HOW is THIS for Gamers?? - Intel Core i9 9900K
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2019-05-06
·
1,695 words · ~8 min read
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all right well here we are again guys with yet another refresh of sky lake and
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the script for this one which uh well there we go they've helpfully included
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in the box here is uh pretty much the same as last time
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with uh there we go
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so let's see here we got more cores
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and um we got some more cash to go with
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them and uh
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really is that it no new process node no
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avx 512 support and uh wait
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i can't even believe this we're still using the same gt2 graphics engine with
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the same number of execution units at the same clocks
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but is it possible that there's
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more than meets the eye
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yes and i'll be telling you about it after these messages from origin origin pc's
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evo 15s features a smooth 144hz 1080p
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display with an NVIDIA gtx 1070 max-q graphics card it also weighs only 4.3
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pounds check it out at the link below
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let's start with some good news shall we Intel has finally caved to the pressure
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or made the decision on their own using whatever moon logic that they use and
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soldered the ihs to the die which should
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mean that we won't need to keep delitting our cpus in order to get
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decent thermals out of them though i'm not not promising that i won't do that
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anyway what do you think pella should i do it should i risk a thousand dollar
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processor and you only live once right this is it but
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our delicious soldered cheeseburger also comes with a side of vomit milkshake
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because for the first time that i can remember we are actually
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losing hyper threading and some of the
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cash per core on the 9th gen core i7
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in fact for now nothing but the new eight core core i9
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9900k includes hyper threading technology
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so Intel doesn't screw me over here because
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my core i3 i5 i7 explainer is now
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inaccurate just weeks before it would have hit 10 million views
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so way to go guys thanks a lot
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the hardware mitigations for spectre and meltdown do make me feel a little bit
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better though these should take over from some of the software and firmware
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fixes which again this is a big should restore some extra performance per core
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speaking of firmware we've actually got a new chipset on our hands
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except that it's basically what we think the z370 chipset should have been in the
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first place with the only added features being usb 3.1 gen 2 support and
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integrated wi-fi via what Intel calls integrated connectivity or
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the snv for short
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oh sorry just kind of an aside here do you guys remember when Intel had
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simple memorable marketing like
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and centrino who the hell is in charge over there
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right now i mean even the core i3 i5 i7
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nonsense was less confusing than this hot mess and at least 10 million people
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need i remind you didn't understand that
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on the plus side at least both the 9th gen chips and boards are backwards
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compatible with 8th gen gear and vice versa bringing us then to the elephant
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in the room more cores it seems Intel has finally had enough of
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AMD lording ryzen's eight cores over them and here we have not one but two
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Intel core series cpus with eight cores
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but with that said they haven't yet tired of AMD lording their more
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aggressive pricing over them because for a 16 thread processor you will be paying
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a nearly 40 premium to get a blue case
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badge making the cheaper eight thread core i7
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possibly a much easier pill to swallow at least we think so because Intel in
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their infinite wisdom isn't sampling that chip yet so we were forced to pull
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a little trick out of our hats that we've used before so in our graphs
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you're going to see performance numbers for the 9900k the core i9
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then you're going to see performance numbers for that same chip with its
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hyper threading disabled and its maximum 2 core boost adjusted to 4.9 gigahertz
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we're going to be labeling these results core i7 9700k
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fingerprints because from our experience in the past these results should be very
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close to the real chip but they aren't the real chick so
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hence the fingerprints all right here we go
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right away we can see that Intel's pr and marketing departments got at least
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one thing right over the last couple of scandal-plagued weeks this CPU is
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absolutely the best CPU in the world for gaming it's faster than the 8700k which
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pretty much qualifies it right there but the difference here is relatively minor
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a few FPS here and there and what's weird is that it seems to be struggling
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with directx 12 right now as expected the extra cores aren't doing
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us any favors in current gaming titles and we're pretty much relying on the
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extra 300 megahertz on the boost clock for our performance gains just like with
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the 8700k when it first launched it should be noted however that the rtx
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builds of games like battlefield 5 should take advantage of more cores so
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maybe we will see a bigger difference there whenever those builds show up
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moving on to productivity it's here that we see the biggest improvements over the
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8th gen flagship and thanks to the extra
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clock speed the 9900k even manages to
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eclipse the more expensive core i7 7820x
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on Intel's high-end x299 platform
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that even extends to avx-512 enabled workloads like blender where
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traditionally Intel's high-end desktop chips dominate on a per core basis
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what's even more exciting for streamers is that x264 performance is
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significantly improved here with the new core i9 landing striking distance from
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the 7900x whose msrp is nearly double so the 9900k
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is looking pretty good so far and if you've been paying attention to the
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graphs you'll probably also have noticed that our simulated core i7 9700k
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is also holding up well typically outperforming the 8700k that
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it replaces making the loss of hyper threading confusing
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but less of a big deal from a performance standpoint than you might have expected
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and there's more to be happy about too thanks to the soldered ihs the core i9
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9900k actually enjoys better thermals
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than the 8700k from last generation even
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under full load and sustained power consumption is actually down as well
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that's especially good news compared to the relatively power hungry 7820x
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but and it's a big but
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we haven't addressed the price tag yet at 30 to 40 percent more than the core
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i7 8700k and ryzen 7 2700x from AMD
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Intel's eight core 16 thread consumer chip is in a price bracket all on its
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lonesome somewhere in the no-man's land between the consumer and the high-end
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desktop markets which means that gamers are going to do a double take and anyone
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building a budget workstation is going to be forced to choose between per
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thread performance and memory bandwidth and pci express lanes because z390
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doesn't add quad channel memory or more PCIe lanes unfortunately now that we
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have real performance numbers instead of the
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bunged up ones that Intel either through blatant malice or stunning ineptitude
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showed off before the launch where are we left here
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thanks to its bloated 490 price tag with
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limited availability potentially pushing that higher the core i9 9900k ends up
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looking less compelling to us than Intel's own
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core i7 9700k and this whole launch in general doesn't
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look like it's going to woo over too many pure gamers from cheaper
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lower core count options even from Intel's own lineup
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then for the streamers out there who are looking to upgrade honestly we'd
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probably recommend an rtx GPU for its
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stellar hardware h.264 encoder instead
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as for the non-gamers AMD is still fighting this battle from a
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position of strength ryzen still gives you more course per dollar it includes
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ecc support if that's important to you and it even brings more pci express
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lanes to the table but
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if gaming is just one of the things you do and you want the best of both worlds
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at least Intel has some response now to the fantastic performance of the r7
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2700x in non-gaming applications i mean
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there is something to be said for getting to the end of your shift and
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firing up csgo at over 500 frames per second
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we're going to need some faster monitors pretty soon hey
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so thanks for watching guys if this video sucked you know what to do i know
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