Intel Core i5-6200U / i5-6300U 6th Gen ‘Skylake’ Mid-Range Laptop CPUs (Review)

The 6th Generation “Skylake” Intel Core i5-6200U, just like its slightly faster i5-6300U sibling, is a mid-range processor for mainstream laptops. This 6th Gen U parts offers better performance than the i3-6010U and are somewhat slower than the i7-6500U from the same CPU series.

Intel Core i5-6200U / i5-6300U 6th Gen Skylake PassMark CPU Benchmark

Intel Core i5-6200U i5-6300U 6th Gen Skylake Benchmark

In comparison to its older 5th Gen “Broadwell” i5-5200U and i5-5300U equivalents, the i5-6200U and i5-6300U “Skylake” are only marginally faster. The same applies to their Intel HD 520 integrated graphics which replaces the HD 5500. On the positive side, the 6th Gen version provides a greater power efficiency and smoother high-resolution video playback, especially 4K content. The i5-6200U / i5-6300U is an excellent choice for the daily home and office tasks and casual gaming. It can be additionally used for more hardware demanding tasks like work in photo and video editing or graphics design programs. If these tasks are the main purpose of using your laptop, systems with a quad-core Intel i7 and preferably a dedicated video card are recommended.

Real World Use Review

We recorded a video (below) showing what performing usual computing tasks looks like on the Intel Core i5-6200U. The i5-6300U performs very similar, with almost unnoticeable boost over the 5200U. We reviewed multitasking, web browsing, video playback, Office document, image and video editing, and gaming capabilities. For the test, we used a Windows 10 Home-based HP Pavilion 15.6″ laptop with the i5-6200U, 6GB of RAM, a mechanical 500GB hard drive at 5,400rpm, and Full HD display. A typical 2015 / 2016 mainstream notebook. Please keep in mind the same CPU could perform somewhat different in other systems, depending on other hardware specs, such as RAM size, single- or dual-channel RAM setups, and storage speed, as well as cooling solution of each laptop.

Web browsing was simply flawless, even when you have multiple data-heavy web pages opened. The same applies to video playback, with some software-related exceptions. CPU usage during Full HD and Ultra HD (4K) video playback was almost unnoticeable, thanks to its hardware-based video decoding capabilites. Exceptions are 4K YouTube video playbacks in Google Chrome browser and 4K playback in VLC media player program, producing video stuttering and very high CPU load of up to 100%. The problem in Chrome can be fixed with h264ify browser extension, while in VLC player you’ll have to tweak video settings to make the playback smoother. As for work in the Office suite, the most popular apps – Word and Excel run perfectly. Although professional photo and video editing remains in the domain of the quad-core Intel chips, the i5-6200U provides decent performance for these tasks, too.

 

As for gaming, we made a separate review of the chip’s Intel HD 520 integrated graphics. In short, gaming performance is pretty much basic. But, you’ll be able to play many of the most popular games, such as League of Legends and Counter Strike GO on high graphics settings. You can even run some hardware-demanding titles like GTA V and Battlefield 4 if you dial down graphics quality. Keep in mind that some games require 8GB of RAM to work properly, so we had to upgrade it from 6GB to 8GB for testing purposes.

 

For a list of laptops with the 6th Gen Intel Core i5-6200U “Skylake” CPU, click here. The i5-6300U isn’t used in as many notebook models, but is included in the famous Microsoft Surface Pro 4 tablet.

Note: The benchmark scores of the listed processors are averages measured across various devices with these processors. The scores and real-world performance of the Intel Core i5-6200U and compared CPUs may vary depending on the notebooks' other components, settings, cooling, and other factors. However, the benchmark results are good indicators of the processors' performance.

Specifications of the Intel Core i5-6200U

Here are the most important specs of the Intel Core i5-6200U:

Processor Name

Intel Core i5-6200U / i5-6300U

CPU Family

6th Generation Intel Core "Skylake"

Number of Cores

Dual-core / 2 computing threads per core

CPU Clock Speed

i5-6200U: 2.3-2.8GHz / i5-6300U: 2.4-3GHz

Cache Size

3MB

Memory Support

DDR3 (1866 MHz max. speed)
DDR4 (2133 MHz max. speed)

Integrated Graphics

Intel HD 520

Power Consumption

15W

Production Technology

14-nanometer

Typical Use

Mainstream laptops & 2-in-1 PCs

Notable Technologies

Intel HyperThreading (enables two computing threads per physical processor core)
Intel QuickSync Video (speeds up conversion of video files)
Intel TurboBoost (dynamically boosts performance of cores, depending on power and thermal headroom)
VT-d virtualization
VT-x virtualization

User Benchmark Average CPU Score

42.7
46.0

Published on October 8, 2015

User Reviews and Q&A on the Intel Core i5-6200U

Below you can read and submit user reviews, questions, and answers about the processor. Thank you for your contribution.

Current rating: 4 out of 5 stars
  1. Question

    Lily

    Does anyone know if the Microsoft Surface Book | i5-6300U is touch screen?

  2. Hi Jack

    Let me know & how much price of
    54559(i5)
    Intel i5-6200U
    6th Gen(2.3GHz-L3Cache-3M)
    4GB(DDR3L-1600)/500GB
    DVD RW,Webcom,Wi-Fi Certified
    14″ HD LED LCD,Card Reader
    Bluetooth/HDMI,4Cells Battery

    • Jovan

      It is fine, the only thing that bothers me is that it is not able to play 4K 30fps videos from any source. Intel HD 520 is only able for 4K 24fps, and every 4K content has minimum 30fps.

  3. Kumar

    Hi guys,
    Was wondering if somebody can throw some light on the performance of this chip”I5 -6200U”
    If plugged in Dell and Lenovo.
    How we can say which laptop has a good performance with the same chip in it.
    What actually matters ?

    Thank you

    • Danijel Z

      With other specs being the same, the i5-6200U performs very similar in most laptops. What can make difference is CPU performance throttling on laptops with poor cooling due to very cramped designs, but the majority of notebooks don’t have that issue. Also, having dual-channel memory (two RAM memory modules) instead of single can noticeably boost performance of integrated graphics. And of course, getting a laptop with an SSD drive instead of HDD would have a great impact on overall performance, especially program loading speeds and system boot-up.

    • 3 out of 5

      Betsey

      Valami olyasmi a két torony oka, hogy az egyik a ladikot irányítja, a másik meg a repfedélzeten legozik. Valamiért egy toronynál akadályozták egymást. De ezt is egy kommentelő írta.Tetszik / Egyetértek: 0 Az étrékeléshez be kell

  4. TechGuyYT

    Would this CPU be able to do some good video editing using something like PowerDirector 13 or After Effects CC? Because I have a desktop with an 8 core Xeon and 8 MBs of cache and even the video editing can get kinda slow. But the i5 is the 6th gen intel i5 and the Xeon is like a 2nd or 3rd gen Xeon. Thanks

  5. michael

    How about for use on a midlevel digital audio workstation? I use acoustica mixcraft pro studio 7 and the specs aren’t very demanding. I’m thinkin of buying a dual core i5 6th gen laptop for it. Will It suffice?

    • Danijel Z

      Since the minimum system requirement for the CPU is a 1.5GHz dual-core chip (therefore including many entry level 1.5GHz Intel Celeron and Pentium CPUs), the i5-6200U which is much better than the Celerons / Pentiums, will certainly be a good choice for mixcraft.

  6. 5 out of 5

    Jeremy

    This chip is amazing. I have it on an Acer R14, and it runs so smooth and everything ‘snaps’ onto the screen when you click something; the loading of virtually anything is super easy. Love it, and it gives you awesome battery life as well for how fast it is. Hard to imagine someone needing something any faster than this.

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