F E A T U R E // T H E I N T E L 9 T H G E N E R A T I O N C O R E E X P E R I E N C E
Stepongzi. There’s no need to rehash
their overclocking knowhow, if
you’re reading this you’re familiar
with these names. If not, check you
their interviews in previous issues
of TheOverclocker, by clicking the
respective name.
The point of all this is that at some
level Intel clearly sees or finds value in
overclocking and they have poured that
into each successive CPU generation.
Consider that we have been asking
and talking about the thermal interface
material for a number of years. In
acknowledgment of this Intel first
introduced us to Devil’s Canyon or the
4790K CPU which, ‘at least according
to the official word’, had a better
thermal paste. Fast forward to today
and we have the desired soldered
thermal interface material. Be it this
was necessary for technical reasons,
10 The OverClocker Issue 45 | 2018
or that it was hearing our collective call
or both is not important. Point is we
have it and it’s on the fastest desktop
CPUs money can buy.
That said, I’ve gone on long enough
swooning over the CPUs, but the proof
is where the rubber meets the road
and how these CPUs fair outside of
special demonstrations and the like.
How do these go compared to the
previous generation? What of those
with no access to liquid Helium or even
Liquid Nitrogen, what can they expect?
NUMBERS & REASONS
Part of why this editorial took so long
to write is because for the first time
with such CPUs, one managed to use
all three CPUs released and overclock
each of them using sub-zero degree
cooling. The Core i 9600K, i 9700K
and of course the mightiest of them all
the Core i9 9900K. What one did find
was that the OC potentially is great with
the 9600K, better with the 9700K and
best with the 9900K. It could very well
be that the best dies are used only for
the core i9 9900K and obviously the
least capable are relegated to the other
SKUs accordingly.
There’s no scientific evidence
or basis for this, but it is just pure
observation from these three CPUs
which one had access to at different
times and i different environments
(Not a controlled test, not science!).
Since Liquid Nitrogen may not
always be readily available depending
where you are, Dry Ice (referred to as
DICE onwards) may have to do
specially with the 9600K d its
pricing
could be a lot of fun.
Using what is still my favourite Z370
motherboard of all MAXIMU X APEX ,
this particular Core i5 9600K managed
a respectable 5,800MHz. Certainly not
the 6GHz I was hoping for but these
CPUs seem to scale with temperature
it e e ti ely no cold bug
this
e e y is about right for Dry Ice
which is limited to -78.5c.