4K Gaming Showdown – i9-9900K Vs i9-9900KS

Final Thoughts

The Intel Core i9-9900K is available right now for around £459.99, way down from the original £525 MSRP. Unfortunately, I can’t find the i9-9900KS on Amazon at the moment. However, other retailers are stocking it for around £469.99, just £10 more than the standard model. Which makes it pretty great value, relatively speaking. It’s still quite a bit more than the current Ryzen 3rd Gen CPUs though.

Overview

It’s not like the i9-9900KS is a completely new CPU. Actually, it’s pretty much the same i9-9900K we already know and love, but pre-binned to ensure it’s the best CPU it can be. The base clock makes a leap from 3.6 GHz to 4 GHz, which is awesome, as is the 5 GHz all-cores boost feature. That does mean a punishing TDP of 127 watts at stock though, so an enthusiast air cooler such as the Noctua D15s, or a liquid cooler is pretty much essential as it does not come with a stock cooler.

For a small increase in price, the extra shot of nitrous Intel gave this CPU does have an impact on 4K gaming performance. For daily work and gaming at lower resolutions, this CPU is an absolute beast though. However, if all you care about is gaming, then the KS is definitely the right way to go. Heck, for an extra £10, there’s no reason NOT to buy the KS over the standard i9-9900K anyway.

What Do You Think?

Is the i9-9900K or even the i9-9900KS still a CPU you would consider buying for a 4K gaming rig? Perhaps you’d be more tempered to see the performance of the AMD solutions? Let us know in the comments below!