Intel Core i9-9900KS Review: The Fastest Gaming CPU Bar None

Name: Core i9-9900KS
Brand: Core

by Marco Chiappetta — Wednesday, October 30, 2019, 11:00 AM EDT

Performance Summary: The Intel Core i9-9900KS performed very well throughout our array of tests, and depending on your particular use-case, an argument could be made that it’s the fastest mainstream desktop CPU currently available. There is – of course – some nuance to that statement.

The Core i9-9900KS is the fastest processor we’ve tested for single and lightly-threaded workloads. It put up top marks in all of the single-threaded focused benchmarks, led the pack in lightly threaded tests like LAME MT, and also offered the highest performance in our gaming and graphics tests. According to PCMark 10, the Core i9-9900KS also took the lead in the overall score, bolstered by its strong productivity results. In more heavily-threaded workloads that can leverage all of the additional processing resources available in a 12-core CPU like the Ryzen 9-3900X, however, the 8-core Intel Core i9-9900KS can’t keep up. It did catch AMD’s 12-core Threadripper 2920X, which is based on the previous-gen Zen+ architecture, on a couple of occasions, however.

Find the Intel Core i9-9900KS @ Amazon

The Intel Core i9-9900KS will be available today, at prices around $513. With this launch, Intel doesn’t significantly alter the CPU landscape, but it does stake a claim for the fastest gaming CPU available which supplants the Core i9-9900K at the top of the company’s mainstream desktop processor line-up. Versus the Ryzen 3000 series, there’s not much that changes as a result of the Core i9-9900KS’ release. Prices on the Core i9-9900K and KF has dropped a bit recently, which changes the value proposition slightly, but the pecking order doesn’t really change. The Core i9-9900K was already a strong product for gaming, single and lightly-threaded workloads, but for more taxing multi-threaded applications, there was no competing with the additional cores available in AMD’s mainstream platform. That still holds true with the Core i9-9900KS’ release, though it now qualifies as the fastest 8-core processor out there, where the 9900K dropped a few tests to the Ryzen 7-3700X.

We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention that Intel needs a next-gen architecture and the move to a more advanced manufacturing process to better battle AMD’s increased core counts and the power advantages of the Ryzen 3000 series, but the company is just not there yet. In the meantime, the Core i9-9900KS and impending Cascade Lake-X parts will be Intel’s weapons of choice and they are still powerful weapons indeed.


Great Single Thread Performance 5GHz Across All Cores Top Marks In Game Tests	Relatively High Power Can't Catch 3900X In MT Workloads Still On 14nm++

Tags: Intel, Gaming, CPU, processor, 14nm, nasdaq-intc, core i9-9900k

Marco Chiappetta

Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com