Intel Core i9-9900KF Review: Disabled Graphics and No Discount

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VRMark, 3DMark, AotS: Escalation, Civilization VI and Warhammer 40K

VRMark, 3DMark

We aren't big fans of using synthetic benchmarks to measure performance, but 3DMark's DX11 and DX12 CPU tests provide useful insight into the amount of horsepower available to game engines.

The DX11 and DX12 CPU test results show the Core i9-9900KF and the -9900K essentially tied at stock settings, maintaining Core i9's commanding lead over the Ryzen models. The tuned KF CPU takes a slight lead over its counterpart, which comes courtesy of its extra 200 MHz of overclocking headroom.

Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation

Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation is a computationally intense title that scales well with thread count. At stock settings, the -9900K and KF models score a perfect tie during the benchmark, but the KF model takes an almost unnoticeable lead after tuning.

Civilization VI Graphics Test

Again, we see negligible differences between the two Core i9 processors at both stock and overclocked settings.

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War III

Ryzen 7 2700X is more competitive in the Warhammer 40,000 benchmark, largely because this game responds well to threading. But the delta between Core i9 models remains slight.


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Paul Alcorn
Managing Editor: News and Emerging Tech

Paul Alcorn is the Managing Editor: News and Emerging Tech for Tom's Hardware US. He also writes news and reviews on CPUs, storage, and enterprise hardware.