Intel Core i9-9900K Review – Mighty Processor, Mighty Price

1. Introducing Core i9-9900K2. Details of Core i9-9900K and Z3903. Testing Core i9-9900K - CPU Tests4. Testing Core i9-9900K - Games5. Testing i9-9900K Overview and Overclocking6. Cooling and Power Draw7. Closing Thoughts8. View All Pages

Cooling Performance

Cooling Performance Overview

We used a 240mm Asetek cooler from Fractal Design, and while there may be scope for improved cooling with a larger custom loop we feel confident the figures we have are representative for this new 8-core CPU. The two extra CPU cores have driven CPU temperatures significantly higher than Core i7-8700K. Intel has soldered the heat spreader through necessity as a way of maintaining clock speeds. If they had stuck with conventional TIM we are sure Turbo clock speeds would have been a few hundred MHz lower.

On Auto settings the Core i9-9900K behaves perfectly well but as soon as you overclock the thermals race up to the line for throttling. Core i9-9900K is delivered on the edge of its thermal limits.

Power Draw

We used Powenetics Project software from Cybenetics to fully analyse the performance of our CPUs in conjunction with a 1300W Seasonic Prime Platinum power supply.

Power Draw Overview

On Auto settings the Core i9-9900K draws significantly more power than Core i7-8700K (175W against 110W), however the clock speed is 4.8GHz over 4.4GHz. The intriguing thing is that an overclocked Core i9-9900K draws 205W which is barely more than the 190W demanded by Core i7-8700K. Intel has said nothing about the process used in Core i9 but it feels to us that some minor improvements have been made.

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