Intel Core i9 9900K

Overview

The Core i9-9900K is an 8-core processor with Hyper-threading enabled for 16 logical threads. It operates at a base frequency of 3.6 GHz but will boost as high as 4.7 GHz on all cores with a maximum single core frequency of 5 GHz. The L3 cache has been increased from the 8700K's 12MB up to 16 MB and quite shockingly despite packing 2 more cores and 4MB more cache, the TDP rating remains at 95 watts which was already a low rating for the 8700K.

There is a new version available:

Intel Core i9-14900K

Check out the reviews, price history, pros/cons and more.

See it on Amazon: $537

Best CPUs 2020

Chosen by our editors as one of the best products in its category.

TechSpot Metascore

Based on 29 expert reviews

Excellent:

16
Good:

11
Average:

2
Bad:

0

9.6

User Score

Based on 6,094 reviews
as rated by users

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Last revision on August 6, 2022

Reviewers Liked

Two more cores than previous top Coffee Lake CPU
Performance in both single- and multi-threaded workloads
Works on existing LGA1151 platform, even with Z370 motherboards
Supports up to 128 GB memory
5GHz peak one-core clock for single-threaded apps

Reviewers Didn't Like

Creates new, costlier price tier above former Core i7 flagship CPUs
Power consumption under heavy load
Only small gaming performance improvements
Lacks stock cooler

Competitors and Related Products

Our editors hand-pick related products using a variety of criteria: direct competitors targeting the same market segment, or devices that are similar in size, performance, or feature sets.

Expert reviews and ratings

Ryzen 5 3600 vs. Ryzen 9 3900X vs. Core i9-9900K: If you’re looking at spending less than $700 on a graphics card, buying a Core i9-9900K or Ryzen 9 3900X, purely for gaming isn’t a great investment, you’re far better off with something like the R5 3600. In fact, purely for gaming I wouldn’t recommend either the 9900K or 3900X unless you’re dumping $1,000 on an RTX 2080 Ti.

By TechSpot on August 19, 2019

Battlefield V Multiplayer CPU Benchmark: Ryzen 7 2700X vs. Core i9-9900K: Overall, we think Ryzen looks a bit disappointing at 1080p where the game is not GPU limited, though given the clock speed deficit, it's impressive the 2700X is just 15% slower than the 9900K. Keep in mind that both AMD and Intel CPUs can be overclocked for greater performance and memory timings can be manually tuned, which is beneficial on both platforms. Generally speaking, AMD does better with memory tuning, while Intel gains more from core overclocking.

By TechSpot on November 26, 2018

Intel Core i9-9900K Re-Review: With motherboards technically overclocking the 9900K to the default clock multiplier table, 4.7 GHz as an all core for example, under those conditions there isn’t much left in it. For most 5GHz will be the limit, good luck keeping it cool past that without a serious amount of time, effort and risk. So realistically you’re talking about up to a 6% boost over what’s shown here when looking at the unlimited results, and we certainly found that to be true when attempting to overclock the 9900K in our day-one review.

By TechSpot on November 10, 2018

Intel Core i9-9900K and Core i7-9700K Review: Only those with money to burn will be considering the 9900K at its current market price, or even the $500 MSRP for that matter. For me it’s just too expensive and too impractical, keeping it cool seems like a daily challenge and unless you’re going all out on custom liquid cooling, it’s a challenge you’ll likely fail.

By TechSpot on October 19, 2018

Battlefield V is playable on quad-cores but you can expect frequent frame dips, resulting in less consistent frame rates. For the most part, we've found that the older Core i5-7600K has been hanging in there pretty well with AAA titles released in...

By TechSpot on October 20, 2017

As the market forces the prices of CPUs down, the Intel Core i9-9900k is a far more exciting and interesting offering, making it a great choice for new builds or streaming...

By CGM on October 14, 2019

A great third outing from AMDAMD has pretty much knocked it out of the park with its third-generation Ryzen products. The Ryzen 9 3900X clearly delivers excellent multi-threaded performance and very competitive gaming results.

By hardwarezone.com.sg on July 07, 2019

Intel may be a bit late when it comes to joining in the industry with their very first mainstream octa core processor, but their i9-9900K is seriously a very remarkable debut. The intense enhancement in the processing power of this i9-9900K from Intel.

By TheStreamingBlog on February 21, 2019

Though we have used an identical GPU across the benchmark, the Core-i9-9900K offer slightly better performance in almost all scenarios, in some cases, the difference in the performance (compared to the 9th Gen Core i7-9700K) might be negligible.

By gizbot.com on January 16, 2019

It took Intel a while to release the Core i9-9900K in India, and unfortunately it has come in at an outlandishly high price. It sells for Rs. 57,000 online which puts it well out of reach of most casual gamers and many enthusiasts. Intel does not provide country-specific price guidance anymore so it is difficult to know whether this could go down once Intel's supply issues are sorted out.

By Gadgets360 on December 26, 2018

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Intel Core i9 9900K

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Price: $570

Intel Core i9-14900K

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Competitors and Related Products

AMD Ryzen 9 3900X

Intel Core i7 9700K

Intel Core i7-8700K

AMD Ryzen 7 3700X

AMD Ryzen 7 3800X

AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2950X

Expert reviews and ratings