According to NowInStock.net, the Core i5 6600K and Core i7 6700K are available on Amazon and Newegg for $253.99 and $419.99, respectively, with free Amazon Prime shipping.

Image source: NowInStock.net

At its November 2015 investor meeting, the company outlined that it intends to produce more wafers in order to get more fully functional 14nm Skylake desktop chips onto retail shelves and into the hands of consumers. During the meeting, the Intel manufacturing guru Bill Holt showed the audience the following slide illustrating the company’s 14-nanometer yield trend in relation to its 22-nanometer in a projected forecast between 1H 2014 and 1H 2016.

Image source: Intel

The 14-nanometer Skylake supply issue appears to affect mostly the high-end desktop chips, including the Core i7 6700K and Core i5 6600K, both of which are multiplier-unlocked and allow for additional overclocking performance headroom.

According to The Motley Fool, sources familiar with the issue have suggested that 14-nanometer process node issues are due to a very aggressive metal pitch scaling and density scaling that Intel targeted over its previous 22-nanometer node. Intel says that “normal” scaling between CPU generations features a minimum metal pitch transition of 0.7x. With 14-nanometer, the company chose a more aggressive scaling factor of 0.65x.

In the case of K-series flagship Core i5 and Core i7 Skylake desktop processors, the yield issues impact not only the number of functional chips Intel can produce but also the power-to-performance ratios coming from any given batch of wafers. In this case, we wind up with occasional shortages of high-end 6000-Series Skylake parts.

With evidence of 14-nanometer yields improving for Intel, analysts expect the company to meet its investor meeting projection goals without affecting margins through the rest of 2016. Let’s hope the same can be said for 14-nanometer Broadwell-EP and Broadwell-EX chips when they launch later this summer at Computex 2016.