Intel launches 9th generation i9-9900K processor, 8 cores and more

Calling "the best game processor in the world" on several occasions, Intel on Monday launched the ninth-generation Core i9-9900K, its flagship unlocked and overclockable eight-core processor, designed for gamers and more nebulous market segments. creators.

Added to this are ninth-generation Core i7 and i5 versions, an 18-core i9-9980XE for people who need power, but not the processor, and a 28-core unlocked Xeon W-3175X for those who need it.

Intel and the rest of the computer industry are really pushing the idea of ​​a "creative" market segment as well as gambling because these are the ones that need more power than ever before. usually – those who spend more – and who usually upgrade their systems every two years. at three years old. And as pointed out by a professional player, esports is a "slot machine". More hearts help you when you play and stream, for example

More and more, games are designed with six or more cores, and when you're ready to use 1440p on high quality settings (or possibly 4K), more powerful graphics cards such as The RTX line of Nvidia means that the processor is more likely to be the bottleneck than the GPU. And for unnamed games, high quality rendering always happens on the processor, where more cores make a big difference. And some games already use as many hearts as you can toss them.

"Ninth generation" does not mean much compared to the eighth generation for Intel's Core processors: the 14nm ++ Coffee Lake-S process that defines the generation essentially adds efficiency, allowing at Intel to win higher clock speeds, more consistent memory and more flexible access and power handling.

The most noticeable aspect of the i9-9900K and i7-9700K models is the eight-core hump. When many treatments are performed simultaneously, as is the case with, for example, video encoding, more cores are better; the rest of the time, higher clock speeds will have more impact. The i9-9900K combines both, with the capacity of 5GHz, the fastest Intel Turbo Boost clock speed, when using a single core, but offering extra cores when you need them.

Performance is enhanced by Intel's improved memory architecture, which does not deprive memory cores, and the adoption of the Thermal Solder Interface (STIM) material to replace the Thermal paste between the chip and its heat sink allows better heat dissipation during overclocking.

They do not come cheap. The only machine costs between $ 490 and $ 4900, which means that system prices will probably start at over $ 2,000. But eight-core is a relatively happy medium between monsters such as Intel's i9 X Series, which starts at 10 cores, 20 threads for around $ 1,000, and the eighth-generation eight-core i7s that are great today but may not be so in a few years. – especially since Intel has abandoned hyperthreading, which nearly doubles the number of cores, i7 ranges and lower. Especially if you want an electric office system that will last long enough before having to replace it.

If you are looking for cheaper, The Ryzen 2700X of AMD offers eight hearts, 16 threads for less money, but we will wait for the benchmarks to be completed before determining if the tradeoffs, if any, are worth it.

Pre-orders for all major manufacturers' systems start today and will be shipped on October 19th.

The Xeon W-3175X unlocked 18-core and the Xeon W-3175X unlocked 28-core will be released in December, which means that the systems will be available from January.

The i9-9900K goes to 5 GHz on two of the cores and 4.7 GHz on the set. The i7-9700K, however, is very close: it will go to 4.9 GHz on one core (4.8 GHz out of two) or 4.6 GHz on all cores. The difference lies in the hyperthreading i7 drops, the technology that gives you eight threads on a quad-core processor, for example. With four cores, the most popular optimization for most software, the i7-9700K goes to 4.7 GHz and the i9-9900K to 4.8 GHz. Thus, the gap between the two processors is not very large for tasks that do not take advantage of hyperthreading or more than four cores.

Processors, however, are not totally up to the test of time. The fastest memory they will support is DDR4-2666, while the faster DDR4 is available now and DDR5 is on the horizon. You can, however, overclock the memory.

An updated Z390 chipset also adds increased support for the USB-C / Thunderbolt port compared to the previous Z370.

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