Intel Core i9-9900K, i7-9700K and i5-9600K in review – Hot tightrope walk between overtaking and braking lane

1 - Einführung und Architektur 2 - Security Patches, Testsystem 3 - Synthetische Tests 4 - AotS: Escalation, Civilization, DoW III 5 - Far Cry 5, GTA V, Hitman 6 - Shadow of War, Project Cars 2 7 - Office- und Browser-Benchmarks 8 - Adobe Creative Cloud 9 - Encoding und Kompression 10 - Workstation 2D/3D Grafik 11 - Workstation Compute/Rendering 12 - Temperaturen und Kühlung 13 - Leistungsaufnahme 14 - Zusammenfassung

Similar to the Cascade and Whiskey Lake processors we recently introduced, Intel's Coffee Lake Refresh product line of processors is also affected by the changes for Meltdown and L1TF (Foreshadow). The latest Spectre and Meltdown preventions that Intel provides through software and microcode patches can reduce performance on newer hardware by up to 10% (in relation to the workload), with older hardware suffering even greater losses.

The solutions that have now been implemented directly in the chip should be able to at least reduce or even eliminate the impact on performance for some of the vulnerabilities.

However, it can take several generations of processors for the fixes to be applied at the silicon level for all vulnerabilities. The first wave of hardware-based fixes is limited, but Intel has at least vaguely predicted that the in-silicon fixes will expand over time. The processors of the 9th Generation will still need a combination of microcode and operating system patches for most variants, but at least Meltdown and L1TF Foreshadow have been completely patched into hardware.

However, Intel does not describe the exact nature of the changes to the microarchitecture, and probably for good reason. Like the rest of the industry, Intel plays an opaque and very annoying cat-and-mouse game with security researchers and malicious actors ranging from nation states to recreational hackers, so of course it wouldn't be very advisable to have too many information about troubleshooting.

Test

I mean, if you can afford an 8-core with hyperthreading or SMT, you also have the necessary financial strength for an adequate motherboard. But this statement is no longer entirely true for AMD's eighth-seeded corers, who have long since arrived in the middle class. Another point that is sure to hurt Intel and whether the nonchalance that has been on display for years must somehow. Instant karma and so on. For our test system I use an MSI MEG Z390 Godlike, a solid and quite stable choice. The accessories are of course a fine entry for the end customer, but I leave most of it in the box.

But what is really new about the Z390-PCH, that a change from the Z370 e.g. would be worth it at all? Stupidly, almost nothing for which you would have to kill yourself out of desperation, because the bottom line is that you only natively implement the USB 3.1 and AC-WLAN. For all the incentives, MSI, for example, has with the Godlike a Z390 top model at the start, which could also be more lavishly equipped.

If you want to get more impressions of the motherboard – here is a picture gallery with real photos of the unboxing and water cooling conversion for the test system:

Motherboard Front

Motherboard Rear

Voltage Regulators

EPS Power Connectors

Display

PCB Rear

Backplate

Water Block

BIOS

Package 02