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With the massive growth of VR and hard hitting titles coming out this time of the year, now is a better time than ever to upgrade and future proof your PC. Of course, one of the first and most important parts to consider when building and upgrading is the brains of your battlestation, the processor. Whether you’re looking to dive into Civilization VI, Battlefield 1 or Titanfall 2, here’s why you should check out our choice for the perfect gaming CPU currently available.
The Intel® Core™ i7-6700K may be over a year old but it still remains one of our top recommendations for PC gaming. The 6th generation king is more than capable of handling the latest PC games with its generous base clock of 4.0GHz, excellent overclocking potential and moderate power consumption. And with Intel’s 7th generation Kaby Lake desktop CPUs expected to launch in January, pricing on the Intel® Core™ i7-6700K is as competitive as ever.
Most of the modern PC games launching this month are recommending a 3.5GHz or faster processor for optimal performance. The Intel® Core™ i7-6700K offers a turbo-boost up to 4.2GHz for more than enough power. Luckily for us enthusiast gamers, the Intel® Core™ i7-6700K was engineered with performance in mind and unlocked to allow full overclocking. With a basic cooler and simple tweaks, a 4.4-4.5GHz overclock is easily achieved with minimal voltage increases. A powerful aftermarket air or liquid cooler will even allow you to achieve a stable 4.7GHz, which is more than enough for the toughest 4K gaming requirements.
One of the biggest differences between Intel® Core™ i5 and i7 CPUs is support for Hyper-Threading. To put it as simply as possible, hyper-threading allows Intel® Core™i7 processors to run multiple threads on each core. This allows the processor to use its resources more efficiently, increasing overall performance especially when running demanding applications and multitasking. While most older games don’t make much use of multiple cores and Hyper-Threading, the introduction of DirectX 12 has made hyper-threading and the Intel® Core™ i7-6700K much more desirable. Since games utilizing DirectX 12 make much higher use of multiple threads and cores, we’ve seen massive performance increases of 15-20% with the Intel® Core™ i7-6700K.
If you’re running on a Core i3, Core i5 or even an older generation Core i7, upgrading to the Core i7-6700K will go a very long way. Intel’s 6th generation Skylake processors introduced the new LGA 1151 socket and Z170 chipset which make the high-end Intel® Core™ i7-6700K the perfect choice for future proofing your rig. Compared to its Z97 and older predecessors, the Z170 chipset supports a wide range of new features that any PC gamer and enthusiast can appreciate.
Most Z170 boards come equipped with M.2 ports to support the latest and fastest NVMe SSD technology available, such as Samsung’s ridiculously fast 950 and 960 PRO. It’s also one of the first chipsets to support the faster DDR4 RAM speeds exceeding 4000MHz. And with DDR4 prices finally as competitive as DDR3 was, now is a great time to make the switch. Rounding out the theme of increased speed, the Z170 chipset also features USB 3.1 support to ensure your rig is ready for the fastest USB devices on the market.
Whether you’re looking to build a brand new system or upgrade your trusty rig, look no further than the Intel® Core™ i7-6700K for future proof PC gaming. With prices now as low as £319, the award winning CPU is ready to make your dream build come true.
