Rating
The 10th generation of Intel Core processors, called Comet Lake-S, is the latest iteration of Skylake and, unlike the mobile Ice Lake, is still 14 nm. However, this constant tuning of this manufacturing process has resulted in record frequencies that are specifically related to the most powerful processor currently in the LGA 1200 socket. Now the only question is whether this will be enough for the Ryzen 9 3900X.
Rating
Intel Core i9-10900K is perhaps the least expected processor this year and many people have rejected it before it even started selling. The main dogmas are high power draw, high temperatures and lower performance than those offered by competing AMD which is also cheaper. Some things have been shown as worthy, others have not. Let’s review one point after another. The price of 3900X has dropped to about 450 euros and if you are lucky, you can get the 10900K for about 550 euros. Unfortunately, there is a shortage of processors and it is sold for 700 euros in some places which is no longer appropriate. AMD thus has a significant price advantage and better availability. Not to mention that in a moment we can expect slightly improved XT versions with higher clock speed.
So the 10900K doesn’t offer good price or availability which probably doesn’t surprise anyone. What about the other dogmas? Extremely high power draw has been confirmed, the numbers are insane and hard to accept. Especially when we talk about the fact that the 3900X has stronger multi-thread performance and almost half the maximum power draw.
The big surprise, however, is that the 10900K temperatures were quite in check. The 360 mm AIO cooler did its job, but we always use it for testing. 83 degrees Celsius as a maximum is not as bad of a value as I expected. Of course, it will be different with overclocking which we will look at another time. The multi-thread performance was obvious in advance and only confirmed that the 3900X is the king in this price range. Only game performance left now. In this area, the 10900K starred and only showed the 3900X its rear lights. So, if your priority is to play at high fps, the 10900K is currently the best choice. High clock speed still gives it an advantage over Ryzen, although it’s only for a while until AMD introduces Ryzen 4000 series. The 10900K can therefore be summarized as an expensive, power-thirsty but fast processor. It is then up to you whether you are willing to accept its flaws to achieve higher fps in games. That is, under certain circumstances, in lower resolutions. In UHD, which will probably not be unique to expensive PC builds, this advantage is almost completely eliminated.
| Intel Core i9-10900K |
| + excellent single thread performance |
| + great gaming performance with high fps thanks to high clock speed |
| + new technologies squeezed the most out of old Skylake architecture |
| + iGPU for HW acceleration or emergency use without dGPU |
| - high price compared to its competition (although it didn’t change in between generations) |
| - lags behind the 3900X in multi-core, sometimes very significantly |
| - extremely high power draw. Even higher after OC and temperatures will be problematic |
You can buy this processor at our partner’s website czc.cz for 14 681 CZK/550 EUR.
We’re definitely not closing the Intel 10th gen topic with this test. Soon, we will bring a test of Core i7-10700K and we’re planning to have a look at several Z490 motherboards. So stay tuned! 🙂
English translation and edit by Lukáš Terényi
- Contents
- 10th generation, 10 cores
- Rendering and Geekbench
- Gaming, graphics tests and PC/3DMark
- Encryption, encoding and memory tests
- Heating and power draw
- Rating
