Intel Core i9-9900KS Review

Intel launched today the "new" Core i9-9900KS processor which appears to be a pointless release, similar to the Cadre i7-8086K that we never bothered to wait at. Intel says this new processor delivers upwards to a 5.0 GHz all-core turbo frequency. It's a limited special edition set up to become available starting today for $513.

Translation: this is but a 9900K with MCE enabled. Intel has raised the TDP to 127 watts as the base clock has increased to four GHz, but you lot'll require a good cooler to dissipate well over 200 watts if you hope to achieve maximum performance at reasonable temperatures.

As well, considering this is a 'limited edition' processor, the warranty has been slashed from the standard 3 years, to merely 12 months. So you're looking at paying ~5% more than for a CPU that'due south going to be around 6% faster out of the box, or no faster if y'all had already enabled MCE. Besides the factory overclock that most motherboards were already performing, there appears to exist nothing new here.

Earlier nosotros become to the benchmarks, a few quick notes on the test system. For testing 8th and 9th gen Core processors we used the Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Ultra which has been flashed to the latest F9 BIOS revision which features Gigabyte's overhauled BIOS design, information technology looks good and works well.

For cooling we're using the new Aorus Liquid 360, and while we've nevertheless to do whatsoever existent comparisons with other coolers, it did a good job of cooling the 9900KS.

Something of annotation, the 9900KS nosotros tested ran at an all-core clock frequency of 5.1 GHz on the Aorus Ultra, not the up to 5 GHz it'south advertised to run at. This was the stock configuration on the Aorus Ultra using the latest BIOS, and enabling MCE inverse zilch. The reason for the extra 100 MHz is that the board forced a base of operations clock frequency of 102 MHz. Given more ample time we'll check out stock behavior of other Z390 motherboards with the 9900KS, but for now we'll run with this.

Benchmarks

Starting with Cinebench R20, we accept the multi-core test where the 9900KS was 8% faster than the 9900K. That meant it also overtook the Ryzen 7 3800X past 6% margin, crucially though, it was a whopping 26% slower than the Ryzen ix 3900X.

For lightly threaded workloads the performance deviation is much smaller, just a 3% improvement in the Cinebench R20 unmarried core test.

Nosotros see a mere i% performance comeback over the 9900K when testing with WinRAR. Still that makes the 9900KS the fastest mainstream platform desktop CPU, at least until the 3950X is released next calendar month.

We meet some other insignificant performance gain for the 7-zip pinch examination. Though when measuring operation using the decompression test we did notice that the 9900KS was 7% faster than the original 9900K, though that still makes it v% slower than the 3800X.

Nosotros see a six% reduction in render time when using Premiere Pro, this allowed the 9900KS to match the 3700X, only still took 13% longer than the 3900X.

Testing with the V-Ray benchmark shows a 5% improvement for the 9900KS, though it's yet 23% slower than the 3900X.

The Corona render time was reduced by 4% downwardly to 92 seconds. The 9900KS still took 20% longer to consummate the workload when compared to AMD's Ryzen 9 3900X.

Hither we see the 9900KS offering a seven% reduction in render time when compared to the standard 9900K, or 30% longer than the 3900X. If your workload can take reward of more than 8 cores, the Ryzen 9 processor will exist the better choice nearly every time.

Ability Consumption

Despite taking 30% longer than the 3900X to complete the Blender test, the 9900KS pushed total system consumption 26% higher, that's crazy. Fully unleashed without TDP restrictions the 9900K was already a ability hungry processor, only the 9900KS sucks down even more than power for a minor performance proceeds. Needless to say, efficiency isn't peachy hither.

Gaming Benchmarks

Moving onto a few games, testing with the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti...

First up we have Assassinator's Creed Odyssey, previously the 9900K was the fastest tested CPU in this title, beating the 3900X by a slim iv% margin. The 9900KS advances the Cadre i9'southward position by a few extra frames.

We meet something similar in Battlefield V, though it's just a two% boost. Equally expected the 9900KS is the fastest CPU in this title, only how well you'll discover the departure betwixt 155 fps and 171 fps, we'll go out that upward to you to decide.

The Division 2 sees a three% operation uplift, meaning the 9900KS was on par with the 9700K which does a little better than the standard 9900K due to its lack of Hyper-Threading, which can be a burden in this title depending on core count.

Lastly, we have Shadow of the Tomb Raider where the gain is limited to a single extra frame on average and ii on the 1% low results.

Overclocking and Who Is It For?

Just like the Cadre i9-9900K, the 9900KS seems to struggle with v.2 GHz. With a scrap more than tweaking it might be possible to get it stable in heavy workloads only we're virtually sure 5.3 GHz is out of the question.

Gigabyte recently provided us with their insane Z390 Aorus Xtreme Waterforce motherboard packet that comes with a manus-picked 9900K. That fleck was also limited to five.2 GHz and ran considerably cooler at five.i GHz thanks to a massive reduction in voltage.

Our Core i9-9900KS ran all cores at five.1 GHz by default on the Aorus Ultra and temperatures using an AIO were reasonable. Paying the small price difference for the 9900KS if you're after a high performance version of the 9900K, isn't terrible though the one-year warranty kind of sucks.

If you lot were already in the market for a Core i9-9900K processor and you were keen to overclock information technology, and so the 9900KS makes sense.

We believe the main reason Intel released the 9900KS was generate some buzz around their processors. Right now only their high-terminate models such as the 9900K make sense to buy over AMD's alternatives. Without question 2nd and third-gen Ryzen parts slayed the Core i5 and i3 range.

Parts such as the Core i7-8700K, 9700K and Cadre i9-9900K as well as all the various K revisions such every bit the KF and now KS, they're all suitable for farthermost high-terminate gaming rigs, the kind of systems rocking an RTX 2080 Super or meliorate. For those with a more than pocket-size graphics carte and a desire to do things outside of gaming, AMD'due south 3rd-gen Ryzen is the ameliorate option. The 3900X is the ultimate all-rounder if you tin can afford to spend a little over $500 on a CPU, gaming or not, it performs very well. While the Ryzen 3600 is our favorite value CPU of choice.

Bottom line, we call up for almost of yous Intel's Cadre i9-9900KS is a not-event since it'due south hardly whatsoever different from the 9900K. That shorter warranty does exit us scratching our heads though.