2019-06-01_PC_Gamer

HOW WE TEST

For our testing, we standardised on Nvidia’s

GTX 1080 Ti FE as our graphics card. At

1080p, this shows the largest difference in

gaming performance you’re likely to see

with current generation GPUs. For memory,

we’ve used high-end G.Skill Trident Z and

Flare X DDR4-3200 CL14 memory on all

modern platforms, in either 2x8GB or

4x8GB configurations.

The motherboards used in testing

include the MSI Z390 MEG Godlike and

Gigabyte Z370 Gaming 7 for Coffee Lake,

MSI Z270X Gaming M7 for Kaby Lake/

Skylake, Asus X299-A Prime for LGA2066,

and MSI X99A Gaming Pro Carbon for

LGA2011-3 on the Intel side of things. For

AMD platforms, we used the Gigabyte X470

Aorus Gaming 7 Wifi for Ryzen, and the

Asus Zenith Extreme for Threadripper.

Liquid cooling was used on all CPUs.

PERFORMANCE RESULTS

Thanks to the Meltdown and Spectre

exploits, and the patches to Windows

intended to remedy those exploits, I had to

retest every single processor.

Gaming performance is tested in ten

games, representing a variety of genres and

game engines, all using the GTX 1080 Ti FE.

The games are running at 1080p Ultra

settings, with 4xMSAA where applicable

and FXAA/SMAA otherwise.

Core i9-9900K

INTEL £500

Fastest processor for games, streaming, and more

The best processor can
mean a lot of things. For
pure gaming, the Core
i9-9900K is overkill, unless you’re
planning on an extreme build with
a top-tier graphics card. For those
that do more than just playing
games, however, the Core
i9-9900K reigns as the overall
king of performance. It’s the
fastest mainstream CPU for the
LGA1151 platform, period.
The Core i9-9900K doesn’t
have the core counts found of
chips like the i9-7980XE or
Threadripper 2990WX, but it
boasts the highest clockspeed of
any current processor, with
excellent per-core performance.

Put it in a good enthusiast

motherboard and you’re likely to

see all-core ‘stock’ clocks of

4.7GHz, with lighter workloads

hitting 5.0GHz out of the box.

You’ll need to bring your own

cooling, which is Intel’s approach

to all its K-series and X-series

processors, and definitely don’t

skimp. The i9-9900K can draw a

lot of power and tends to run

hotter than the previous gen,

thanks to the extracores.

FastestCPUforgaming

Plentyofcoresforothertasks

Marginaloverclockingheadroom

Requiresaftermarketcooler

VERDICT

SPECS CORES: 8 / THREADS: 16 / BASE CLOCK: 3.6GHZ / TURBO CLOCK: 5.0GHZ / OVERCLOCKING: YES, 4.9-5.0GHZ
TYPICAL / L3 CACHE: 16MB / TDP: 95W / PCIE 3.0 LANES: 16

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Core i7-9700K

INTEL £380

Excellent gaming performance at a lower price

Intel’s Core i7-9700K is

an interesting step

down from the

i9-9900K. It sports the same

number of CPU cores, and

clockspeeds are similar as well,

with most Z390 boards running

the chip with all-core turbo

speeds of 4.6-4.7GHz.

In games, it’s effectively tied

with the more expensive Core i9

but costs around £120 less.

That’s because for the first time,

Intel has shipped a Core i7

without Hyper-Threading.

It’s a balancing act between

price, performance, and features.

Compared to the Core i7-8700K,

it has 33 per cent more cores,

which generally translates directly

into multithreaded performance.

Hyper-Threading typically only

improves performance by 10-15

per cent, so it’s a net win. The lack

of Hyper-Threading also means

the i7-9700K doesn’t get nearly

as hot as the Core i9, so you can

get by with a good air cooler.

If you’re livestreaming, doing

video editing, or any other serious

content creation work, stepping

up to the 9900K makessense.

Excellentgamingperformance

Eighthigh-speedcores

NoHyper-Threading

Limitedoverclocking

VERDICT

SPECS CORES: 8 / THREADS: 8 / BASE CLOCK: 3.6GHZ / TURBO CLOCK: 4.9GHZ / OVERCLOCKING: YES, 4.9-5.1GHZ

TYPICAL / L3 CACHE: 12MB / TDP: 95W / PCIE 3.0 LANES: 16

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2

HARDWARE

Group Test