Don't forget, at least half of that is the useless for a lot of us IGP. That means we are really paying $350 for a 60mm2 die. :sneaky:
The "higher costs" argument is propagandist BS.
"gross margin of
62.5%" <<< way way higher than Apple's >>>
http://www.intc.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=922294
Intel can easily sell us a $299 6-core Skylake-K but they won't because there is little competition. We just have to wait patiently until 5820K's successor shows up for a slight premium.
It's appalling they still keep cheaping out on solder and use $3 TIM:
"Intel fixed the Haswell problem by implementing its Next-Generation Polymer Thermal Interface Material (NGPTIM) on Devil’s Canyon, which resulted in a temperature decrease of more than 10% in our testing. That still doesn’t deviate from the point that any form of polymer TIM is, almost certainly, less thermally conductive and effective than the solder that HEDT chips use." ~
Source
No wonder so many reviewers are hitting 80-90C at full load on even Corsair H100/110 and Noctua NH-D15. For someone planning on running distributed computing, rendering, encoding where the entire CPU will be loaded to 99% for hours at a time, this is a big deal. Skylake-E is bound to follow in the footsteps of HW-E with proper solder.
The turbo is not the same according to some reviewers. Some report that Skylake is able to clock all the cores at maximum boost on certain boards. Since there isn't many Z170 motherboard reviews to know which boards are allowing this, it's hard to make conclusive remarks if the comparison of stock vs. stock Skylake vs. Haswell/IVB/SB is apples-to-apples IPC comparison.
Secondly, you continue to cherry-pick data to suit your viewpoint.
Not all games were tested on Ultra with high levels of AA. Some games were only tested on High and with FXAA. If someone is using a GPU as powerful as Titan X OC at 1080P, they could easily use DSR at 1080P instead of playing Shadow of Mordor at 126.6 on 2500K or 132.7 on a 6600K.
Actually breaking down all of those benchmarks reveals that besides GTA V, that was tested without AA (in other words a useless real world test again), 6600K is not an upgrade for gaming over 2000/3000/4000 series CPUs. That is because in all cases even a stock 2500K is > 60 fps.
It gets even worse since many 2500K/2600K CPUs can do 4.5-4.8Ghz overclocks, 3770K can do 4.5-4.7Ghz too.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2015-intel-skylake-core-i5-6600k-review
In other words, what I keep saying is still true:
It's
still better to get an even faster GPU, get a 2nd GPU, get a larger SSD, get a better/bigger/more modern FreeSync/GSync monitor rather to upgrade to Skylake. All of those upgrades are more beneficial for gaming. For example upgrading from a 22-24" 1080P monitor to a 27-32" 1440P one is a way better upgrade than moving from SB/IVB/HW to Skylake.
Besides, how many gamers have a 980Ti/Fury X or Titan X level of GPU? For most gamers with 2500K-4790K, unless they already have a GPU that powerful, Skylake upgrade is a waste of $ for gaming; and again showing us a comparison of stock SB/IVB/HW against Skylake isn't a real world scenario for many of us running those CPUs at 4.5Ghz+.
Also, with
DX12 gaming, we could start to see even more games start taking advantage of 6-8 cores.
I agree with IDontCare's post but I think I am also on board with waiting for Skylake-E. For a bit more $ than i7-6700K, it'll be 2 more cores that are bound to come in handy. If someone is building a new rig now for school/work and cannot wait for Skylake-E, 6700K is a great choice and of course better than 4790K.
Ya, sorry that was a type. Glad you guys caught that.
It's $450 but it doesn't change the main theme. The overall price of X99+5820K vs. Z170 board+6700K could be fairly close at places like MicroCenter. For those gamers who have access to this store, the decision isn't as easy.
Canada had the Asrock X99M for sale for
$140 CDN (~$106 USD+tax) for more than a month. 5820K regularly sells for $499 CDN which is just $50 more than 6700K, but since it's been out for so long, it's not hard to find them on Craiglist/Kijiji for $420-430, less than what the i7-6700K costs.
For someone in the US, it's going to be even easier to find 5820K+X99 boards given how long they've been on the market and how competitive US prices are.