The Intel 9th Gen Review: Core i9-9900K, Core i7-9700K and Core i5-9600K Tested
by Ian Cutress on October 19, 2018 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
- Intel
- Coffee Lake
- 14++
- Core 9th Gen
- Core-S
- i9-9900K
- i7-9700K
- i5-9600K
Gaming: Shadow of the Tomb Raider (DX12)
The latest instalment of the Tomb Raider franchise does less rising and lurks more in the shadows with Shadow of the Tomb Raider. As expected this action-adventure follows Lara Croft which is the main protagonist of the franchise as she muscles through the Mesoamerican and South American regions looking to stop a Mayan apocalyptic she herself unleashed. Shadow of the Tomb Raider is the direct sequel to the previous Rise of the Tomb Raider and was developed by Eidos Montreal and Crystal Dynamics and was published by Square Enix which hit shelves across multiple platforms in September 2018. This title effectively closes the Lara Croft Origins story and has received critical acclaims upon its release.
The integrated Shadow of the Tomb Raider benchmark is similar to that of the previous game Rise of the Tomb Raider, which we have used in our previous benchmarking suite. The newer Shadow of the Tomb Raider uses DirectX 11 and 12, with this particular title being touted as having one of the best implementations of DirectX 12 of any game released so far.
| AnandTech CPU Gaming 2019 Game List | ||||||||
| Game | Genre | Release Date | API | IGP | Low | Med | High | |
| Shadow of the Tomb Raider | Action | Sep 2018 |
DX12 | 720p Low |
1080p Medium |
1440p High |
4K Highest |
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| *Strange Brigade is run in DX12 and Vulkan modes | ||||||||
All of our benchmark results can also be found in our benchmark engine, Bench.
| SoTR | IGP | Low | Medium | High |
| Average FPS |  |
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| 95th Percentile |  |
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Diving into Shadow of the Tomb Raider, we have another game that’s mostly GPU-bound at its 1080p settings. At 1080p Medium the 9900K is actually a step behind the 7900K – noisy results in their purest form – while at 720p Low it’s still technically behind the 9700K. Either way, once we turn down our settings low enough to remove the GPU bottleneck, its overall another typical showing for the new CFL-R processors. Intel’s latest and greatest is several percent ahead of its predecessors, but none of these games are in a position to really take advantage of the extra two cores. So instead it’s all about frequency and L3 caches.
Though this game (like so many others) does seem to reinforce the idea that the 9600K is the new 8700K. The 8700K is still ahead by a few frames at CPU-bound settings, but despite losing HT, the 9600K is still hanging in the fight for a noticeably lower price.
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mapesdhs - Sunday, October 21, 2018 - link
The funny part is that, for productivity, one can pick up used top-end older hw for a pittance, have the best of both worlds. I was building an oc'd 3930K setup for someone (back when RAM prices were still sensible, 32GB DDR3/2400 kit only cost me 115 UKP), replaced the chip with a 10-core XEON E5-2680 v2 which was cheap, works great and way better for productivity. Lower single-threaded speed of course, but still respectable and in most cases it doesn't matter. Also far better heat, noise and power consumption behaviour.Intel is already competing with both itself (7820X) and AMD with the 9K series; add in used options and Intel's new stuff (like NVIDIA) is even less appealing. I bagged a used 1080 Ti for 450 UKP, very happy. :)
vanilla_gorilla - Friday, October 19, 2018 - link
So the "Best Gaming CPU" really only has an advantage when gaming at 1080p or less? Who spends this much money on a CPU to game at 1080p? What is the point of this thing?TEAMSWITCHER - Friday, October 19, 2018 - link
Many benchmarks show the 9900k coming "oh so close" to the 10-core 7900X. I'm thinking that the "Best Gaming CPU" is Intel's wishful thinking for Enthusiasts to spend hundreds more for their X299 platform.HStewart - Friday, October 19, 2018 - link
Of course at higher resolution it depends on GPU - but from the list of games only Ashes is one stated not top of class for 4k.If you look at conclusion in article you will notice that most games got "Best CPU or near top in all" which also means 4k CIV 6 was interesting with "Best CPU at IGP, a bit behind at 4K, top class at 8K/16K" which tells me even though it 4k was not so great - but it was even better at 8k/16k
vanilla_gorilla - Friday, October 19, 2018 - link
At 4K every CPU performs at almost the exact same frame rate. Within 1fps. Why would anyone pay this much for a "gaming CPU" that has no advantage compared to CPUs half the price over 1080p? This is insanity.If you are a gamer, save your money, buy a two year old intel or Ryzen CPU and spend the rest on a 4K monitor!
CPUGuy - Friday, October 19, 2018 - link
This CPU is going to be amazing at 10nm.eastcoast_pete - Friday, October 19, 2018 - link
Yes, a fast chip, but those thermals?! This is the silicon equivalent to boosting an engine's performance with nitrous: you'll get the power, but at what cost? I agree with Ian and others here that this is the chip to get if a. bragging rights (fastest gaming CPU) are really important and b. money is no objective. In its intended use, I'd strongly suggest to budget at least $ 2500 -3000, including a custom liquid-cooling solution for both the 9900K and the graphics card, presumably a 2080.In the meantime, the rest of us can hope that AMD will keep Intel's prices for the i7 9700 in check.
Arbie - Friday, October 19, 2018 - link
In the meantime, the rest of us can buy AMD, as anyone should do who doesn't require a chip like this for some professional need.eastcoast_pete - Friday, October 19, 2018 - link
@Arbie: I agree. If I would be putting a system right now, I would give first consideration to a Ryzen Threadripper 1920X. The MoBos are a bit pricey, but Amazon, Newegg and others have the 1920x on sale at around $470 or so, and its 12 cores/24 threads are enough for even very demanding applications. To me, the only reason to still look at Intel ( i7 8700) is the superior AVX performance that Intel still offers vs. AMD. For some video editing programs, it can make a sizable difference. For general productivity though, a 1920x system at current discounts is the ruling Mid/High End Desktop value king.mapesdhs - Sunday, October 21, 2018 - link
The exception is Premiere which is still horribly optimised.