Intel Core i9-9900KS Thoughts
The battle for desktop PC gaming supremacy often boils down to a few extra frames, and gamers willing to spend enough for this class of processor will often pair it with the highest-end GPUs. There, the Core i9-9900KS wins.
Overall, the Core i9-9900KS sets the new bar for gaming performance. It also serves up the highest overclocking ceiling we've seen with a chip right out of the box. At stock settings, we mostly matched the performance of a highly-overclocked Intel Core i9-9900K with far less power consumption, which is plenty impressive.
Intel has extended its lead in gaming over AMD's lineup, but we have to maintain perspective. The Ryzen 9 3900X offers a lower price point and is more agile in heavily-threaded workloads, particularly in productivity applications. It also comes with other advantages, like support for PCIe 4.0. If you're not chasing the bleeding edge of gaming performance or overclockability, the Ryzen 9 3900X still offers a compelling blend of price and performance in both gaming and productivity applications.
Intel's Core i9-9900KS offers those last few frames of performance that the most dedicated enthusiasts demand, but it does come at a hefty price. We'll have to wait until we have more data and official pricing before we make purchasing recommendations, but it is clear that the Core i9-9900KS will be appealing to extreme gaming performance enthusiasts and those searching for the ultimate single-threaded performance. Overclockers, both of the extreme and mainstream variety, also increase their chances of getting a highly-overclockable chip right out of the box.
We still have a lot to learn about Intel's newest flagship. We'll dive in much deeper on the technical aspects, and plenty more testing, when we post our official review. Stay tuned.
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