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Intel Core i7-6500U
A 15W dual-core ultrabook chip from 2015, part of the first wave of Skylake mobile processors. Two Hyper-Threaded cores and HD Graphics 520 handle browsing and office work comfortably, but sustained multi-threaded loads leave it well behind any modern quad-core U-series chip.
Pros
- Efficient 15W envelope suited to fanless, thin-and-light laptops
- Turbo Boost reaches 3.1GHz for quick single-core bursts
- HD Graphics 520 covers everyday media and light gaming
- Broad DDR4/DDR3L memory support gave OEMs design flexibility
Cons
- Only two cores and four threads, far behind later quad-core U-series chips
- Modest generational gain in performance per clock over the Haswell/Broadwell chips it replaced
- Integrated graphics too weak for current games
- Long discontinued platform with no direct upgrade path
Below average
Computed from specs & benchmarks via our public methodology.
Full specifications
Everything we track for the Intel Core i7-6500U
General
- Announced
- 2015
- Process
- 14 nm
- Base TDP
- 15 W
- Max TDP
- 25 W
Cores & Clocks
- Cores
- 2
- Threads
- 4
- Base clock
- 2.5 GHz
- Boost clock
- 3.1 GHz
- L3 cache
- 4 MB
Integrated GPU
- iGPU
- Intel HD Graphics 520
- iGPU clock
- 1,050 MHz
Memory
- Memory support
- DDR4-2133 / LPDDR3-1866 / DDR3L-1600
- Max memory
- 32 GB
Benchmarks
- PassMark
- 3,276Bottom 4%
- PassMark (single thread)
- 1,686Bottom 4%
- 3DMark Time Spy Graphics (iGPU)
- 263Bottom 3%
Quick answers
Is the Intel Core i7-6500U good in 2026?
The Intel Core i7-6500U earns an Inno Score of 29.1/100 (“Below average”) based on its specs and benchmark results. A 15W dual-core ultrabook chip from 2015, part of the first wave of Skylake mobile processors. Two Hyper-Threaded cores and HD Graphics 520 handle browsing and office work comfortably, but sustained multi-threaded loads leave it well behind any modern quad-core U-series chip.
Does the Intel Core i7-6500U count as "Core i7 or equivalent"?
Its PassMark CPU Mark average is 3,276 (cpubenchmark.net, retrieved Sep 26–Oct 8, 2026), which puts it in Tier D of our CPU tier checker: legacy Core i7 and budget chips, slower than recent Core i5 chips such as the i5-1235U. Requirement pages word this differently, so check the exact wording with your department.
What are the key specs of the Intel Core i7-6500U?
Cores: 2 · Threads: 4 · Boost clock: 3.1 GHz · Base TDP: 15 W
What are the closest alternatives to the Intel Core i7-6500U?
Its closest rivals on InnoReviews are Intel Celeron N4500, Intel Celeron N4020, Intel Core i7-7500U — open the comparison pages for a spec-by-spec breakdown.
