Intel Launches 9th Generation Core Processors; Core i9-9900K Benchmarked (hothardware.com)

MojoKid writes: Intel lifted the embargo veil today on performance results for its new Core i9-9900K 9th Gen 8-core processor. Intel claims the chip is "the best CPU for gaming" due to its high clock speeds and monolithic 8-core/16-thread design that has beefier cache memory (now 16MB). The chip also has 16-lanes of on-chip PCIe connectivity, official support for dual-channel memory up to DDR4-2666, and a 95 watt TDP. Intel also introduced two other 9th Gen chips today. Intel's Core i7-9700K is also an 8-core processor, but lacks HyperThreading, is clocked slightly lower, and has 4MB of smart cache disabled (12MB total). The Core i5-9600K takes things down to 6 cores / 6 threads, with a higher base clock, but lower boost clock and only 9MB of smart cache. In benchmark testing, the high-end Core i9-9900K's combination of Intel's latest microarchitecture and boost frequencies of up to 5GHz resulted in the best single-threaded performance seen from a desktop processor to date. The chip's 8-cores and 16-threads, larger cache, and higher clocks also resulted in some excellent multi-threaded scores that came close to catching some of Intel's many-core Core X HEDT processors in a few tests. The Core i9-9900K is a very fast processor, but it is also priced as such at $488 in 1KU quantities. That makes it about $185 to $225 pricier than AMD's Ryzen 7 2700X, which is currently selling for about $304 and performs within 3% to 12% of Intel's 8-core chip, depending on workload type.

Comments

What security?

[sinij]

which is currently selling for about $304 and performs within 3% to 12% of Intel's 8-core chip, depending on workload type.

Is it really going to be any faster after inevitable microcode and OS patching to address gross security flaws?

PCIe

[darkain]

"The chip also has 16-lanes of on-chip PCIe connectivity" - this actually sounds EXTREMELY low. And here I am, on a CPU with 40 lanes, and a chipset that provides another 5... in a system that is several years old. This sounds like a massive downgrade. Though, most people I guess only populate 1 slot for the GPU nowadays, and nothing else. Consumer 10gbe isn't quite there yet. Add-on sound cards have gone to the wayside (onboard audio is still shit quality in comparison, but since people only listen to low bit rate streaming MP3s anyways, I guess it doesnt matter!?) The only thing I question is the NVMe craze right now, and how this chip will be able to keep up with that, since most recent ones are usually PCIe (though some are DIMM socket now as well)

Re:PCIe

[Anonymous Coward]

This is standard for Intel CPUs.

16 PCIe lanes on-chip is standard for Intel and any other PCIe lanes are multiplexed off the 4x DMI Interface.

Beastly Xeon W-3175X

[Tough Love]

Beastly 28 core Xeon W-3175X, obviously targeted at AMD's 32 core Threadripper 2990WX, which you can buy right now on Amazon for $1,720. I'd like to know Intel's price, I guess it's not remotely close.

Note that with these top heavy core counts you always get lower clock frequency because of bus contention. Not a stopper by any means, if you have the use case. But personally I'm a lot more interested in the higher clocked 16 core AMD parts, specifically the 2950X, $900. Slightly higher cost per core but clocked about 10% higher. Boost frequency 4.4 GHz, the technical term for that is awesome.