KitGuru KitGuru.net – Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards
Intel's 10th Gen Comet Lake-S family of CPUs is headlined by the Core i9-10900K which sports 10 cores and 20 threads along with a clock speed ‘Up to 5.3GHz', using a new feature called Thermal Velocity Boost. When you consider this CPU continues to use the trusty 14nm++ fabrication process and Skylake architecture, we were curious to see whether the Core i9-10900K would catch fire or would simply melt. Spoiler alert: no CPUs were harmed in the making of our video.
We recently previewed the Core i9-10900K and now the embargo has lifted and we can lay out the facts and figures for Intel's new desktop champion. Intel certainly makes some bold claims for the Core i9-10900K, but as you may have gathered from our preview we found it difficult to believe these claims could be accurate.
Our specific concern is that Intel 10th Gen Comet Lake-S continues to use their 14nm++ fabrication process and Skylake architecture which were both employed in the impressive but toasty Core i9-9900K.The idea they have added two extra cores in an LGA1200 socket that is physically very similar to LGA115x and have then cranked up the clock speed, well that looks like a recipe for thermal disaster. It is clear from the die shots of 6th Gen Skylake, 7th Gen Kaby Lake and 8th and 9th Gen Coffee Lake that Intel has stretched this architecture far beyond its original design.
Intel's 10th Gen Comet Lake-S product stack is extensive and includes SKUs with a range of two to ten cores and TDPs of 35W, 58W, 65W and 125W, however the notable part of the specifications is the fact that Intel has applied Hyper Threading to the vast majority of the parts. This is very good news as Hyper Threading was disabled for the Core i7-9700 and Core i5-9600 and we are very pleased to see this feature return for 10th Gen.
Before we dig in to Core i9-10900K let us reiterate that Comet Lake-S uses a new LGA1200 socket and currently requires a motherboard with Z490 chipset, although H470 is in the works. LGA1200 is expected to support 11th Gen Rocket Lake with PCI Express Gen 4 but right now this ‘brand new' platform uses the familiar PCI Express Gen 3 and can be considered to trail behind AMD X570 in that regard.
Testing hardware
To test Core i9-10900K we lined up a variety of test platforms that used the following common hardware:
- CPU Cooler Fractal Design Celsius S36 with 3x Noctua Chromax NF-F12 fans
- RAM 32GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 3600MHz 16-18-18-36
- Graphics Card Gigabyte RTX 2080 Super 8GB
- Power Supply Seasonic Prime Platinum1300W
and these specific parts for the four platforms:
Intel 10th Gen Desktop
- Intel Core i9-10900K
- Intel Core i5-10600K
- 1TB WD Blue
- MSI MEG Z490 Ace
Intel 9th Gen Desktop
- Intel Core i9-9900KF
- 1TB Intel 760P
- Asus ROG Maximus XI Formula
AMD AM4 Desktop
- AMD Ryzen 9 3950X
- AMD Ryzen 9 3900X
- AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
- 240GB Toshiba RC100
- Gigabyte X570 Aorus Elite
Intel High End Desktop
- Intel Core i9-9900X
- 32GB G.Skill FlareX 3200MHz 14-14-14-34 quad channel
- 1TB WD Blue
- ASRock X299 Taichi
CPU Tests – Cinebench R20, Cinebench R15 and Blender
CPU Tests Overview
Ten cores of Intel suffers compared to 12 cores of AMD 3900X and is crushed by their 16 core 3950X model, just as you would expect. On the other hand in single core testing Intel Skylake continues to do well thanks to those immense clock speeds.
System Tests – 7-Zip, HandBrake and Sandra Memory Bandwidth
System Tests Overview
Once again AMD shows that a higher core count with decent clock speeds will beat ten cores operating at a huge speed so this is pretty much a repeat of the Cinebench/Blender situation. In Sandra we see that Intel HEDT wins with quad channel memory but beyond that it is pretty much honours even. Those 16GB Corsair Vengeance LPX DIMMS are impressive.
Gaming Tests – 3D Mark
Gaming Tests – 3D Mark Overview
In the Physics and CPU elements of 3D Mark Intel does well. This isn't a surprise as Core i9-9900K did well previously and adding an extra 25 percent cores while increasing clock speed gives an obvious benefit. Nonetheless, let us once again point out that Skylake debuted in 2015. Wow, those designers did a fine job.
Gaming Tests – Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Far Cry 5 New Dawn and Red Dead Redemption 2
Gaming Tests – Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Far Cry 5 New Dawn and Red Dead Redemption 2 Overview
At 4K we know most games are limited by the graphics card, rather than the CPU, however it is notable that Intel is consistently high up the charts. At 1080p the CPU comes into its own and here the charts are owned by Intel. One oddity is the chart for RDR2 where Core i9-10900K trails behind every other Intel CPU we used in testing. This is bizarre to see and we have no explanation. Feel free to leave a comment below.
Gaming Tests – Middle-earth: Shadow of War and Shadow of the Tomb Raider
Gaming Tests – Middle-earth: Shadow of War and Shadow of the Tomb Raider Overview
Once again, in 1080p gaming Intel crowds out the top of the charts. Extra cores and higher clocks speeds have a clear benefit in raising minimum frame rates however you will struggle to see any differences by eye.
Technical Tests – Power and Temperature
System Power Draw
There are no surprises here. CPUs with a lower core count draw less power and Zen 2 is more efficient than Skylake. As you ramp up the clock speed of Skylake, the power draw gets very high, exactly as you would expect.
Power Efficiency
Dividing the Cinebench R20 score by the system power draw in Watts demonstrates a number of points; Zen 2 is very efficient and Ryzen 9 3950X clearly uses high quality silicon while 3900X gets poorer quality chips. Skylake efficiency is much more equal, so it is simply a matter of choosing the number of cores and the operating clock speed and then suffering the hit of the power draw.
Temperature
OK, what happened there? how the heck did Intel deliver ten cores running at 4.9GHz on Auto that run at 70 degrees C, which is only four degrees hotter than Core i9-9900KF? This is the point where we expected Core i9-10900K to crash and but but instead we are deeply impressed and truly hope our review sample is representative of the retail parts that will shortly go on sale.
Technical Tests – Power and Temperature Overview
Intel has pulled a clever trick with Core i9-10900K that appears to be nothing more than a 0.3mm thinning of the silicon. The copper heat spreader has been increased in thickness by the same amount and as a result we can use exactly the same coolers on Comet Lake-S as on previous generations of desktop hardware. If this really is the secret to the cool running of Core i9-10900K then we are deeply impressed and have to question why Intel didn't do something similar with 9th Gen.
We fully expected Core i9-10900K would deliver storming performance, and it does.
We fully expected that ten cores would yield some benefit over eight cores, and they do.
We had little doubt that Intel would deliver the claimed All Core Turbo Frequency and Turbo Boost 2.0, however we had our doubts about Turbo Boost 3.0 and Thermal Velocity Boost as these seemed to be ambitious and to push the limits of physics and thermodynamics… however, Intel has delivered and we were wrong. if you watch our video where we show the difference in behaviour after an update in MSI BIOS from v1.12 to v1.13 we think you will agree the Thermal Velocity Boost figure of 5.3GHz is pretty much irrelevant, but it is there on the screen for you to see.
Out of the box Intel Core i9-10900K is impressive but the fact you can also overclock by a reasonable margin and with modest voltage is doubly impressive. By this stage the CPU power draw has climbed from 225W to 275W, which makes a complete nonsense of the claimed 125W TDP. The fact the CPU package can handle these levels of power and can shed heat to the cooler is, yes, impressive.
So what do we recommend; should you buy into Intel Z490 and the 10th Gen Core i9-10900K? Yes, very possibly. Clearly it makes no sense to upgrade from 9th Gen to 10th Gen but if you are considering AMD AM4 with Ryzen 9 3900X or 3950X for a gaming PC that does other work on the side then yes, absolutely. The decision may come back to hurt you when Nvidia releases PCI Express Gen 4 graphics or AMD finally launches Big Navi, but right now Intel has earned itself a place in the buying decision. With Skylake. In 2020. Wow.
You can buy the Intel Core i9-10900K from Overclockers UK for £530 HERE.
Discuss on our Facebook page HERE.
Pros:
- Stellar gaming results.
- Mighty Turbo Boost performance of 4.9GHz on ten cores.
- Impressively low CPU temperatures.
- Good potential for overclocking.
- CPU is priced quite reasonably.
Cons:
- New platform, new chipset, new CPU socket.
- Z490 and 10th Gen are stuck on PCI Express Gen 3.
- Those ten cores require loads of power.
- LGA1200 is expected to have a very short life.
- Z490 motherboards are expensive.
KitGuru Says: Against all expectations Core i9-10900K has impressed us. If Intel had delivered this part with 9th Gen it would have coloured our view of AMD Zen 2, but as things stand Core i9-10900K just about keeps Intel in the fight.
