Intel Core i9-9900KS Review: The Fastest Gaming CPU Bar None

Name: Core i9-9900KS
Brand: Core

by Marco Chiappetta — Wednesday, October 30, 2019, 11:00 AM EDT

Intel Core i9-9900KS - Speedometer, LAME MT, x265, Y-Cruncher

Next up, we have some numbers from the Speedometer 2.0 test available at browserbench.org. The Speedometer Benchmark Suite uses a wide array of latency and throughput benchmarks to evaluate web application performance, and all of the results are tabulated into a final score. The benchmark measures performance of an array of browser-based technologies used on modern, rich web applications. Scores in this benchmark are an indicator of the performance users would see when browsing and running advanced web apps.

Speedometer 2.0

Web App Performance Testing

All of the systems were tested using the latest version of Microsoft's Edge browser, with default browser settings, on a clean install of Windows 10 Professional x64.

Once again we see the Core i9-9900KS taking the lead in the browser-based Speedometer benchmark. The Core i9-9900K just barely missed the mark set by the Ryzen 9-3900X and Ryzen 7-3700X, but the Core i9-9900KS' higher clocks goose performance just enough to propel it past the Ryzen processors and in the pole position.

LAME MT

Audio Conversion and Encoding

In our custom LAME MT MP3 encoding test, we convert a large WAV file to the MP3 format, which is a popular, day-to-day use case for many end users, to provide portability and storage of their digital audio content. LAME is an open-source mid to high bit-rate and VBR (variable bit rate) MP3 audio encoder that is used widely around the world in a multitude of third party applications.

In this test, we created our own 223MB WAV file and converted it to the MP3 format using the multi-thread capable LAME MT application in single and multi-thread modes. Processing times are recorded below, listed in seconds. Shorter times equate to better performance.

The Core i9-9900KS' higher clocks also allow it to lead the pack in our audio encoding test. LAME MT runs particularly well on Intel's architecture. Couple Coffee Lake, with that 5GHz boost clock, and you end up with another clear victory for the 9900KS.

X265 Benchmark

Video Encoding Test

The multi-threaded HWBOT x265 Benchmark is based on the open source x265 encoder that leverages modern CPU instructions to speed video encoding. We tested the CPUs represented here with the 64-bit encoder using the default 1080p workload.

AMD's 12-core Ryzen 9-3900X and Intel's 18-core Core i9-9980XE can't be touched in this video encoding benchmark, but the Core i9-9900KS clearly surpasses all of the other 8-core processors and is actually able to overtake the 16-core 2nd Gen Threadripper 2950X. The Threadripper's lower clocks and funky memory configuration hurt it here, but we suspect things will look different for AMD when the Threadripper 3000 series arrives next month.

Y-Cruncher

MT Pi Calculator

Y-Cruncher is a multi-core-capable tool that calculates the value of pi to a specified number of digits. In this case, we ran the tool on all threads and had the application calculate the value of pi to 1 billion digits. The values below are the time required to perform the calculation expressed in seconds. As a result, lower values indicate better performance.

This test will chew up as many processor cores and as much cache as you can throw at it. As such, the many-core processors and Ryzen 3000 series perform particularly well. The 8-core Core i9-9900KS, however, nearly catches the 12-core Threadripper 2920X and jumps out in front of the Core i9-9900K.