Intel
Intel Core i5-6500
Skylake's mainstream 65 W quad-core: four cores, four threads, a locked multiplier and Intel's first DDR4 memory controller outside the X99 enthusiast platform. It was the default office and 1080p gaming chip of 2015-2016, and in 2026 it is a used-market part whose four threads are the hard ceiling on anything modern.
Pros
- Four full cores at 3.2 GHz base / 3.6 GHz turbo inside a 65 W envelope
- Retail box includes a stock cooler, so nothing extra to buy
- HD Graphics 530 drives displays and decodes H.264 without a discrete GPU
- Board makers offered both DDR4 and DDR3L versions, so cheap 100/200-series motherboards fit
- Runs in any 100- or 200-series board (BIOS update aside), and both are plentiful and cheap used
Cons
- Four threads only - modern games, streaming overlays and background tasks cause frame-time stutter
- Locked multiplier: no meaningful overclocking, and BCLK tricks need a Z-series board
- Not on Microsoft's Windows 11 supported-CPU list; 8th gen is the cutoff
- Spectre/Meltdown microcode mitigations cost this generation measurable performance
Below average
Computed from specs & benchmarks via our public methodology.
Full specifications
Everything we track for the Intel Core i5-6500
General
- Announced
- 2015
- Socket
- LGA1151
- Process
- 14 nm
- Base TDP
- 65 W
- Unlocked multiplier
- No
- Cooler included
- Yes
Cores & Clocks
- Cores
- 4
- Performance cores
- 4
- Efficiency cores
- 0
- Threads
- 4
- Base clock
- 3.2 GHz
- Boost clock
- 3.6 GHz
- L2 cache
- 1 MB
- L3 cache
- 6 MB
Integrated GPU
- iGPU
- Intel HD Graphics 530
- iGPU clock
- 1,050 MHz
Memory
- Memory support
- DDR4-2133 / DDR3L-1600
- Max memory
- 64 GB
- Memory channels
- 2
Platform
- PCIe version
- 3
- CPU PCIe lanes
- 16
Benchmarks
- Geekbench 6 (single)
- 1,180
- Geekbench 6 (multi)
- 3,050
- Cinebench R23 (multi)
- 3,500
- PassMark
- 5,600
Quick answers
Is the Intel Core i5-6500 good in 2026?
The Intel Core i5-6500 earns an Inno Score of 23.5/100 (“Below average”) based on its specs and benchmark results. Skylake's mainstream 65 W quad-core: four cores, four threads, a locked multiplier and Intel's first DDR4 memory controller outside the X99 enthusiast platform. It was the default office and 1080p gaming chip of 2015-2016, and in 2026 it is a used-market part whose four threads are the hard ceiling on anything modern.
What are the key specs of the Intel Core i5-6500?
Cores: 4 · Threads: 4 · Boost clock: 3.6 GHz · Socket: LGA1151
What are the closest alternatives to the Intel Core i5-6500?
Its closest rivals on InnoReviews are Intel Core i5-4690K, Intel Core i7-3770, Intel Core i3-8100 — open the comparison pages for a spec-by-spec breakdown.