Intel Core i9-11900K, 8C/16T, 3.50-5.30GHz, tray

Wie bereits im Verlauf des Artikels erwähnt, treffen wir bei der 11. Core-Generation für Desktop-Maschinen einige Bekannte wieder. Die als Rocket Lake-S getaufte Plattform samt 500er-Chipsatz-Serie setzt auf die Cypress Cove-Architektur, die aber eigentlich keine echte Neuerung ist, trotzdem aber 19% an IPC-Geschwindigkeit zulegen konnte. Eine schnellerer Speichercontroller und die Xe-Grafikeinheit von Tiger Lake sind die Keyfacts, die Rocket Lake zu einer Kombination aus Ice Lake (Prozessorarchitektur) und Tiger Lake (Grafikeinheit) machen. Im Gegenzug musste Intel jedoch von vormals zehn Kernen (i9-10900K) auf acht reduzieren, damit man Leistungsaufnahme und Wirtschaftlichkeit nicht aus den Augen verliert.

Der durchaus etwas unorthodoxe Start de 11. Core-Generation für den Desktop findet heute sein Ende – aus Sicht der Käufer ist dies der Anfang, denn ab sofort werden die Prozessoren offiziell ausgeliefert und in Form des Core i5-11600K, Core i7-11700K und Core i9-11900K schauen wir uns die drei typischsten Modellvarianten dieser Serie an. Was leistet die Sunny-Cove-Architektur im Cypress-Cove-Gewand, gefertigt in 14 nm? In welchen Segmenten kann sich Intel gegen AMDs Ryzen-5000-Serie durchsetzen? Welche Neuerungen bietet der überarbeitete Speichercontroller? Auf all diese Fragen versuchen wir eine Antwort zu finden.

Eine neue Architektur, ein neuer Speichercontroller und eine neue IGP: Rocket Lake S ist gelandet und liefert bis zu acht Kerne mit 5,3 GHz, PCI-Express 4.0, die neue 500er-Plattform und schickt sich an, die Leistungskrone zurückzugewinnen. Ob der Angriff auf AMDs Ryzen 5000 gelingt, oder ob die Konkurrenz wohlweislich in ein effektives Raketenabwehrsystem investiert hat, lesen Sie jetzt in unserem Test.

Mit der 11. Generation Core-CPUs für Desktop-PCs schickt Intel die 14-nm-Fertigung ein letztes Mal in den Ring. Rocket Lake-S portiert die bereits von Ice Lake bekannte neue CPU-Architektur von 10 auf 14 nm und würzt sie mit bis zu acht Kernen und sehr hohem Takt. Dennoch hat es das Resultat nicht nur gegen Ryzen 5000 schwer.

The Intel Core i9 11900K kept Intel in the competition zone. The performance is better than the previous gen and is still capable of providing enough processing power for your games and work.

Today we are going to be taking a look at Intel’s brand new flagship desktop processor, the Core i9-11900K. This processor is interesting for a few different reasons, probably the biggest is that it is the first time that I can remember where a flagship processor is actually losing cores compared to the previous generation. The Core i9-11900K is an 8-core, 16-thread processor, while its predecessor the Core i9-109000K was a 10-core, 20-thread part. This is mainly because of the new Cypress Cove CPU cores and new Gen12 Xe iGPU on the chip. There just was not enough room on the chip to add more cores and it is really surprising that Intel is still stuck on 14nm. The same 14nm process that has been out since 2015, but as I’ve said before it is pretty impressive that Intel can still remain competitive at 14nm, while AMD is down to 7nm, although I would say right now with AMD’s 5000 series they definitely have the upper hand. The Core i9-11900K has a base clock of 3.5 GHz with a max boost clock of 5.3 GHz using Thermal Velocity Boost, while the all-core boost is 4.7 GHz. All eight of the Cypress Cove cores has 512 KB of dedicated L2 cache and you also get 16 MB of shared L3 cache. Let’s see how this processor stacks up against the competition!

The main issue with the Core i9-11900K is that the price just doesn’t make sense. Assuming good availability of both the 11900K and 5900X, with both selling at the MSRP, there's no reason to consider the Intel offering. Also we can't overlook that the more affordable i9-10900K that was released a year ago is faster in most applications, certainly faster for core heavy workloads, and it’s basically on par for gaming performance. Right now the 10900K can be had for $460 while the 11900K seems to be starting at $615. Obviously the new CPU is not worth a 34% premium, so again, why did Intel even bother?

This is a bit of a different review for us. Still, we wanted to both provide some context in terms of Linux performance along with real-world gaming performance. While other sites will have dozens of benchmark charts in different games, we instead had a simple methodology to show our readers just how much of an impact upgrading a two-generation old system to the newest technology can provide in terms of an advantage. If you have better streams of disposable income than reaction time, it seems you can buy yourself 1-2% better performance in a popular eSport title.

The Intel Core i9-11900K has impressive single-threaded performance. In the vast majority of the single-threaded workloads it blew away the other processors and was clearly the champ. The performance result in our Dolpin emulator benchmark was absolutely insane!

The Core i9-11900K is the replacement for 10-core i9-10900K. With Rocket Lake being built on a new architecture and a 19% IPC bump, a drop to 8-core would’ve made sense IF the Core i9-11900K managed to actually beat its predecessor outright. Coming from a year where computing was in-demand, expectations from upgraders is low so people who may have had a Comet Lake 10900K or coming off a Ryzen 3000 CPU but can’t find a Ryzen 5000 are the least potential targets here and Intel is going for a shotgun assault and just bank it in what works and pray it hits. Unfortunately, as good as the performance is, in vanilla form, its just within the same performance level and we’re not getting any power improvements as well.

In the end, the Rocket Lake CPUs stick it to AMD clock speed-wise and single-threaded performance with some very impressive boost speeds reaching up to 5.3 GHz. They also bring with them a new architecture with new features and a much-needed IPC improvement. Still, in most tests, these are the fastest CPUs Intel has put out to date. Whether or not the price is worth it for the gains is up to the buyer, but Intel has put out some solid-performing CPUs for the mainstream platform.

After disclosing some architecture details a few months back, and revealing the initial line-up of Rocket Lake-S based 11th Gen processors a few weeks ago, Intel is officially launching its latest family of mainstream desktop CPUs today, along with some new chipsets to enable all of their features.

There’s an old saying that when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. That’s largely what Intel has had to do with Rocket Lake: Use its tried-and-true (and old) 14nm process to make desktop chips, while saving its most efficient 10nm chips for laptops and servers. The good news is that 11th-gen Rocket Lake's Cypress Cove cores are indeed an improvement and generally outperform the cores on the 10th-gen Comet Lake chip it replaces.But Intel's latest top-end Core i9 still cannot compete with its AMD rival on multi-threaded work.

Finally, after what feels like an age the 11th Generation Rocket Lake Intel processors are upon us, designed for the Z590 chipset which finally brings the PCI Express 4.0 technology to the Intel platform. Whilst there are a few other elements which might be of interest to niche audiences, what it all boils down to is Intel with PCIe 4.0. Has it been worth the wait? Despite both being 11th Generation the Core i5-11600K and Core i9-11900K are pretty different in how they go about things, particularly when you compare them to their 10th Generation predecessors. Because of this we'll wrap them up individually.

We wish we had a clean-cut simple conclusion and answer for you in your processor options, but never has there been so much competition on the desktop processor front to hand out a preference to either brand. However, with Rocket Lake, Intel not just increases performance, they bring the platform much-desired PCIe Gen 4.0 lanes, of which four you can utilize for a super-fast NVMe SSD. Aside from double DMI link bandwidth and USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 (SuperSpeed USB 20Gbps), there is little gain from Z590 overall. A multitude of Z490 motherboards will even support PCIe Gen 4.0 as well after a BIOS update. How important the rest is to you is for you to decide. Upgrading from Comet lake is ill-advised; heck, even upgrading from a processor like a 9900K(s) remains trivial.

implications for these design choices are most profound on the range-topping Core i9-11900K.

Intel today launched its 11th Generation Core "Rocket Lake" desktop processor family, led by the Core i9-11900K—this is the long awaited review. With the Core i9-11900K, Intel wants to respond to the AMD Ryzen 5000 series, which snatched overall performance leadership away from the company. "Rocket Lake" is Intel's first attempt at improving per-core (single-threaded) performance, through the introduction of of the new "Cypress Cove" CPU core in several years. Intel claims the IPC gain over the previous generation to be as large as up to 19%. The i9-11900K is an 8-core/16-thread processor, which is a step backward from its 10-core/20-thread predecessor, the i9-10900K, but Intel believes that the IPC gain and enhancements to the multi-core boosting algorithm should help recover some of the multi-threaded performance, despite the deficit of two cores. This is also Intel trying to hint at the market, and software developers, that eight cores should be plenty for cutting-edge gaming and client desktop tasks.

It's finally here - Intel's 11th-generation of desktop CPUs. Codenamed Rocket Lake S, these chips aim to re-take the gaming performance crown from AMD, whose recently released Ryzen 5000 processors showed incredible gen-on-gen gains. Intel is making similar claims, touting up to a 19 per cent improvement to single core speeds, but does 11th-gen deliver? To answer this, we've been testing the flagship Core i9 11900K and mid-range Core i5 11600K frantically for the past week, in a new suite of recent games that can trip up even flagship CPUs.

It is finally Intel’s 11th Gen CPU launch day! Most people are fully aware these chips have been coming for some time so I am still not sure why Intel likes to pretend it’s a big secret. From leaked benchmarks to German retailers selling CPUs early, it almost feels as if we are late to the party, even though it is only now the official launch. The new CPUs are bringing us some new features, some that Intel fans have been waiting a good while for! The introduction of PCIe 4.0 was some time ago but we are only getting our first look at it from Intel’s perspective now. Blistering fast storage speed is something we can all get excited about and it is about time!