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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AshlayW - Friday, November 1, 2019 - link
People like you are why Nvidia and Intel can get away with this xDSpunjji - Friday, November 1, 2019 - link
$1000 to switch platforms? Wut? $500 CPU, $200 motherboard, and then what..?GreenReaper - Saturday, November 2, 2019 - link
That's not true; according to Phoronix it has additional hardware mitigations to reduce context switching times.brantron - Sunday, November 3, 2019 - link
Still haven't seen anything about the ring bus clock.Silicon Lottery posted their 9900KS binning results: 5 GHz at 1.250v, 5.1 GHz at 1.287v, and 5.2 GHz at 1.325v. The most recent numbers for 9900K and 9900KF had 5 GHz at 1.30v.
After the rather uneventful 8086K, if this is going to be a recurring thing, I think they need a little more special sauce. For example, cleaner solder and/or lapped IHS.
crashtech - Thursday, October 31, 2019 - link
The box is dodecahedral, a minor quibble.Khenglish - Thursday, October 31, 2019 - link
@Ian I feel like fanboyism is on the rise at Anandtech article comments sections lately, but I'm not sure if it's just a nostalgia thing where I just think the past was better. Do you have an archive of the comments from P4 vs Athlon-xp, Athlon64 days? I swear back then was just a simpler time of "In Soviet Russia... " jokes.Slash3 - Thursday, October 31, 2019 - link
It's definitely worse.Spunjji - Friday, November 1, 2019 - link
I think it's a symptom of wider trends on the internet. Astroturfing on tech forums has been a thing for a while now, so people are even more suspicious of the motives of others. The communities are larger, so there are more names to keep track of and less trust as a result. More people have learned stupid "debate" tactics like whataboutism and gish galloping from useless right-wing Youtubers, so even small disagreements and misunderstandings spiral out into lengthy pissing matches.AshlayW - Friday, November 1, 2019 - link
I like to think my comments aren't 'Faboyism' but I am very open that I absolutely hate Intel as a company. Here's one for the 9900KS:"In Soviet Russia, CPU buys YOU"
Jorgp2 - Friday, November 1, 2019 - link
I blame /r/pcmasterraceJust a big circlejerk