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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deil - Friday, October 19, 2018 - link
Very nice. All I wanted to know. 220 W on 95 TDP LOL.AutomaticTaco - Friday, October 19, 2018 - link
Note the revised table. The need for the revision was due to the first motherboard they tested with being severely over-voltage. Not only is it lower the better news, to me at least, is the Overclock at 4.7GHz and 4.8GHz actual reduce the power consumption and operating temperature.Spunjji - Monday, October 22, 2018 - link
Good to see it's "only" 166W on a 95W TDP instead :DCellar Door - Friday, October 19, 2018 - link
Ryan what is your opinion on the 9700k vs 8700k?Icehawk - Saturday, October 20, 2018 - link
I was “worried” I would be bummed that I bought an 8700 but the price:perf and delta between them ileaves me feeling just fine.I too would like to see the 9900 run w/o HT - it *should* perform like a 9700 but would be interesting to see if there are any oddities.
SaturnusDK - Friday, October 19, 2018 - link
Good review. Too bad the subject is pretty lackluster.To sum up the 9900K in one word: Meh!
eva02langley - Friday, October 19, 2018 - link
The CPU is going for 540$+ and the motherboard Toms used is a 600$ motherboard.Performance are awesome, handown, but this is not a 2700x competitor. The only these thing are having in common are the number of cores/threads and their platform.
At this price, I would get a 2950x, hand downs.
eva02langley - Friday, October 19, 2018 - link
Performance are awesome, hand down, but this is not a 2700x competitor. The only things these two are having in common, are the number of cores/threads and their mainstream platform... however the Z390 is more expensive than the X499 which offer way better specs.mapesdhs - Sunday, October 21, 2018 - link
In the UK is 9900K is closer to the equivalent of $800. Outside the US the absolute cost levels are often a lot worse. Where I am, the 2700X is half the price of a 9900K, the saving being more than enough to afford a much better GPU.Total Meltdowner - Sunday, October 21, 2018 - link
Good, F U foreigners wanted out superior tech.