The Intel Core i9-9900KS Review: The 5 GHz Consumer Special
by Dr. Ian Cutress on October 31, 2019 10:45 AM ESTTest Bed and Setup
As per our processor testing policy, we take a premium category motherboard suitable for the socket, and equip the system with a suitable amount of memory running at the manufacturer's maximum supported frequency. This is also typically run at JEDEC subtimings where possible. It is noted that some users are not keen on this policy, stating that sometimes the maximum supported frequency is quite low, or faster memory is available at a similar price, or that the JEDEC speeds can be prohibitive for performance. While these comments make sense, ultimately very few users apply memory profiles (either XMP or other) as they require interaction with the BIOS, and most users will fall back on JEDEC supported speeds - this includes home users as well as industry who might want to shave off a cent or two from the cost or stay within the margins set by the manufacturer. Where possible, we will extend out testing to include faster memory modules either at the same time as the review or a later date.
| Test Setup | |
| Intel 9th Gen | Intel Core i9-9900KS |
| Motherboard | MSI Z390 Gaming Edge AC (A.60 BIOS) |
| CPU Cooler | TRUE Copper |
| DRAM | Corsair Vengeance 2x8 GB DDR4-2666 |
| GPU | Sapphire RX 460 2GB (CPU Tests) MSI GTX 1080 Gaming 8G (Gaming Tests) |
| PSU | Corsair AX860i |
| SSD | Crucial MX200 1TB |
Many thanks to...
We must thank the following companies for kindly providing hardware for our multiple test beds. Some of this hardware is not in this test bed specifically, but is used in other testing.
| Hardware Providers | |||
| Sapphire RX 460 Nitro | MSI GTX 1080 Gaming X OC | Crucial MX200 + MX500 SSDs |
Corsair AX860i + AX1200i PSUs |
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| G.Skill RipjawsV, SniperX, FlareX |
Crucial Ballistix DDR4 |
Silverstone Coolers |
Silverstone Fans |
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Spunjji - Friday, November 1, 2019 - link
172W for 8 cores at 5Ghz with the 9900KS142W for 12 cores at ~4.2Ghz for the 3900X.
The X570 chipset TDP is around 15W, 6W for Z390. There's simply no aspect of power efficiency where Intel come out on top here.
Sivar - Friday, November 1, 2019 - link
Please read the first couple of sentences before criticizing.No one is saying the 9900KS is a power efficiency winner. Indeed, when running compute-intense tasks, AMD's larger CPUs are likely the winner most of the time, but you cannot post one set of measurements with one specific configuration and draw broad conclusions. Other measurements differ, and most pit the idle power draw (where most PCs remain most of the time) as lower for Intel. For example,
https://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/amd-ryzen-7-...
Korguz - Friday, November 1, 2019 - link
thats funny.. cause before zen.. thats what people were saying about amd.. and the power those chips use. now its the opposite, and its ok for intel to use so much power ??? come onvMax65 - Friday, November 1, 2019 - link
Just to add to this...der8aur just tested the 9900KS and it runs games all core 5GHz all the time at between 98w and 126w....Video showing this starts at 3:50..the only time it uses more power is if you are doing high compute loads and or with AVX workloads...but for gaming, it will stay well below...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWSn0cHauJ4
Korguz - Friday, November 1, 2019 - link
well, this review, says other wise. maybe different test setups ??Jorgp2 - Thursday, October 31, 2019 - link
That's because AMDs CPUs were woefully underpowered.Intel is still more efficient in the mobile space
evernessince - Friday, November 1, 2019 - link
Humans find ways to defend their purchases. RTX 2080 Ti owners have 1,200 reasons to defend theirs.AshlayW - Friday, November 1, 2019 - link
If I only I could upvote this post...vMax65 - Friday, November 1, 2019 - link
Surprising that it seems to hurt some that others might want to buy a RTX 2080Ti or a 9900K or a Ferrari for whatever reason. Are we now all to be lambasted for buying anything that maybe costs more?...or heaven forbid they want the best!!! Oh no...run!!! You might as well start on all those that buy better shoes, cookers, microwaves, TV's, bread, cars, chocolates, phones etc, etc ad infinitum or for that matter any branded products period as they cost more than there non branded counter parts...Hold on, we are not going far enough, here's an idea, lets all wear the same clothes, live in the same houses, watch the same TV, eat the same gruel, have only one manufacturere of all products.......so no one can be different and most importantly we certainly do not want any choice, creativity, design et all....Madness......
Midwayman - Thursday, October 31, 2019 - link
I'm mostly reading its a bad time to buy a 9900K since intel will have binned out all the golden samples.