Custom PC - UK (2020-01)

REVIEWS / PROCESSORS

Performance
Starting with those power numbers, we measured a peak
power consumption of 275W with the Core i9-9900KS in
our test rig, which is over 60W higher than with the old CPU.
There certainly seemed to be a fair bit more voltage too, with
the peak vcore being reported as over 1.4V in CPU-Z.
Overclocking was fruitful, but not epic, with the Core
i9-9900KS reaching 5.1GHz on all cores, and without
us having to touch the vcore, which goes to show
how much voltage is already being applied to the
chip. One possible explanation for this high voltage is
that MSI has released a BIOS tailor-made for the Core
i9-9900KS and our test motherboard, MEG Z390 Ace,
which might explain it, although we didn’t have enough time
to investigate this situation further before going to press.
At stock speed, the CPU was a little quicker than the old
8-core flagship, but never by huge amounts. The single-
threaded image editing test score rose by nearly 2,
points, the system score by nearly 3,000 points and
Cinebench R20’s multi-threaded test increased from a
score of 4,906 to 5,149. Bizarrely, there was hardly any
difference between the Core i9-9900KS and its
predecessor in our Handbrake benchmark, which should
benefit from the extra boost speed across all cores.
Once overclocked, there was only a difference of
100MHz over the stock speed, so the gains are slim, even
when compared with the Core i9-9900K. We saw nearly a
1,000-point advantage in the image editing test. Far Cry 5,

OVERCLOCKED

+ 5 GHz on all cores

at stock speed

+ Excellent gaming

performance

OVERCOOKED

• Not much
  faster than Core
  i9-9900K


• Tiny overclocking
  headroom


• AM D offers
  better multi-
  threading value

meanwhile, again saw

modest gains at stock

speed and when

overclocked, with the biggest

leap being an extra 4fps in the

average frame rate.

Conclusion

The trouble with the Core i9-9900KS is that it can’t really

do much more than an overclocked Core i9-9900K. Many

of the latter will hit 5GHz, but even at 4.9GHz, it won’t be far

off the new flagship. The gains from the 9900KS at stock

speed are minimal and certainly nowhere near enough to

rein in the power of AMD’s Ryzen 9 3900X in multi-

threaded tests.

We’re not all overclockers, of course, but the Core

i9-9900K can still hit 5GHz on two cores at stock speed,

which means lightly threaded games (that’s most of them)

probably won’t see much benefit from the 9900KS either.

Intel’s new flagship is more of a trophy CPU, much like the

Core i7-8086K before it.

However, while Core i9-9900KS doesn’t offer a

meaningful upgrade from the Core i9-9900K, if it doesn’t

have a silly price, the new CPU could be worth considering if

frame rates are your absolute top priority. If there’s less

than a £40 difference between the two CPUs, the higher

stock speed frequencies, promise of more overclocking

potential and bragging rights could just about make it worth

the premium. If the price goes any higher, though, the

venerable Core i9-9900K is still your best bet.

ANTONY LEATHER

VERDICT

The best gaming CPU available, but it’s only just behind the

cheaper Core i9-9900K, and AMD’s 3rd-gen Ryzen CPUs

offer better multi-threading value.

OVERALLSCORE

79

PERFORMANCE

43 / 50

FEATURES

15 / 15

VALUE

21 / 35

SPEC

Base frequency 4GHz

Max boost frequency 5GHz

Core Coffee Lake refresh

Manufacturing process 14nm++

Number of cores 8 x physical (16 threads)

Hyper-Threading Ye s

Cache 16MB L3 cache, 8 x 256KB L2 cache

Memory controller Dual-channel DDR4, up to 2666MHz

Packaging LGA

Thermal design power (TDP) 127W

Features Turbo Boost 2, FMA3, F16C, SHA, BMI / BMI1 + BMI2,

AVX-512, AVX2, AVX, AES, SSE4a, SSE4, SSE3, SSE2, SSE, MMX

Under the hood of the Core i9-9900KS – all those cores

(the yellow/orange bits) can boost to 5GHz