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: F1 2018
Aside from keeping up-to-date on the Formula One world, F1 2017 added HDR support, which F1 2018 has maintained; otherwise, we should see any newer versions of Codemasters' EGO engine find its way into F1. Graphically demanding in its own right, F1 2018 keeps a useful racing-type graphics workload in our benchmarks.
Aside from keeping up-to-date on the Formula One world, F1 2017 added HDR support, which F1 2018 has maintained. We use the in-game benchmark, set to run on the Montreal track in the wet, driving as Lewis Hamilton from last place on the grid. Data is taken over a one-lap race.
| AnandTech CPU Gaming 2019 Game List | ||||||||
| Game | Genre | Release Date | API | IGP | Low | Med | High | |
| F1 2018 | Racing | Aug 2018 |
DX11 | 720p Low |
1080p Med |
4K High |
4K Ultra |
|
All of our benchmark results can also be found in our benchmark engine, Bench.
| F1 2018 | IGP | Low | Medium | High |
| Average FPS |  |
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| 95th Percentile |  |
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Our final (ed: and most British) benchmark is another game that’s not GPU-bound right out of the box, so it gives the CPUs something to do. At 1080p Medium we see the 9900K and 9700K take the top spots, though along with the 8700K it’s all noise, as evidenced by the fact that the 9700K edges out the 9900K. Dropping down to 720p forces the CPUs farther apart, at which point the 9900K takes the top spot, with the 9700K following. The net result here is that the 9900K is about 13% ahead of the 8700K.
Past that however, once we get to any kind of 4K settings (entirely reasonable for this game), the game becomes much more strongly GPU-bound. So these CPU performance differences are mostly on the theoretical side of matters.
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SanX - Thursday, October 25, 2018 - link
How come i7-7800x outperforms i9-9900 by the killing factor of 3-4 in particle movement? Is it not as "hand tunable" as older gen chips?davidk3501 - Thursday, October 25, 2018 - link
This is an overclockable processor, allowing users to push the frequency if the cooling is sufficient, and despite the memory controller still rated at DDR4-2666, higher speed memory should work in almost every chip. The Core i9-9900K also gets a fully-enabled cache, with 2 MB available per core for a chip-wide total of 16 MBashlord - Thursday, October 25, 2018 - link
My son's 4690K just blew up at such a shitty time. 8th gen 8400 is a decent replacement but 9th gen is out, so I don't really want to buy a previous gen item. I am guessing the '9400' will be out in a month or two. Going the AMD route has its issues too. It seems that AMD processors still have some issues with virtual appliances built using an older kernel. And in the past 30 years of computer ownership, I have never upgraded the processor. Components like motherboard or ram usually fail way before the CPU goes poof.In my country, R5 2600 w/Gigabyte Aorus B450M, 16GB of TridentZ RGB and a Cryorig M9+ goes for S$751. 8400 with MSI H310M Pro-M2, G.Skill Ripjaws V2400 and the same cooler goes for S$710.
ARgh!!! Don't know what to choose! Or maybe I should just give him my 6700K and get myself a new shiny toy.
nukunukoo - Friday, October 26, 2018 - link
I'm glad competition from AMD is back. Just a little over three years ago, an 8-core Intel would be a Xeon costing an arm and a leg!Dragonrider - Monday, October 29, 2018 - link
Just a note re the IGP. If you are going to try to watch 4k Blu-ray on your computer, you NEED that Intel IGP. I don't think there is any other solution to the DRM. For some, that alone would be a reason to get the Intel processor, all else being in the same ballpark.y2k1 - Wednesday, October 31, 2018 - link
What about performance pet watt? Is it basically the same as last gen?hanselltc - Thursday, November 1, 2018 - link
wat bout 9700k vs 9900k in gaming thoAlways_winter - Wednesday, November 28, 2018 - link
what cpu cooler did you usepoohbear - Monday, December 10, 2018 - link
Wow that 10nm CPU is taking forever eh? AMD is to release 7nm CPUs next month, and intel can't produce 10nm in 2019? What happened exactly?ROGnation7 - Saturday, February 23, 2019 - link
Watching all these benchmarks nowadays and taking count on how well optimised games are these days , at last the AAA titles , makes you think if it even worth it to spend more than 300-350 bucks on CPUs for gaming . Just look at i5-9600k and r5 2600x going toe to toe with high end CPUs with a decent graphics card.