Intel 9900KS
Wringing the neck of 14nm.
Throughout 2019, most of the salvos in the ever continuing CPU war have been fired by AMD. While Intel has held its own under lightly threaded workloads, it’s been falling behind under loads that can make use of a high number of cores. The Core i9-9900KS is Intel’s attempt at rebalancing it flagship’s performance. It does this by combining its well documented single threaded performance with a rather stunning 5GHz sustainable all core boost. From what we know of the identical 9900K when it’s overclocked, we know the 9900KS will be fast, but is it enough to win hearts and minds?
The 9900KS is simply a higher binned and overclocked 9900K. It comes with a base clock of 4.0GHz, up from the 3.6GHz of the 9900K. The headline feature is its 5.0GHz all core boost. The 9900K can also boost to 5.0GHz, but only to 4.7GHz with all of its cores loaded. The KS is also a limited edition. With Comet Lake on the horizon, don’t expect the KS to be around for very long. Also note that it carries a one year warranty vs the normal three years for Intel processors. That’s definitely a step backwards.
Gaming performance is where the 9900KS shines. If you’re looking to extract every possible frame from your game, the 9900KS is the CPU to buy, hands down. If you’re using a very high refresh rate monitor, or gaming competitively, then there’s no better choice.
When it comes to multithreading, the cheaper AMD 3900X is the clear winner with its 12 cores and cheaper price. Things aren’t rosy when it comes to loaded power consumption either. Our test sample recorded a 292w total system power draw when loaded compared to 272w for the 9900K and just 204w for a 3900X system. This indicates Intel has had to really push the voltage to reach the golden 5GHz number. Heat is also a concern, with our sample reaching well into the 80s with a very capable Thermaltake Water 3.0 360mm AIO cooler. If you plan to overclock the 9900KS, be prepared to invest in a top end AIO cooler, or even better a custom loop.
The way things are, Intel is in a tough competitive spot. It’s clear that it needs to fix its 10nm woes as soon as possible. It’s simply not feasible to ship competitive 12, 14 or 16 core mainstream CPUs without resorting to very large, hot and power hungry dies. Intel is reportedly due to ship a 14nm 10-core model sometime next year, but its competing with AMD’s 7nm 12- and 16-core models, and that’s without considering its refreshed Zen 3 line up due in 2020.
The 9900KS does what is supposed to. It keeps Intel competitive with regards to multi-threading performance and it holds the crown as the best gaming processor to buy right now. The competition is relentless though. Intel desperately needs a new architecture, process, and it could use some features like PCIe 4.0 and/or more PCIe lanes if it is to truly win across the board in 2020.