Coffee Lake Refresh revision: which Intel processor to choose in 2019

A couple of years ago, Core i3 chips were of little interest to anyone. High price, only 2 physical cores and a powerful competitor in the face of Ryzen 3 - and who would want to buy it against such a background? Understanding the problem, Intel seriously worked on the next generation, making a quad-core Intel Core i3 Coffee Lake i3-8100 BOX hit the budget segment. In the case of the ninth generation i3, we are not waiting for a revolution, but an evolution.

First, Turbo Boost has been added. In normal mode, the 9100F delivers the same 3.6 GHz as its predecessor, but can be overclocked to 4.2 GHz, getting an additional 10 - 15% of power. But the main thing is not even this, but the fact that the price has actually dropped by a third, thanks to which the impudent newcomer threatens to take away the title of king of the budget segment from AMD Ryzen 3 Raven Ridge 2200G BOX Price from 2 699 up to 4 042 ₴. It has a larger cache volume and higher nominal frequencies, which neutralizes the advantages of the overclocking potential of the AMD chip. There is not only an integrated core, but such chips are usually used in tandem with a video card, so this is a relative advantage.

Plus, the Core i3 9100 F runs on the same socket 1151 v2 as the previous generation of Coffee Lake, so there won't be any problems. Neither with compatibility, nor with high prices for new motherboards at the start of sales, as was the case with the seventh generation of Intel. In general, if you are planning an inexpensive but modern assembly based on Intel, then be sure to look here, here you will find the price, good performance, and a hassle-free upgrade in a couple of years. Buy dual core Intel Pentium Coffee Lake G5600 BOX for the same money now there is definitely no point.

The Core i5-9400 is perhaps the most interesting processor in the Coffee Lake Refresh family. And it's funny, because his younger brother i5-8400 looked like the most interesting chip in the line of the last generation. The i5-9400 has the same 6 physical cores without multithreading, but the frequencies have slightly increased: in normal mode we now have 2.8 GHz, and in boost 4.1 GHz. In fact, the power has grown to the level of Core i5-8500.

So what's so interesting about it? As in the case of the younger new generation Core i3, Intel decided to shock the market with low prices, effectively killing most of the previous generation processors. Why buy an i5-8400 for almost $200 when a more powerful new one costs $160? Here we don't know. Plus, Coffee Lake Refresh has a strange pricing situation: the same version of the processor with integrated graphics and without it can make a significant difference in price. The i5-9400 with and without graphics has the same price tag, so the UHD Graphics 630 can be seen as a small bonus that allows you to watch 4K videos or run CS:GO or Dota at minimum.

Now let's move on and see what AMD has. And here everything is interesting and not so unambiguous, because you can find a six-core Ryzen 5 2600 a little cheaper on the market, which, due to multithreading and overclocking, looks preferable in resource-intensive applications. In turn, the Core i5-9400 in modern games produces a higher level of FPS. Moreover, not only compared to the six-core Ryzen 5, but even compared to the eight-core Ryzen 7. Based on this, it is worth making a decision on the choice. Such a chip can pair well with a GTX 1070 or Radeon RX 590 for the ultimate gaming PC.

The new Core i3-9350KF is actually an improved Core i3-8350K, to which an aggressive Turbo Boost up to 4.6 GHz has been added. And this gave a performance increase of 5 - 10%, thanks to which it became not only the fastest quad-core chip in the LGA1151v2 ecosystem, but also among all quad-core chips on the market. Previous leader AMD Ryzen 5 Pinnacle Ridge 2500X OEM in terms of power, it is 10-20% inferior to the new product (depending on the task). This is if we take pure numbers without enabling multithreading.

Ultimately, however, this title carries no value. The fact is that at the start of sales, the i3-9350KF is actually estimated to be 2 times higher than the younger brother Intel Core i3 Coffee Lake Refresh i3-9100F BOX . Although, the performance gap between them is about 20%. But more to come. The announced price of the Core i3-9350KF is only a few dollars less than the six-core Intel Core i5 Coffee Lake Refresh i5-9400F BOX . And if you focus on prices in real stores, it turns out that for the same money you can also buy some AMD with eight cores. For example, AMD Ryzen 7 Pinnacle Ridge 2700 BOX with multithreading support and auto overclocking up to 4.1 GHz. And this, you know, is already a completely different weight category.

Therefore, right now, with such alternatives, the Core i3-9350KF looks, to put it mildly, not the most rational purchase. It will be of interest primarily to overclockers with specific tasks such as overclocking exactly 4 physical cores. And it will only make sense to return to this conversation if Intel reduces the price of a chip by about 25 - 30%.

Core i7-9700K should be taken as a sub-flagship of the ninth generation, which in fact is not so different from its older brother, Intel Core i9 Coffee Lake Refresh i9-9900K BOX . It has 8 physical cores without multithreading support, operating frequencies of 3.6 - 4.9 GHz and 12 MB of third-level cache. That is, it differs from the flagship model by disabled HyperThreading, a slightly smaller cache and only 100 MHz lower clock speed.

But the most important thing here is the official price of $374, which allows us to consider the novelty as a logical replacement for the Core i7-8700K and Core i7-7700K, which had fewer cores. As for another popular "octa-core" AMD Ryzen 7 Pinnacle Ridge 2700X BOX with multithreading support, then not everything is clear: multitasking drags mainly in easily parallelized tasks like rendering 3D models or calculating chess positions. In games, on the contrary, it can interfere. Plus, Ryzen has lower operating frequencies and weaker overall gaming performance. However, the money factor plays into his hands: since the announcement, their prices have dropped dramatically and now such a “stone” can be bought for $250. In general, the confrontation between AMD and Intel, as usual, comes down to price versus performance.

Another important innovation of the Core i7-9700K is the use of a new thermal interface material, which, in comparison with conventional polymer thermal paste, has a higher thermal conductivity. Thanks to him, the cooling efficiency of the core has increased and the ceiling of frequencies that can be obtained in overclocking has risen. Well, the conclusion here is this: if you plan to build a powerful gaming or work computer, but are willing to pay within reason, then the new i7-9700K looks like an excellent candidate for the role of the brain of the system.

Intel has long pretended that the mass market didn't need more than four cores. Say, more is already any pro-level for all sorts of renders. Then AMD came on the scene and started shooting inexpensive six- and then eight-core chips. And it turned out that these additional cores are not superfluous at all. Intel thought for a long time what to do with this, until at the end of 2019 they finally announced the Coffee Lake Refresh line, in which their first mass-produced 8-core Core i9-9900K chip appeared.

And that's great. Competition is always in the hands of the end customer. It’s not great that the new product is relatively conditional on the mass market and costs 2 times more than the folk one AMD Ryzen 7 Pinnacle Ridge 2700X BOX . Still, $500+ is serious money. Although, the performance of the Core i9-9900K is higher in all scenarios. Here you have a 5 GHz turbo boost, and 16 MB of third-level cache, and, finally, multi-threading support. Perhaps more relevant here would be a comparison with the brand new AMD Ryzen 7 Matisse 3700X BOX Price from 4 440 up to 10 350 ₴ of the Matisse family, for which they ask a little less, and which is slightly inferior in performance, but can reduce the gap due to overclocking potential.

And it is with overclocking that the main, in our opinion, stumbling block is connected. The fact is that from the point of view of architecture, the i9-9900K is related to the Skylake processors, which saw the light as much as three years ago. This led to the fact that he became the first "stone" of the company for a long time with almost no overclocking potential, because the nominal frequencies here are actually pulled up to the maximum. And even the return of solder under the processor cover, which fans of the brand demanded, does not save. And it turns out that last year's Intel Core i7 Coffee Lake i7-8700K BOX reduces the gap to a minimum after overclocking. Therefore, if you want to save money and tinker with overclocking, then it's better to take it. If you need the most powerful gaming processor out of the box, and the price does not play a decisive role, then in the direction of the i9-9900K.