The Intel Core i9-9900K at 95W: Fixing The Power for SFF
by Ian Cutress on November 29, 2018 8:00 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 | i9-9900K i7-9700K i5-9600K |
ASRock Z370 Gaming i7** |
P1.70 | TRUE Copper |
Crucial Ballistix 4x8GB DDR4-2666 |
| Intel 8th Gen | i7-8086K i7-8700K i5-8600K |
ASRock Z370 Gaming i7 |
P1.70 | TRUE Copper |
Crucial Ballistix 4x8GB DDR4-2666 |
| Intel 7th Gen | i7-7700K i5-7600K |
GIGABYTE X170 ECC Extreme |
F21e | Silverstone* AR10-115XS |
G.Skill RipjawsV 2x16GB DDR4-2400 |
| Intel 6th Gen | i7-6700K i5-6600K |
GIGABYTE X170 ECC Extreme |
F21e | Silverstone* AR10-115XS |
G.Skill RipjawsV 2x16GB DDR4-2133 |
| Intel HEDT | i9-7900X i7-7820X i7-7800X |
ASRock X299 OC Formula |
P1.40 | TRUE Copper |
Crucial Ballistix 4x8GB DDR4-2666 |
| AMD 2000 | R7 2700X R5 2600X R5 2500X |
ASRock X370 Gaming K4 |
P4.80 | Wraith Max* | G.Skill SniperX 2x8 GB DDR4-2933 |
| GPU | Sapphire RX 460 2GB (CPU Tests) MSI GTX 1080 Gaming 8G (Gaming Tests) |
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| PSU | Corsair AX860i Corsair AX1200i |
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| SSD | Crucial MX200 1TB | ||||
| OS | Windows 10 x64 RS3 1709 Spectre and Meltdown Patched |
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| *VRM Supplimented with SST-FHP141-VF 173 CFM fans | |||||
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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101 Comments
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Alexvrb - Thursday, November 29, 2018 - link
Yes yes, all those office workers running a 9900K would barely notice. Serious, man? The whole reason this issue came to light was because gamers and other demanding users complained that the processor at DEFAULT settings on pretty much any retail board was annihilating TDP, even more noticeably so than their previous flagship. Journalists are lagging well behind, and when they DO bother looking into it, it's very much a "yeah it's true, shrug" article.Gastec - Wednesday, June 19, 2019 - link
Well said, "shrugging". Automagically overclocked CPU's do make benchmark graphs look better and CPUs sell better. Reminds me of one of AngryJoe's video about a certain MMO: "Oh, you want more? That would be $15 please! $15 more, please! That would be another $15!" Same with Intel, you want more performance, that would be 75% to 100% more watts, please! Yeah, I get it. Want 10 Ghz on all cores? 1000 W, what's the problem?koaschten - Thursday, November 29, 2018 - link
Check https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmAWqyHdebILindseyLopez - Wednesday, December 19, 2018 - link
nonicolaim - Thursday, November 29, 2018 - link
Missing link to TDP article on first page.Exodite - Thursday, November 29, 2018 - link
Thanks for this!It would be interesting, though perhaps not entirely related to this article in particular, to get a comparison on actual power draw and load temperatures as well. Similar to what you provide in your usual CPU reviews, to get a fair comparison to both the "unlocked" 9900K as well as the other slew of processors in the bench.
I'd imagine the 9900K would look much better on those numbers, though obviously worse on performance, when actually adhering to TDP.
Wingartz - Thursday, November 29, 2018 - link
*You can read it all [here], although what it boils down to is this diagram*[here] doesn't have a link to the article
:nudge> - Thursday, November 29, 2018 - link
For easy comparisons it's great to see Geekbench making an appearanceAlexvrb - Friday, November 30, 2018 - link
*worthless comparisons barely better Dhrystone and WhetstoneSirMaster - Thursday, November 29, 2018 - link
How many people are actually buying a $500 CPU and capping it's power limit to 95W?Can't be many, how about buy a different CPU if you plan on capping it's power limit like that.
I have an SFF mini-ITX build and my old overclocked haswell CPU is running at like 180W and staying cool just fine.