The motherboard for this review, the Gigabyte Z170X-UD5 takes advantage of the added PCI-E lanes, sporting two M.2 slots, three SATA Express ports, and a USB 3.1 controller with both a 3.1 and Type-C connector at the back. The integrated graphics also now offers hardware decoding for the new HEVC/H.265 video codec as well as encoding through Intel’s Quick Sync feature. For Skylake, the responsibility of voltage regulation is returned to the motherboard, reducing the thermal load placed on the processor itself. Under the hood, the biggest change is the removal of the integrated voltage regulator, which improved efficiency and lowered costs but ultimately generated too much heat at high clock speeds, limiting the overclockability of Haswell/Broadwell chips. Standard DDR3 is not officially supported as its voltage range is higher but there are a handful of models offering the regular standard.
For Skylake motherboard makers have the choice between dual channel DDR4 and DDR3L memory. It’s equipped with an additional four execution units, and in all likelihood, will be paired with faster DDR4 memory. Intel Graphics HD 530, the successor to HD 4600, should deliver a noticeable performance increase despite having a slightly lower maximum clock speed. The new processors are 91W parts, slightly higher than the last generation, possibly due to the upgraded integrated graphics. The i5-6600K appears to be the direct analog of the popular i5-4690K while the i7-6700K is similar to the i7-4790K, except for an unusually low Turbo Boost of just 200 MHz. As usual, the differentiation between Core i7’s and i5’s is the presence of Hyper-threading and the amount of 元 cache. For the initial launch, Intel has chosen to put its best foot forward, presenting a pair of “K” series chips with unlocked multipliers aimed at enthusiasts first and foremost.
Skylake is the codename for this year’s tock, built on the same 14 nm process as Broadwell, but offered to mainstream desktop users in a new socket with an extra pin, LGA1151.
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