Intel Core i5 9600K processor review

chispy

2018-10-19 17:40

karma777police:

Good review! Kudos to Intel for releasing such a great product, worth every penny over AMD 2700x. It shows how bad Ryzen is in gaming, look at Far Cry 5 numbers where that gap is creeping into 2k resolution due faster video card (2080ti used).

Absolutely not true , Ryzen it's doing just fine at gaming and is very competitive , just because one game is off does not mean Ryzen is bad at gaming , get real and please inform yourself better. Price to performance ratio Ryzen still the king and worth it every penny hence why i run a 2700x with a 1080Ti 24/7 , gaming it's a match made in heaven for this set up 😉

#5598208

Jagman

2018-10-19 17:49

Good review HH, as always 😀 From a gaming perspective the 9700K has to be the pick of the 3, a little bit over in price maybe. The 9900K, good though it is, has a stupidly high price. Nice that they're using soldered IHS now (about time though and probably because they had to)

#5598209

Calmmo

2018-10-19 17:51

Not specific to this review, but i feel like HH needs to add some more ratings to the site. Just about everything gets the recommended stamp :P

#5598210

Embra

2018-10-19 17:54

So is there a 2800x out there lurking? Great work HH! Thank as always. 🙂 We all knew the pricing would be off, but these will sell anyways.

#5598212

NCC1701D

2018-10-19 18:04

Looks like a good proc for sure and might be my next upgrade as I'm due! Sure the price is a little high, but I would rather save up and pay that 100-150 premium for the best performance considering I probably won't upgrade again for another 5+ years. Spending more up front equals longevity in my book.

#5598213

BReal85

2018-10-19 18:07

Checked TPU review with a 1080Ti. Difference between the 2700X and a 9900K is a whopping 8%! 😀 Remember PT averages? It was around 30, 30+ %. Higher power consumption, and an insane 250$ pricier CPU for a 20% better CPU performance, which runs like hot when OCDd. Ah yes, and also needs a massive cooler which also increases its price. Intel getting to new lows. Supplemented with the incredible PT case, I just hope (as a 4570 owner!) that AMD gets even more powerful at least on the CPU market. Good luck for them.

sverek:

Run games with Nvidia GTX1030 and you get those results. Why you want see GPU benchmarks in CPU benching, make your mind if you want GPU or CPU results.

You are right in one aspect, but using a 2080Ti, a 1200$ card for FHD in real life usage is not rare, but an idiotism. Even owners of a 1080Ti probably reach 2-3% playing in FHD.

NCC1701D:

Looks like a good proc for sure and might be my next upgrade as I'm due! Sure the price is a little high, but I would rather save up and pay that 100-150 premium for the best performance considering I probably won't upgrade again for another 5+ years. Spending more up front equals longevity in my book.

"little high" LOL. It's not 100-150, but 200-250 premium. You use 1080. You use it for FHD? 1440P wipes even that 8% difference with a 1080Ti. 😀

#5598216

RzrTrek

2018-10-19 18:08

sverek:

The issue with 9600k is that it's not Hyper threaded. We already saw how short lived i5 with 4 threads. CPU intensive games like BF5 will overload them and cause lag spikes. For gaming I will take Ryzen 2700x over 9600k, cause 2700x will be able to sustain frame rate, while 9600k might just drop a ball. With games being more optimized for threads, it's too late for 9600k debut with shy 6 threads. Average FPS might be high, but you have to account for lag spikes. Just my opinion.

I've got an i5-7600K @ 4.7GHz and haven't noticed any "lag spikes" (other than the ones caused by the latest AMD beta drivers). However I'm having a hard time to maintain stable fps in general with my RX 580, but that's because of the obvious lack of GPU horsepower. I'm planing to upgrade soon (been saying that for the past year) but choices almost seem infinite: buy current i5-9600K and RTX 2070 or wait for Zen2 and Navi. ACC won't be finished for another 6 months. I don't know, it's a weird one and I want to treat myself for christmas... 😛

#5598218

Dragondale13

2018-10-19 18:10

Worthy upgrade...lol..so many choices now...thanks for the review! 🙂 *if you got the cash then spend that b!tch! :P

#5598220

BangTail

2018-10-19 18:14

Intel is still playing the 'we don't have any competition' game where pricing is concerned. This worked for Intel in the past because they didn't actually have any competition and it works for Nvidia now because they still do not. This strategy is going to continue to hurt Intel and as much as they do have the faster CPU, they need to be far more competitive in the pricing department if they want to stay relevant.

#5598222

waltc3

2018-10-19 18:20

Netherwind:

Great review HH! 9900K looks nice but the price, damn! You can almost buy two Ryzen 2700X for that price. Let's hope that this is the last time we see Coffee Lake and that Intel sorts out it's problems with 10nm.

I notice the reviews center around an engineering sample. It will be interesting to see what the actual market-available cpus can do, no question, when they ship. The high price here is I would imagine directly related to current yields @ Intel for the 8/16 cpu 9900k. Be nice to see a followup look at the silicon when it actually ships. Newegg lists them @ $579, unavailable, of course. I'm more interested in Ryzen 2, atm. Nice to see Intel spurred into producing competitive products, at long last, maybe...;)

#5598224

Paulo Narciso

2018-10-19 18:21

600 Euros for a 9900k vs 320 Euros 2700x. Almost double the price for such a low performance difference. If AMD drops their price, it will destroy Intel regarding price performance ratio.

#5598231

Ricepudding

2018-10-19 18:38

Paulo Narciso:

600 Euros for a 9900k vs 320 Euros 2700x. Almost double the price for such a low performance difference. If AMD drops their price, it will destroy Intel regarding price performance ratio.

I think AMD already crushes it on the price/performance ratio... Think if Intel ever got competitive with their pricing AMD might have a lot to worry about sadly D: Still AMD has caught up massively, hoping Zen2 closes the gap even further

#5598238

AXE1971

2018-10-19 19:04

How dos it perform on the z370 chipset. i know my MSI Mortar Z370 suport it.

#5598240

Srsbsns

2018-10-19 19:09

In the power consumption chart what is multi-thread load? Trying to understand what the testing was. In some of the threadripper reviews the chart showed what application was tested.

#5598243

Duke Nil

2018-10-19 19:22

I'd buy a 9700K right now if it was actually $370, but looks like it's $420 retail in the US for now 🙁

#5598244

tsunami231

2018-10-19 19:22

I see the 6700k has been bumped off most the charts, I Was curious to how well the 6700k held up, then again I guess it good thing it not really listed as I might get aggravated by seeing differences, But I was right on 95w tdp not bein accuracte represented

#5598245

VolkNasty

2018-10-19 19:25

Is it time for me to upgrade my i7 3930K? Is this the chipset? These are the questions going through my head.

#5598248

ErgoProxy

2018-10-19 19:33

LOL, it's more expensive than my 7820X, which is more than a year old and high-end! o_O

#5598251

Netherwind

2018-10-19 19:46

waltc3:

I notice the reviews center around an engineering sample. It will be interesting to see what the actual market-available cpus can do, no question, when they ship. The high price here is I would imagine directly related to current yields @ Intel for the 8/16 cpu 9900k. Be nice to see a followup look at the silicon when it actually ships. Newegg lists them @ $579, unavailable, of course. I'm more interested in Ryzen 2, atm. Nice to see Intel spurred into producing competitive products, at long last, maybe...;)

I read on another site that their 9900K OC chilled by a H115i got max temps up to 94 degrees. That's a huge difference to the 80-85 degrees HH got, meaning this Engineering Sample was quite a good one.

#5598253

UZ7

2018-10-19 19:53

[youtube=r5Doo-zgyQs] So... delid the solder? lol Did we shoot ourselves in the foot for pushing Intel to solder?