Core i7-6700HQ: CPU benchmarks and laptop guide

The Intel Core i7-6700HQ was the default 45 W processor of mid-decade mainstream laptops — a Skylake quad-core from 2015 that powered budget gaming rigs and mobile workstations alike. The catalog matches it to 7 models, and it meets the recommended CPU requirement in 17 of the 69 tracked games. This guide covers where the chip sits among laptop CPUs, what it brings to a portable, and which laptops carry it.

Where the Core i7-6700HQ sits in 2026

A catalog score of 47.2 places the chip 283rd of 672 scored laptop CPUs — a hair above the middle of a table that spans two decades of silicon. The neighborhood splits between eras: the Core i5-1345U (47.7), Core i7-1365U (47.4) and Ryzen 3 210 (47.3) just above, the Ryzen AI 5 430 (47.2) alongside, and two 2014 H-class quad-cores — the Core i7-4910MQ (47.1) and Core i7-4900MQ (46.9) — just below. Scoring level with modern 13th-gen low-power chips a full decade after release is a fair mid-table showing.

What the chip brings

Skylake-H is a 4-core, 8-thread design on a 14 nm process, rated at 45 W in its HQ configuration: a 2.6 GHz base clock and up to 3.5 GHz boost. The integrated HD Graphics 530 covers display duties in machines without discrete graphics. In public benchmarks the chip posts 1,100 single-core and 3,433 multi-core in Geekbench, with a PassMark overall score of 6,525 — solid numbers for a quad-core of its day. Memory support and cache details were not captured for this chip, so the table above sticks to what the catalog verifiably holds.

Games: CPU-side readiness

Measured purely as a processor, the chip meets the recommended CPU tier for 17 of 69 cataloged games — a cohort led by Forza Horizon 4, Control, God of War, Hitman 3, The Division 2 and Civilization 6. Another 37 clear the minimum tier, Cyberpunk 2077, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Red Dead Redemption 2 and Hogwarts Legacy among them. Fifteen ask for more processor: Starfield, Helldivers 2, Baldur's Gate 3, Elden Ring, Fortnite and Counter-Strike 2 sit below the minimum. These verdicts are CPU-only — whether a game actually plays well depends on the laptop's GPU and RAM, and the machines in this roster carry decade-old graphics.

Laptops that carry it

All 7 matched models are 2015 vintage, and used-market listings run from $243 to $426. The gaming half includes the Inspiron 15-7559 at $426, IdeaPad Y700 at $410, Inspiron 7559 at $345 and a VX501V at $345; the work end covers the XPS 15 9550 at $321, ThinkPad P50 at $272 and Dell Precision 3510 at $243. Roster medians describe the fleet honestly: office comfort at 75 and a performance index of 40.3, but a gaming index of 27 and mobility at 12 — these were substantial 15-inch machines, and their GPUs, not this CPU, set the real ceiling.

Bottom line

The Core i7-6700HQ suits a buyer shopping the cheapest usable quad-core tier: enough processor for the lighter two-thirds of the tracked catalog at minimum CPU settings, plus comfortable everyday-office headroom, in laptops that now cost accessory money. It is not a chip for 2023-and-later AAA titles, and no listing price changes that. Judge each machine by its GPU and RAM first — the processor will rarely be the first component to give out.