Core i3-6006U: CPU benchmarks and laptop guide

The Intel Core i3-6006U is a Skylake dual-core from 2016 — the value floor of Intel's 6th generation, carried by 15 laptop models in the catalog. As a gaming processor it clears nothing: the CPU meets the recommended tier in 0 of the 69 games the catalog tracks. This guide covers where the chip sits among laptop CPUs, what it brings, and what the laptops around it offer a budget buyer in 2026.

Where the Core i3-6006U sits in 2026

A catalog score of 19.5 places the chip 463rd of 741 scored laptop CPUs — the lower third of the table. The neighborhood is mostly a decade deep: the Core i7-2820QM (19.6), Core i3-5010U (19.6), Pentium Gold G5400T (19.2) and Pentium G4500 (18.8) flank it on either side, with the Core Ultra 7 366H (19.6) and Core Ultra X7 368H (19.4) as curiosities beside them. Scoring in the same band as 2011-and-older i7s and desktop Pentiums is the honest summary: this is entry-tier silicon whose catalog value today is the cheap laptop around it.

What the chip brings

Skylake gives the i3-6006U 2 cores and 4 threads on a 14 nm process, running at a fixed 2 GHz — no turbo boost — inside a 15 W envelope. Public benchmark results read 653 single-core and 1,346 multi-core on the GeekBench scale. Those are the slowest-class numbers among current-catalog mainstream chips: adequate for documents, email and video on a light system, with nothing left over.

Games: CPU-side readiness

Measured purely as a processor, the chip clears the recommended CPU tier for 0 of 69 cataloged games. A short list still sits at the minimum tier: Minecraft, Valorant, Dota 2, League of Legends, Sims 4, F1 24, Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Batman: Arkham Knight, Rainbow Six Siege, Rise of the Tomb Raider and Civilization 6. Everything else — Cyberpunk 2077, Fortnite, Counter-Strike 2 and up — asks for more processor than this. These verdicts are CPU-only: actual playability depends on the laptop's GPU and RAM, and on this class of machine those are entry-level as well.

Laptops that carry it

The 15-model roster is used-business-stock territory: Dell Latitude 3480, 3490, 3380, 3580, 3590, ThinkPad L460, L470, L570 and X270, Lenovo's V130-14IKB, the Inspiron 15 3567 and the HP 250 G6 — spanning 2015 to 2019 and roughly $121 to $531. The laptops built around it typically show a median office comfort score of 50, gaming index of 59, energy efficiency of 60.8 and performance index of 25.6 — bottom-tier throughput that matches the chip's position in the table.

Bottom line

The Core i3-6006U is bottom-tier in 2026 and should be bought that way: as the processor inside a $120–$250 used laptop for browsing, documents and study, where expectations are low and the price matches. Nothing on the modern game list clears recommended, and only a dozen older or lighter titles reach the minimum CPU tier. For anything beyond light duty, the quad-core i5s ranked a few dozen places higher are worth the small step up in price.