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Core i9-9900K vs i7-8700k


Description
Both models i9-9900K and i7-8700k are based on Coffee Lake architecture.

Coffee Lake is the second refinement of Intel’s 14nm (Tri-Gate) technology. While it uses LGA1151 socket, it is incompatible with previous generations due to electrical changes in socket’s pins so these CPUs require Z370 chipset. This kind of generation introduced more cores in every range to compete with new AMD’s architecture. Coffee Lake uses DDR4 memory at 2400MHz for i3 and at 2666MHz for i5, i7 CPUs plus iGPU frequency has been increased 50MHz with respect to previous generation.

Using the multithread performance as a reference, the i9-9900K gets a score of 545.3 k points while the i7-8700k gets 443.8 k points.

Summarizing, the i9-9900K is 1.2 times faster than the i7-8700k. To get a proper comparison between both models, take a look to the data shown below.

Specs
CPUID
906ec
906ea
Core
Coffee Lake-S
Coffee Lake-S
Architecture
Base frecuency
3.6 GHz
3.7 GHz
Boost frecuency
5 GHz
4.7 GHz
Socket
LGA 1151
LGA 1151
Cores/Threads
8/16
6/12
TDP
95 W
95 W
Cache L1 (d+i)
8x32+8x32 kB
6x32+6x32 kB
Cache L2
8x256 kB
6x256 kB
Cache L3
16384 kB
12288 kB
Date
October 2018
October 2017
Mean monothread perf.
86.24k points
80.6k points
Mean multithread perf.
545.3k points
443.77k points

Non-optimized benchmark
The benchmark in Mode 0 (FPU) measures cpu performance with non-optimized software. It uses the basic µinstructions from the i386 architecture with the i387 floating point unit. This mode is compatible with all CPUs so it's practical to compare very different CPUs
Monothread
i9-9900K
i7-8700k
Test#1 (Integers)
5.17k
4.13k (x0.8)
Test#2 (FP)
21.15k
16.96k (x0.8)
Test#3 (Generic, ZIP)
7.01k
5.56k (x0.79)
Test#1 (Memory)
15.32k
12.85k (x0.84)
TOTAL
48.66k
39.5k (x0.81)

Multithread

i9-9900K

i7-8700k
Test#1 (Integers)
38.45k
24.01k (x0.62)
Test#2 (FP)
155.68k
108.69k (x0.7)
Test#3 (Generic, ZIP)
51k
36.62k (x0.72)
Test#1 (Memory)
18.26k
9.33k (x0.51)
TOTAL
263.38k
178.64k (x0.68)

AVX2 optimized benchmark
The benchmark in mode III (AVX2), like AVX1, is optimized to used 256 bits registers beside the second version of the Advanced Vector Extensions (AVX). The first AVX2 compatible CPU was released in 2013.
Monothread
i9-9900K
i7-8700k
Test#1 (Integers)
33.62k
31.2k (x0.93)
Test#2 (FP)
30.02k
27.82k (x0.93)
Test#3 (Generic, ZIP)
7.17k
6.57k (x0.92)
Test#1 (Memory)
15.43k
15k (x0.97)
TOTAL
86.24k
80.6k (x0.93)

Multithread

i9-9900K

i7-8700k
Test#1 (Integers)
248.93k
202.42k (x0.81)
Test#2 (FP)
224.43k
186.33k (x0.83)
Test#3 (Generic, ZIP)
53.39k
44.96k (x0.84)
Test#1 (Memory)
18.54k
10.05k (x0.54)
TOTAL
545.3k
443.77k (x0.81)

Performance/W
i9-9900K
i7-8700k
Test#1 (Integers)
2620 points/W
2131 points/W
Test#2 (FP)
2362 points/W
1961 points/W
Test#3 (Generic, ZIP)
562 points/W
473 points/W
Test#1 (Memory)
195 points/W
106 points/W
TOTAL
5740 points/W
4671 points/W

Performance/GHz
i9-9900K
i7-8700k
Test#1 (Integers)
6724 points/GHz
6639 points/GHz
Test#2 (FP)
6003 points/GHz
5919 points/GHz
Test#3 (Generic, ZIP)
1434 points/GHz
1397 points/GHz
Test#1 (Memory)
3087 points/GHz
3192 points/GHz
TOTAL
17247 points/GHz
17148 points/GHz

Monothread performance graph
Monothread performance graphics gives the performance vs time. They are useful to measure the time it takes to the CPU to reach the maximum performance.

Usually, CPU's performance will be steady during these tests but if it has a slow frequency strategy, the first samples will show a lower score.


Test#1 (Integers) [points vs time]

grafica bm.hardlimit.com


Test#2 (FP) [points vs time]

grafica bm.hardlimit.com


Test#3 (Generic, ZIP) [points vs time]

grafica bm.hardlimit.com


Test#1 (Memory) [points vs time]

grafica bm.hardlimit.com

Multithread performance graph
Multithread graphs measure the performance against a heavy load during certain time.

If CPU's TDP doesn't limit the frequency and the machine is properly cooled, performance should remain steady vs time. Otherwise, the performance score will oscillate or decrease over time.


Test#1 (Integers) [points vs time]

grafica bm.hardlimit.com


Test#2 (FP) [points vs time]

grafica bm.hardlimit.com


Test#3 (Generic, ZIP) [points vs time]

grafica bm.hardlimit.com


Test#1 (Memory) [points vs time]

grafica bm.hardlimit.com

Hardlimit Benchmark Central - Ver. 3.11.4