Skylake: Intel's Core i7-6700K And i5-6600K

HD Graphics 530: Workstation

AutoCAD 2015 2D And 3D Performance

We’ve already talked about the way we test AutoCAD. Suffice it to say that the CPU needs to help out quite a bit when it comes to 2D graphics, since this type of acceleration hasn’t been possible through the GPU since Windows Vista. Neither the driver model nor the unified shader architecture provides this functionality.

Of course, that means this benchmark is more dependent on host processing than the graphics card. And sure enough, our benchmarks heavily favor threading on CPUs with a lot of cores.

If the rendering is actually done in 3D, then the order changes dramatically. Broadwell, with its beefy graphics architecture, springs into the lead. Still, Skylake keeps up surprisingly well, given the anemic GT2 configuration. AMD’s APUs just can’t compete as a consequence of their less effective host processing cores.

Maya 2013 (OpenGL)

SPECviewperf uses OpenGL exclusively for its Maya component, manipulating a model made up of 727,500 vertices with shaded, ambient occlusion, multi-sample anti-aliasing and transparency effects.

Graphics processing limits the test's performance, since there isn't much of a CPU load applied. Intel’s Core i7-5770C with Iris Pro 6200 provides up to 36 percent more performance than AMD’s Radeon R7 on the A10-7560K. That'd be a more painful loss of the two chips were closer in price. What hurts more, though, is that Skylake’s HD Graphics 530 are even slower. Anyone looking to use Intel processors in an office and design environment without discrete graphics would probably want to stick with Broadwell or consider other options.

Showcase 2013 (DirectX)

The next benchmark, which we've seen once already, is based on DirectX. Again, the test file for Showcase 2013 uses eight million vertices and, among other capabilities, shading, projected shadows and self-shadowing.

The results make it abundantly clear that integrated graphics make for a lackluster experience. The two Skylake CPUs fit right into this trend with pitiful performance that’s also way worse than Broadwell’s. Then again, all of these contenders are really just theoretical in nature; none of them provide anywhere close to usable performance.

Cinebench R15 (OpenGL)

Finally, Cinebench R15’s OpenGL graphics benchmark puts a bit more emphasis on the CPU.

A quick look at our CPU Charts shows what's possible with a discrete card installed. If, however, you stick with integrated graphics, the on-die engine becomes a distinct bottleneck.

Skylake falls in line between Intel’s Broadwell-based processors and AMD’s APUs once again.