The Intel Core i9-9900KS Review: The 5 GHz Consumer Special
by Dr. Ian Cutress on October 31, 2019 10:45 AM ESTConclusion
The Intel Core i9-9900KS is Intel’s first consumer level all-core 5.0 GHz processor. Technically Intel has launched an all 5.0 GHz processor before: earlier this year the Core i9-9990XE was launched into the high-frequency trading market, which had 14 cores at 5.0 GHz, but that part is an auction only part for select business partners. What the Core i9-9900KS does is bring the same principle down to a more consumer friendly core count and a more consumer friendly price point. The tray price is set at $513, although it’s likely to be sold for much more than that.
Playing To Power
One of the key elements I wanted to test in this review is how the chip responds to Turbo. As we’ve discussed at length, and confirmed by Intel: the guidelines for the Turbo settings are not set in stone. Intel actively encourages its motherboard partners to increase these settings if the motherboards are over-engineered to be able to do so. This means that a high-end motherboard should be able to give a longer turbo than a cheap board.
A longer turbo might not mean much. When the turbo budget has run out, the system will limit the chip to the TDP setting in the BIOS (which should be the one on the box), and will try and maximise the frequency for the power limit. On a lot of chips, this means you still have a very high frequency, nowhere near the base frequency. But the power limit does have benefits such as acting as a thermal control at least.
In our test, we used MSI’s Z390 Gaming Edge AC. It’s a mid-upper motherboard, but it set our Core i9-9900KS to have a TDP and turbo power limit of 255W. Intel’s ‘guidelines’ state a TDP of 127 W and a turbo power limit of 159 W. When comparing the two, there are some distinct advantages for the 255W setting, such as 10%+ performance on rendering, but the 159W setting does afford 10C lower temperatures in those heavy workloads. Ultimately, as the name TDP = Thermal Design Power implies, it all comes down on your ability to cool the chip.
For gaming, the turbo budget didn’t seem to matter at all, except in a few tests at super low resolution and settings.
One question that does remain however, is which set of results should we keep? The 255W results are what we get out of the box, and the 159W results are only 'Intel guidelines that Intel expects none of the board manufacturers to keep to'. Ideally we keep both, but that's a mess in its own right.
Planning Against The Competition
There’s no getting around giving Intel kudos for binning enough processors to commercially sell an all-core 5.0 GHz chip. In our benchmarks, we see it steaming ahead of any other consumer grade processor when it comes to single core performance. Users are likely to be able to push that single (or dual) core turbo a bit higher as well, although the power limits should be monitored.
It should be noted that in most cases, the Core i9-9900KS either matched or excelled against the previous king of Intel’s consumer desktop line, the Core i9-9900K. There were a few select instances, namely benchmarks like Handbrake, DigiCortex, F1 2018, and 7-zip, where we did see performance regressions that we weren’t expecting. We’re going to have to go back to Intel to see exactly what these are. But they seem confined to very specific workloads.
Overall, the Core i9-9900KS is Intel’s best ever consumer processor.
In ST performance metrics, it wins. In variable threaded metrics, it either wins or does really well. In MT performance metrics, it depends on how strong AMD’s 12-core hardware really is, and how multithreaded the calculation really is. As Intel slowly adds AVX-512 to its consumer line, as it is with Ice Lake, then the MT competition is going to be really interesting.
Only Available For A Short Time Only
While the Core i9-9990XE is a 14-core 5.0 GHz chip, it is an OEM only part sold by Intel at auction only, whereas the Core i9-9900KS should experience wider availability at retail, albeit for a limited time.
Our colleagues at Tom’s Hardware reported that Intel stated in a promotional video that the processor would only be available during the holiday season of 2019 – or at least that the stock level would not be replenished after the holiday season. When we approached Intel asking for confirmation, we were told:
This special edition processor will be available for a limited time only. It can be found at retailers worldwide. We are not disclosing unit quantity information. However, the Core i9-9900KS will have very limited availability.
There is no doubt that there will be some CPUs available into 2020, however it would appear that Intel is only making one main batch of hardware, and once it has gone, it has gone. This might make the $513 tray price that Intel is putting on the part a bit of a misnomer, as retailers might take advantage of this. This will take the shine off the Core i9-9900KS a little, as at $529 or so it would easily be recommended over a Core i9-9900K. If it goes to $599 or $649 because of its limited release, then it becomes less of an interesting buy.
Ultimately the Core i9-9900KS is going to end up in the hands of enthusiasts who want nothing more than the best, but don’t want to jump to the high-end desktop platform. Despite the Intel chipsets for consumers, it’s still a shame that these processors only have 16 PCIe 3.0 lanes, given the desire for direct attached PCIe storage in this market.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
235 Comments
View All Comments
Maxiking - Thursday, November 7, 2019 - link
Shame you don't complain so much about AMD CPUs unable to reach promised boost clocks as much as you care about Intel power consumption. We get it, you are poor, you could finally afford 8 cores thanks to AMD yet loosing to Skylake refresh crippled by security patches so venting your frustration here. Difficult time to be an AMD fan, especially after the first gen threadripper support drop fiasco, suddenly a new socket and no backward compatibility is not an issue. Don't hate things just because you can't afford them. Fridays for future is up today again, vent your problems there, thanks. Anyway, bye, a private plane is waiting, gonna have a pizza for dinner in Italy to piss off Greta because I can.jonbar - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
"Skylake refresh crippled by security patches" - you must be kidding, right? It shouldn't have those security holes. Please stop talking shit about poor because people here talk about optimization - the best for the least money at a price point. And please stop bashing AMD's ryzen - it's not bulldozer, without ryzen this shit here would be sold as "Intel i11 Unobtanium Edition" for 1k$ and you, rich boy, would have 6 cores or more only on LGA 2011.Nobody hates a product - I don't like Intel practices - 5% increase per generation to the point. Where my i7 3840qm is 10-15% slower than 7700hq with a 4! generations gap.
Speaking about private planes - nobody gives 1 cent on rich boys approach on tech at this level because, while you can afford stupid - the rest of us have to be smart. Now you can fly eat your pizza:)
Korguz - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
wow maxiking... resorting to insults and name calling still ?? still believing all the intel bs ?? still believe intels bs about how much power their cpus use ?? talking like you have money is supposed to impress people ?? good for you.. nice to see you are also arrogant rich spoiled bratMaxiking - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
How dare you? Where did I name call anyone? If someone is fat and I call them fat or if they smell and I tell them so, it is not an insult, it is called stating a fact.I see you still do not get the TDP does not mean power consumption, it is even stated and explained in the review.
If I were you, I would be more concerned about 1700x, 1800x, 2700x, 3900x TDPs and AMD misleading marketing about boost frequencies because there have been so far 3 bios patches which were supposed to fix the issue and guess what. Nothing has changed. People have to use a makeshift custom power profile created by a geek in order to get closer to the promised boost clocks.
Typical AMD, I give it 3 months till he starts fixing their awful gpu drivers aswell.
Korguz - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
calling people poor.. among many other things in previous posts by you.. and yes it is an unsult to call some one fat.. or they smell.. but, i bet you do that because either your selfesteem, and self worth is so low, you have to say things like that to make your self feel better..yet you still cry about ryzen and the clock speeds.. but yet. you STILL refuse to admit the fraud intel calls is tdp spec ?? so what ever maxipadking . go back to your cave...
Maxiking - Sunday, November 10, 2019 - link
Yeah, my self esteem is so low that I regularly visit Mercedes and BMW showrooms only to tell them how they cars are overpriced and my Dacia is cheaper and can perform the same and consuming less gass like you do. If Intel TDP is fraud, so does is AMD's one and their promised boost clocks and video on youtube where they promise you can overclock chips even further with sufficient cooling. What do they mean by that? Ay, and what about the bulldozer fraud?Korguz - Sunday, November 10, 2019 - link
yea sure you do, your the one who is probably poor... you are becoming the worst intel shill on here now.... all you EVER do is talk. if you are so sure amd is committing fraud as you claim, then put your supposed money where your mouth is, and take AMD to court,m or shut upMaxiking - Monday, November 11, 2019 - link
Again, it is you, you and only you perpetuating lies. I never come here first talking **********, I only reply to amdfanboys comments.I do not own any AMD cpu, I do not buy subpar products so I can not take them to court.
Anyway, if you are so sure about Intel wrongdoings, take them to the court. EZ.
Unfortunately for you, it is AMD who lost at court and got caught misleading about that parody on cpu called bulldozer. Claiming to possess 2 times more cores than they actually had.
This is your AMD marketing in a nutshell
https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/...
QQ more. Deal with it.
Korguz - Monday, November 11, 2019 - link
maxipadking.. you are so full of it... what about the intel lies about its 10nm nodes for the last what.. 6 years being on track ?? what about the lies about their not doing anything wrong to prevent amd feom selling its products ?? among various other things over the years that you so easily for get... you never come here 1st ?? BS actually.. you DO buy sub par products.. intel is sub par now.. but in your intel blindness.. you just dont see it... intels marking has been worse over the years then amd.. deal with that.keep QQing more about it... your good at it..
Gastec - Tuesday, November 19, 2019 - link
Maxiking, this is a tech site, not your favourite social network for trolling. Your shameless trolling should be punishable with a ban.