Why Is the 6700K $130 More Than 6600K?

[Alyus]

It used to be only $100.00 more for previous generations. Is it because there was a shortage of 6700K?

 

[synphul]

I'm seeing $100 more. Currently the i5 6600k is at $248.95 from amazon and the i7 6700k is $350 from amazon. Quite a price hike considering it's $32 more than the previous i7 4790k at the moment coupled with the fact it doesn't even include a stock cooler so the profits are higher than the $32 face value.

 

[Alyus]

Hey, should I get a 6700K over 6600K for gaming? I plan to keep the CPU for 4 years; just want to make sure that I'm not trashing $100 bucks if I don't use its full capabilities. My games are GPU intensive not CPU.

 

[synphul]

The i5's and i7's are pretty close in performance to begin with, especially in gaming. There's very little difference between the 4790k, 6700k, 6600k etc. Skylake is the most recent but aside from a few platform updates, dmi3, additional m.2 support, ddr4 etc you're going to see higher pricetags with little performance gain on skylake vs haswell/devil's canyon. What games will or won't do in 2, 3 or 4 years is anyone's best guess. Nobody can say with any certainty.

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/core_i7_6700k_processor_review_desktop_skylake,16.html
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2015/08/05/intel_skylake_core_i76700k_ipc_overclocking_review/6#.Vg4UXhFVhBc
http://www.pcgamer.com/intel-skylake-i7-6700k-tested-a-smart-upgrade-despite-small-gaming-gains/

I'd say go with the 6600k if you're going skylake for gaming. It does come with a premium pricetag though, more expensive than the previous i5's/i7's and no stock cooler so aftermarket coolers are mandatory.

 

[Tradesman1]

It's sort of a bet, more or less in these upcoming years as far as how much games will increase the use of additional threads or Hyper threading. The i7 has it the i5 doesn't which is the biggest reason for the additional cost

 

[smorizio]

also do to intel teething issue on 14mm chips. there a shortage of skylake and there also the newer brodwell chips eating up fabs. if you do go with skylake wait till after the new year when they get the stocking level up.

 

[Deuce65]

The listed Intel MSRP on the 6700k is $350; for the 6600k is it $243. In other words, Intel is setting these prices on purpose, this is not retailers taking advantage of short supply. Obviously no one can predict the future and say what prices will be later on, however, typically, Intel does not under any circumstances lower the MSRP of their CPUs, ever. As such, I would expect that whatever prices you are seeing now are what you will see forever, with the exception of retailers like Microcenter who typically sell below MSRP.