Core i7-6850K: specs and benchmarks

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Aggregate performance score

Core i7-6850K
2016
6 cores / 12 threads, 140 Watt
7.21

Core i7-6850K provides acceptable benchmark performance at 7.21% of a leader's which is a 96-core EPYC 9655P.

Summary

Intel started Core i7-6850K sales 31 May 2016 at a recommended price of $475. This is a Broadwell-E architecture desktop processor primarily aimed at office systems. It has 6 cores and 12 threads, and is based on 14 nm manufacturing technology, with a max turbo frequency of 4000 MHz and an unlocked multiplier.

Compatibility-wise, this is FCLGA2011 processor with a TDP of 140 Watt and a maximum temperature of 72 °C. It supports DDR4 memory.

Primary details

Core i7-6850K processor market type (desktop or notebook), architecture, sales start time and pricing.

Place in the ranking985
Place by popularitynot in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation1.40
Market segmentDesktop processor
Power efficiency4.87of 100.00 (Core Ultra 7 164U)
Architecture codenameBroadwell-E (2016)
Release date31 May 2016 (8 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)$475of 17,906 (Xeon Platinum 8280L)

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance per price, higher is better.

Detailed specifications

Basic microprocessor parameters such as number of cores, number of threads, base frequency and turbo boost clock, lithography, cache size and multiplier lock state. These parameters can generally indicate CPU performance, but to be more precise you have to review its test results.

Physical cores6 (Hexa-Core)
Threads12
Base clock speed3.6 GHzof 4.7 GHz (FX-9590)
Boost clock speed4 GHzof 6.2 GHz (Core i9-14900KS)
L1 cache32 KB (per core)of 80 KB (EPYC 9965)
L2 cache256 KB (per core)
L3 cache15 MB (shared)of 1152 MB (EPYC 9684X)
Chip lithography14 nmof 3 nm (Apple M3 Max 16-Core)
Maximum case temperature (TCase)72 °Cof 105 °C (Core i7-5950HQ)
64 bit support+
Windows 11 compatibility-
Unlocked multiplier+

Compatibility

Information on Core i7-6850K compatibility with other computer components and devices: motherboard (look for socket type), power supply unit (look for power consumption) etc. Useful when planning a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. Note that power consumption of some processors can well exceed their nominal TDP, even without overclocking. Some can even double their declared thermals given that the motherboard allows to tune the CPU power parameters.

Number of CPUs in a configuration1of 8 (Opteron 842)
SocketFCLGA2011
Power consumption (TDP)140 Wattof 3100 ‑ 4500 (Ryzen 7 7435H)

Technologies and extensions

Technological capabilities and additional instructions supported by Core i7-6850K. You'll probably need this information if you require some particular technology.

AES-NI+
AVX+
Enhanced SpeedStep (EIST)+
Turbo Boost Technology2.0
Hyper-Threading Technology+
Idle States+
Smart Response+
Turbo Boost Max 3.0+

Security technologies

Processor technologies aimed at improving security, for example, by protecting against hacks.

TXT+
EDB+

Virtualization technologies

Supported virtual machine optimization technologies. Some are specific to Intel only, some to AMD.

VT-d+
VT-x+
EPT+

Memory specs

Types, maximum amount and channel number of RAM supported by Core i7-6850K's memory controller. Depending on the motherboard, higher memory frequency may be supported.

Supported memory typesDDR4
Maximum memory size128 GBof 6 TiB (EPYC 9124)
Max memory channels4of 12 (Xeon Platinum 9221)

Peripherals

Specifications and connection types of supported peripherals.

PCIe version3.0of 5.0 (Core i9-12900K)
PCI Express lanes40of 128 (EPYC 7551P)

Benchmark performance

Single-core and multi-core benchmark results of Core i7-6850K. Overall benchmark performance is measured in points in 0-100 range, higher is better.


Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark performance rating. We are regularly improving our combining algorithms, but if you find some perceived inconsistencies, feel free to speak up in comments section, we usually fix problems quickly.

i7-6850K 7.21

Passmark

Passmark CPU Mark is a widespread benchmark, consisting of 8 different types of workload, including integer and floating point math, extended instructions, compression, encryption and physics calculation. There is also one separate single-threaded scenario measuring single-core performance.

i7-6850K 11460

GeekBench 5 Single-Core

GeekBench 5 Single-Core is a cross-platform application developed in the form of CPU tests that independently recreate certain real-world tasks with which to accurately measure performance. This version uses only a single CPU core.

i7-6850K 1287

GeekBench 5 Multi-Core

GeekBench 5 Multi-Core is a cross-platform application developed in the form of CPU tests that independently recreate certain real-world tasks with which to accurately measure performance. This version uses all available CPU cores.

i7-6850K 5827

3DMark Fire Strike Physics

i7-6850K 15290

Gaming performance

Closest competitors

Core i7-6850K's performance relative to its closest rivals among desktop CPUs.


Core i7-8700B 103.61
Core i7-6850K 100
Ryzen 3 4100 96.39

AMD equivalent

According to our data, the closest AMD alternative to Core i7-6850K is Ryzen 3 4300GE, which is slower by 2% and lower by 12 positions in our ranking.

Here are some closest AMD rivals to Core i7-6850K:

Ryzen 5 1600 107.21
Ryzen 3 3100 104.16
Core i7-6850K 100
Ryzen 3 4100 96.39

Similar processors

Here is our recommendation of several processors that are more or less close in performance to the one reviewed.

Recommended GPUs

People consider these graphics cards to be good for Core i7-6850K, according to our PC configuration statistics.

These are the fastest graphics cards for Core i7-6850K in our user configuration statistics. There is a total of 251 configurations using Core i7-6850K in our database.

All comparisons with Core i7-6850K

Community ratings

Here is the rating given to the reviewed processor by our users. Let others know your opinion by rating it yourself.


4.3 152 votes

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Questions & comments

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