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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prophet001 - Monday, November 4, 2019 - link
I mainly play WoW and this would do a much better job than a 3900.Why does that tilt people?
Qasar - Monday, November 4, 2019 - link
you sure about that ??? i have 2 comps, both with a asus strix 1060 gaming OC, one with a 5930k, the other with an FX 8350, both max eye candy less AA ( 4x ) and AF ( 4x as well i think ) , and get about the same FPS. the 3900 will prob use less power over this.MDD1963 - Thursday, November 7, 2019 - link
I'm surprised an FX8350 can saturate a GTX1060, but, you maxing out the details and quality is the only reason the FX keeps up...; it's like saying the i5-8400 matches the 9900KS at 4k with a GTX1070. (Of course it does)eek2121 - Friday, November 1, 2019 - link
bwahahah, have you looked at the benchmarks? Enjoy your 3-5 extra FPS in gaming. ;)Korguz - Friday, November 1, 2019 - link
and the added power usage....Chaitanya - Thursday, October 31, 2019 - link
Also comes with only 1 year warranty. By special it really should mean mentally defective edition.amnesia0287 - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
How many people ever actually use the warranty anyway lol.Samus - Friday, November 1, 2019 - link
Because it's drop-in compatible with the poor sap who isn't getting enough from the cheap Walmart i3 gaming PC they overpaid for.Unfortunately AMD just doesn't have the presence in retail to gloat that. Ironic, because traditionally AMD has had a superior upgrade path, keeping sockets longer and (provided motherboard vendors support their boards) new microcode support via BIOS updates.
josiasmat - Thursday, October 31, 2019 - link
I find it funny that in the past Intel CPUs were praised for their power efficiency over AMD ones. Now that AMD has a 65W CPU that is almost as fast as the reviewed CPU, it doesn't matter at all...Sivar - Thursday, October 31, 2019 - link
Indeed, the 7nm process is clearly a win here. That said, total platform power with Intel (9900KS excluded!) still tends to be lower very similar or even lower, in part due to the rather power-hungry 14nm AMD 570x chipset.470x-based AMD systems still win in most cases, but not by an extremely large amount.