i7-6700k breaks down to ix-yzzzA

x is the brand family that most everyone is familiar with.

y is the generation. 6th gens with have a 6. 7th gens will have a 7.

zzz is roughly a capability indicator. The higher the number, the more powerful the processor (generally speaking). This is only comparable within the same generation. Comparisons will be off when comparing these identifiers to other generations, so it's suggested to us benchmarks.

A is a alphabetical modifier to indicate a feature like unlocked.

So an i7-6700k is an i7 family processor from the 6th generation (Sky Lake) at the 700 "level". The chip is also unlocked for overclocking. An i7-7700k is an i7 family processor from the 7th generation (Kaby Lake) at the 700 "level". This chip is also unlocked. Take all of the goodness from the previous generation's processor, and (more-or-less) give it the new optimization from the current generation.

Well, except for the "high end" Core-i7 SKUs. i7-6800k and above are based on the 5th generation Broadwell architecture, not the 6th generation as you might expect.

And honestly, the SKUs "level" is a fair bit more random than you imply; you wouldn't know from the model number that i7-6567U was significantly faster than a i7-6660U, for instance. Or that a i7-6700k significantly beats a i7-6700, which significantly beats a i7-6700T.

It's only within the same TDP that the level is non-random, but you aren't going to know this without going on ark.intel.com.

Thanks for the explanation. I can see it is understandable, but you see it's not obvious?

If I'm at a store and I see a i7-6700 and a i7-7300 which one is better? a i7-6735 or a i7-6720A? It doesn't make any sense for the general public.

Intel used to have one segment, then two segments: the Celeron and Pentium. Then it went for the Core 2, and then other lines

Especially today, that clock speeds are pretty much immaterial, they could take all those models and turn it into only a couple.

It's definitely non-intuitive without knowing the breakdown. If someone wants the skinny on a processor, I don't even bother explaining it unless they specifically want to know. I just link them to a benchmark and feature aggregator like cpuboss.

This comparison[0] shows how a 4th gen processor that has a higher over-all benchmark. It's still non-intuitive knowing the breakdown.

[0]: http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i7-6700K-vs-Intel-Core-i7...