Intel Core i7-6700K dominated CPU sales for Newegg B2B customers in the first half of 2016. It outsold the next most popular desktop processor, a Haswell Intel Core i5, more than four times over in sales volume.
UPDATE: Check here for the final tally of CPU sales for all of 2016 .
Short supply affected price and sales volume for Intel Core i7-6700K in the second half of 2015 and the beginning of this year.
Source: PCPartPicker.com
But consumers saw prices drop steadily in 2016 as Intel made it more available; in turn, sales picked up for retailers.
Older generation Intel CPUs continue to be popular choices for business customers. Haswell Refresh CPUs, released in 2014, were among the top sellers by volume and revenue. Intel Core i7-4790K Devil’s Canyon, a hypertheaded chip with strong overclock performance benchmarks, remains a solid upgrade for LGA 1150-socketed systems.
Leading the way for the X99 chipset are three Intel Core i7 Haswell-E CPUs, and a Xeon E5 in the ten spot.
Measuring by sales volume, three AMD chips made the list. The most popular being a Vishera 6-core AMD FX-6300 in fourth place. The Intel Pentium G3258 followed right behind in a close fifth place.
While many IT professionals will say it makes more sense to buy low end systems instead of putting them together yourself, the numbers indicate budget builds still do occur in the workplace.
More information on CPU specs and ratings: Desktop CPU Buying Guide 2016
Best Selling CPUs 2016—First Half
Sorted by Sales Volume
| Rank | CPU | Family | Socket | GHz (Turbo) | Cores | Cache MB | Threads |
| 1 | Intel Core i7-6700K
|
Skylake | LGA 1151 | 4.0 (4.2) |
4 | 8 | 8 |
| 2 | Intel Core i5-4460
|
Haswell | LGA 1150 | 3.2 | 4 | 6 | 4 |
| 3 | Intel Core i7-4790K
|
Devil’s Canyon | LGA 1150 | 4.0 (4.4) |
4 | 8 | 8 |
| 4 | AMD FX-6300
|
Vishera | AM3+ | 3.5 (4.1) |
6 | 8 | 6 |
| 5 | Intel Pentium G3258
|
Haswell | LGA 1150 | 3.2 | 2 | 3 | 2 |
| 6 | Intel Core i5-6500
|
Skylake | LGA 1151 | 3.2 (3.6) |
4 | 6 | 4 |
| 7 | Intel Core i7 5820K
|
Haswell-E | LGA 2011v3 |
3.3 (3.6) |
6 | 15 | 12 |
| 8 | AMD FX-8350
|
Vishera | AM3+ | 4.0 (4.2) |
8 | 8 | 8 |
| 9 | Intel Core i7-4790
|
Haswell | LGA 1150 | 3.6 (4.0) |
4 | 8 | 8 |
| 10 | AMD FX-4350
|
Vishera | AM3+ | 4.2 (4.3) |
4 | 8 | 4 |
Best Selling CPUs of 2016—First Half
Sorted by Total Revenue
| Rank | CPU | Family | Socket | GHz (Turbo) | Cores | Cache MB | Threads |
| 1 | Intel Core i7-6700K
|
Skylake | LGA 1151 | 4.0 (4.2) |
4 | 8 | 8 |
| 2 | Intel Core i7-4790K
|
Devil’s Canyon | LGA 1150 | 4.0 (4.4) |
4 | 8 | 8 |
| 3 | Intel Core i7-5960X | Haswell-E | LGA 2011v3 | 3.0 | 8 | 20 | 16 |
| 4 | Intel Core i7 5820K
|
Haswell-E | LGA 2011v3 |
3.3 (3.6) |
6 | 15 | 12 |
| 5 | Intel Core i7-5930K
|
Haswell-E | LGA 2011v3 | 3.5 (3.7) |
6 | 15 | 12 |
| 6 | Intel Core i5-4460
|
Haswell | LGA 1150 | 3.2 | 4 | 6 | 4 |
| 7 | Intel Core i5-6500
|
Skylake | LGA 1151 | 3.2 (3.6) |
4 | 6 | 4 |
| 8 | Intel Core i7-4790
|
Haswell | LGA 1150 | 3.6 (4.0) |
4 | 8 | 8 |
| 9 | Intel Core i7-6700
|
Skylake | LGA 1151 | 3.4 (4.0) |
4 | 8 | 8 |
| 10 | Intel Xeon E5-2620
|
Haswell | LGA 2011v3 | 2.4 (3.2) |
6 | 15 | 12 |
Let me know in the comments—are there any surprises here in the best-selling CPUs of 2016—first half?
