see how it performs against the AMD Ryzen R7 1800X processor next month when AMD finally re-enters the high-performance CPU market.