A mysterious Coffee Lake Refresh (CFL-R) processor claiming to be the Intel Core i9-9900T, was up for auction on Yahoo! Auctions two days ago. The “T” suffix suggests the chip is a low-power variant of the Intel Core i9-9900K octa-core processor.
The processor listed was said to be an engineering sample (ES). Accompanying photos show a QQC0 identifier on its integrated heatsink (IHS). The Intel Core i9-9900T is expected to be produced under Intel's 14nm++ process and inherit the Core i9-9900K's eight cores, 16 threads and 16MB of L3 cache. However, being a T-series chip, it should come with slower clock speeds to earn the 35W TDP (thermal design power) badge.
See how the specs listed for the alleged Core i9-9900T compare to the Core i9-9900K and i9-9900KF in the table below:
| Model | Cores / Threads | Base Frequency | Boost Frequency | Memory Support | Processor Graphics | Cache | TDP | MSRP |
| Core i9-9900K | 8 / 16 | 3.6 GHz | 5 GHz (1 / 2 Core)4.8 GHz (4 Core)4.7 GHz (6 / 8 Core) | DDR4-2666 | Intel UHD Graphics 630 | 16MB | 95W | $488 - $499 |
| Core i9-9900KF | 8 / 16 | 3.6 GHz | 5 GHz (1 / 2 Core)4.8 GHz (4 Core)4.7 GHz (6 / 8 Core) | DDR4-2666 | N/A | 16MB | 95W | $499 |
| Core i9-9900T | 8 / 16 | 1.7 GHz | 3.8 GHz GHz (1 / 2 Core)? GHz (4 Core)3.3 GHz (6 / 8 Core) | DDR4-2666 | Intel UHD Graphics 630 | 16MB | 35W | ? |
According to the marking on the IHS seen in the auction's photos, the Core i9-9900T features a 1.7GHz base clock. The seller specified a 3.8GHz boost clock, but that's likely the single-core and dual-core boost. We think the all-core boost for the Core i9-9900T could be around 3.3GHz. The seller also claimed that the processor is faster than the Intel Core i7-8700K.
Intel Core i9-9900T Price
The high-end and unlocked Core i9-9900K retails between $488 and $499, while the Core i9-9900KF, which lacks the integrated Intel UHD Graphics 630 (GT2) iGPU, goes for $499. The auction had the Core i9-9900T listed for 35,000 yen (about $319.39). Theoretically, the Core i9-9900T should carry a lower price tag than the Core i9-9900K or Core i9-9900KF. However, with Intel, that's not always the case, as we saw with the Core i9-9900KF, which everyone thought would cost much less than the Core i9-9900K.
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Zhiye Liu is a news editor, memory reviewer, and SSD tester at Tom’s Hardware. Although he loves everything that’s hardware, he has a soft spot for CPUs, GPUs, and RAM.
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andrewtimothyrobinson Faster than an 8700k? maybe by a razor's edge on multi core/multithreaded benchmarks and certainly not even close on single core.Reply -
Bamba I think you have a mistake: The i9-9900KF's memory support should be the same as the others - DDR4-2666 (not DDR4-2966)Reply -
joeblowsmynose Reply21711922 said:I'd much rather see a i9-9900 (65W) version.
Clocks would be way too low (my opinion, but see rationale). Intels 95w TDP on the 9900k is strictly the base clock number with no boost at all. It can easily pull 250w+ with MCE on under full load.
Restricting it to its 95w TDP will give you a 5ghz boost on one core as opposed to two (which is still great), but only 3.6ghz as opposed to 4.7 for an all core boost. It would still be great for gaming and lighter tasks, but for heavy threads it would likely perform a fair bit worse than the 2700x, but still good overall where you need 16 threads.
So, I think an actual 95 watt version for about $300 (same as the 2700x) would actually be ideal for a lot of people. But the way Intel prices things ...
EDIT
Sorry, let me provide a source in case there any doubt over my claim: https://www.anandtech.com/show/13591/the-intel-core-i9-9900k-at-95w-fixing-the-power-for-sff -
charleyed If this is an engineering sample, is it likely to be an unauthorized release, otherwise known as stolen?Reply -
joeblowsmynose Reply21713218 said:If this is an engineering sample, is it likely to be an unauthorized release, otherwise known as stolen?
"Found" would probably be more accurate ... and found in quotes to denote that someone "lost" one by "accident" ... ;) -
adolf_intel This is obviously just binning. They're faulty 9900k chips that can't reach the proper frequenciesReply -
rantoc @adolf_intel: Most likely along with the same full price-tag as the other failed chips.. IE the ones with the cut out gpusReply -
jimmysmitty Reply21713795 said:This is obviously just binning. They're faulty 9900k chips that can't reach the proper frequencies
The "Intel Confidential" basically says its a ES sample and not a retail product. It shouldn't be sold and Intel can, and if they find out, will go after the seller.