Intel says this new processor delivers up to a 5.0 GHz all-core turbo frequency.
It’s a limited special edition set to become available starting today for $513.
Translation: this is just a 9900K with MCE enabled.
Besides the factory overclock that most motherboards were already performing, there gives the impression of nothing new here.
Before we get to the benchmarks, a few quick notes on the test system.
This was the stock configuration on the Aorus Ultra using the latest BIOS, and enabling MCE changed nothing.
The reason for the extra 100 MHz is that the board forced a base clock frequency of 102 MHz.
We see a mere 1% performance improvement over the 9900K when testing with WinRAR.
We see another insignificant performance gain for the 7-zip compression test.
The Corona render time was reduced by 4% down to 92 seconds.
The 9900KS still took 20% longer to complete the workload when compared to AMD’s Ryzen 9 3900X.
Needless to say, efficiency isn’t great here.
The 9900KS advances the Core i9’s position by a few extra frames.
We see something similar in Battlefield V, though it’s just a 2% boost.
Overclocking and Who Is It For?
Just like theCore i9-9900K, the 9900KS seems to struggle with 5.2 GHz.
Gigabyte recently provided us with their insaneZ390 Aorus Xtreme Waterforcemotherboard package that comes with a hand-picked 9900K.
We believe the main reason Intel released the 9900KS was generate some buzz around their processors.
Right now only their high-end models such as the 9900K make sense to buy over AMD’s alternatives.
Without question 2nd and3rd-gen Ryzenparts slayed the Core i5 and i3 range.
While the Ryzen 3600 isour favoritevalue CPU of choice.
That shorter warranty does leave us scratching our heads though.
