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Core i9-9900K vs i5-8500


Description
Both models i9-9900K and i5-8500 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 529.3 k points while the i5-8500 gets 307.5 k points.

Summarizing, the i9-9900K is 1.7 times faster than the i5-8500. To get a proper comparison between both models, take a look to the data shown below.

Specs
CPUID
906ed
906ea
Core
Coffee Lake-S
Coffee Lake-S
Architecture
Base frecuency
3.6 GHz
3 GHz
Boost frecuency
5 GHz
4.1 GHz
Socket
LGA 1151
LGA 1151
Cores/Threads
8/16
6/6
TDP
95 W
65 W
Cache L1 (d+i)
8x32+8x32 kB
6x32+6x32 kB
Cache L2
8x256 kB
6x256 kB
Cache L3
16384 kB
9216 kB
Date
October 2018
March 2018
Mean monothread perf.
81.91k points
69.09k points
Mean multithread perf.
529.32k points
307.52k 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
i5-8500
Test#1 (Integers)
5k
4.19k (x0.84)
Test#2 (FP)
20.22k
17.38k (x0.86)
Test#3 (Generic, ZIP)
6.54k
5.46k (x0.83)
Test#1 (Memory)
13.78k
11.92k (x0.87)
TOTAL
45.53k
38.96k (x0.86)

Multithread

i9-9900K

i5-8500
Test#1 (Integers)
36.39k
27.67k (x0.76)
Test#2 (FP)
166.55k
94.07k (x0.56)
Test#3 (Generic, ZIP)
54.92k
29.05k (x0.53)
Test#1 (Memory)
8.96k
4.39k (x0.49)
TOTAL
266.82k
155.18k (x0.58)

SSE3 optimized benchmark
The benchmark in mode I (SSE) is optimized for the use of SIMD instructions with 128 bits register and the SSE set up to version 3. Nearly every modern CPU has support for this mode.
Monothread
i9-9900K
i5-8500
Test#1 (Integers)
18.03k
15.22k (x0.84)
Test#2 (FP)
25.98k
22.02k (x0.85)
Test#3 (Generic, ZIP)
6.86k
5.75k (x0.84)
Test#1 (Memory)
14.5k
12.17k (x0.84)
TOTAL
65.37k
55.17k (x0.84)

Multithread

i9-9900K

i5-8500
Test#1 (Integers)
131.34k
87.78k (x0.67)
Test#2 (FP)
204.76k
126.73k (x0.62)
Test#3 (Generic, ZIP)
55.74k
32.93k (x0.59)
Test#1 (Memory)
8.99k
4.22k (x0.47)
TOTAL
400.83k
251.65k (x0.63)

AVX optimized benchmark
The benchmark in mode II (AVX) is optimized to used 256 bits registers beside the first version of the Advanced Vector Extensions (AVX). The first AVX compatible CPU was released in 2011.
Monothread
i9-9900K
i5-8500
Test#1 (Integers)
17.98k
15.21k (x0.85)
Test#2 (FP)
27.04k
22.94k (x0.85)
Test#3 (Generic, ZIP)
6.63k
5.54k (x0.84)
Test#1 (Memory)
13.6k
11.39k (x0.84)
TOTAL
65.24k
55.07k (x0.84)

Multithread

i9-9900K

i5-8500
Test#1 (Integers)
130.88k
79.52k (x0.61)
Test#2 (FP)
208.5k
107.78k (x0.52)
Test#3 (Generic, ZIP)
54.12k
31.89k (x0.59)
Test#1 (Memory)
8.91k
13.37k (x1.5)
TOTAL
402.41k
232.55k (x0.58)

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
i5-8500
Test#1 (Integers)
32.08k
27.36k (x0.85)
Test#2 (FP)
28.17k
24.27k (x0.86)
Test#3 (Generic, ZIP)
6.68k
5.69k (x0.85)
Test#1 (Memory)
14.98k
11.77k (x0.79)
TOTAL
81.91k
69.09k (x0.84)

Multithread

i9-9900K

i5-8500
Test#1 (Integers)
242.98k
144.77k (x0.6)
Test#2 (FP)
220.16k
129.04k (x0.59)
Test#3 (Generic, ZIP)
53.97k
29.53k (x0.55)
Test#1 (Memory)
12.22k
4.18k (x0.34)
TOTAL
529.32k
307.52k (x0.58)

Performance/W
i9-9900K
i5-8500
Test#1 (Integers)
2558 points/W
2227 points/W
Test#2 (FP)
2317 points/W
1985 points/W
Test#3 (Generic, ZIP)
568 points/W
454 points/W
Test#1 (Memory)
129 points/W
64 points/W
TOTAL
5572 points/W
4731 points/W

Performance/GHz
i9-9900K
i5-8500
Test#1 (Integers)
6417 points/GHz
6673 points/GHz
Test#2 (FP)
5634 points/GHz
5920 points/GHz
Test#3 (Generic, ZIP)
1335 points/GHz
1388 points/GHz
Test#1 (Memory)
2996 points/GHz
2870 points/GHz
TOTAL
16382 points/GHz
16850 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