i9-9900KS vs i7-2600K

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Aggregate performance score

Core i7-2600K
2011
4 cores / 8 threads, 95 Watt
3.55
Core i9-9900KS
2019
8 cores / 16 threads, 127 Watt
12.60
+255%

i9-9900KS outperforms i7-2600K by a whopping 255% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

Primary details

Comparing Core i7-2600K and Core i9-9900KS processor market type (desktop or notebook), architecture, sales start time and price.

Place in performance ranking1500591
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation0.4310.40
Market segmentDesktop processorDesktop processor
SeriesIntel Core i7 (Desktop)Intel Core i9
Architecture codenameSandy Bridge (2011−2013)Coffee Lake-R (2018−2019)
Release date3 January 2011 (13 years ago)26 May 2019 (5 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)$317$513

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance per price, higher is better.

i9-9900KS has 2319% better value for money than i7-2600K.

Detailed specifications

Core i7-2600K and Core i9-9900KS basic parameters such as number of cores, number of threads, base frequency and turbo boost clock, lithography, cache size and multiplier lock state. These parameters indirectly say of CPU speed, though for more precise assessment you have to consider their test results.

Physical cores4 (Quad-Core)8 (Octa-Core)
Threads816
Base clock speed3.4 GHz4 GHz
Boost clock speed3.8 GHz5 GHz
Bus typeno dataDMI 3.0
Bus rateno data4 × 8 GT/s
Multiplierno data40
L1 cache64 KB (per core)512 KB
L2 cache1 MB2 MB
L3 cache8 MB16 MB (shared)
Chip lithography32 nm14 nm
Die size216 mm2180 mm2
Maximum core temperature73 °C100 °C
Maximum case temperature (TCase)no data72 °C
Number of transistors995 Millionno data
64 bit support++
Windows 11 compatibility-+
Unlocked multiplier++

Compatibility

Information on Core i7-2600K and Core i9-9900KS compatibility with other computer components: motherboard (look for socket type), power supply unit (look for power consumption) etc. Useful when planning a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. Note that power consumption of some processors can well exceed their nominal TDP, even without overclocking. Some can even double their declared thermals given that the motherboard allows to tune the CPU power parameters.

Number of CPUs in a configuration11 (Uniprocessor)
SocketLGA1155FCLGA1151
Power consumption (TDP)95 Watt127 Watt

Technologies and extensions

Technological solutions and additional instructions supported by Core i7-2600K and Core i9-9900KS. You'll probably need this information if you require some particular technology.

Instruction set extensionsIntel® SSE4.1, Intel® SSE4.2, Intel® AVXIntel® SSE4.1, Intel® SSE4.2, Intel® AVX2
AES-NI++
AVX++
vProno data+
Enhanced SpeedStep (EIST)++
Turbo Boost Technology+2.0
Hyper-Threading Technology++
TSX-+
Idle States++
Thermal Monitoring++
Flex Memory Access+no data
SIPP-+
FDI+no data
Fast Memory Access+no data
StatusDiscontinuedDiscontinued

Security technologies

Core i7-2600K and Core i9-9900KS technologies aimed at improving security, for example, by protecting against hacks.

TXT-+
EDB++
Secure Keyno data+
MPX-+
Identity Protection++
SGXno dataYes with Intel® ME
OS Guardno data+

Virtualization technologies

Virtual machine speed-up technologies supported by Core i7-2600K and Core i9-9900KS are enumerated here.

AMD-V-+
VT-d-+
VT-x++
EPT++

Memory specs

Types, maximum amount and channel quantity of RAM supported by Core i7-2600K and Core i9-9900KS. Depending on the motherboard, higher memory frequencies may be supported.

Supported memory typesDDR3DDR4
Maximum memory size32 GB128 GB
Max memory channels22
Maximum memory bandwidth21 GB/s42.671 GB/s

Graphics specifications

General parameters of integrated GPUs, if any.

Integrated graphics card
Compare
Intel HD Graphics 3000Intel UHD Graphics 630
Max video memoryno data64 GB
Quick Sync Video++
Clear Videono data+
Clear Video HD++
Graphics max frequency1.35 GHz1.2 GHz
InTru 3D++

Graphics interfaces

Available interfaces and connections of Core i7-2600K and Core i9-9900KS integrated GPUs.

Number of displays supported23

Graphics image quality

Maximum display resolutions supported by Core i7-2600K and Core i9-9900KS integrated GPUs, including resolutions over different interfaces.

4K resolution supportno data+
Max resolution over HDMI 1.4no data4096 x 2304@24Hz
Max resolution over eDPno data4096 x 2304@60Hz
Max resolution over DisplayPortno data4096 x 2304@60Hz

Graphics API support

APIs supported by Core i7-2600K and Core i9-9900KS integrated GPUs, sometimes API versions are included.

DirectXno data12
OpenGLno data4.5

Peripherals

Specifications and connection of peripherals supported by Core i7-2600K and Core i9-9900KS.

PCIe version2.03.0
PCI Express lanes1616

Synthetic benchmark performance

Various benchmark results of the processors in comparison. Overall score is measured in points in 0-100 range, higher is better.


Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark performance rating. We are regularly improving our combining algorithms, but if you find some perceived inconsistencies, feel free to speak up in comments section, we usually fix problems quickly.

i7-2600K 3.55
i9-9900KS 12.60
+255%

Passmark

Passmark CPU Mark is a widespread benchmark, consisting of 8 different types of workload, including integer and floating point math, extended instructions, compression, encryption and physics calculation. There is also one separate single-threaded scenario measuring single-core performance.

i7-2600K 5489
i9-9900KS 19492
+255%

GeekBench 5 Single-Core

GeekBench 5 Single-Core is a cross-platform application developed in the form of CPU tests that independently recreate certain real-world tasks with which to accurately measure performance. This version uses only a single CPU core.

i7-2600K 668
i9-9900KS 1815
+172%

GeekBench 5 Multi-Core

GeekBench 5 Multi-Core is a cross-platform application developed in the form of CPU tests that independently recreate certain real-world tasks with which to accurately measure performance. This version uses all available CPU cores.

i7-2600K 2301
i9-9900KS 8663
+276%

Cinebench 10 32-bit single-core

Cinebench R10 is an ancient ray tracing benchmark for processors by Maxon, authors of Cinema 4D. Its single core version uses just one CPU thread to render a futuristic looking motorcycle.

i7-2600K 4809
i9-9900KS 8183
+70.2%

Cinebench 10 32-bit multi-core

Cinebench Release 10 Multi Core is a variant of Cinebench R10 using all the processor threads. Possible number of threads is limited by 16 in this version.

i7-2600K 18608
i9-9900KS 51779
+178%

3DMark06 CPU

3DMark06 is a discontinued DirectX 9 benchmark suite from Futuremark. Its CPU part contains two scenarios, one dedicated to artificial intelligence pathfinding, another to game physics using PhysX package.

i7-2600K 6669
i9-9900KS 14884
+123%

wPrime 32

wPrime 32M is a math multi-thread processor test, which calculates square roots of first 32 million integer numbers. Its result is measured in seconds, so that the less is benchmark result, the faster the processor.

i7-2600K 10.5
i9-9900KS 3.6
+192%

Cinebench 11.5 64-bit multi-core

Cinebench Release 11.5 Multi Core is a variant of Cinebench R11.5 which uses all the processor threads. A maximum of 64 threads is supported in this version.

i7-2600K 7
i9-9900KS 23
+242%

Cinebench 15 64-bit multi-core

Cinebench Release 15 Multi Core is a variant of Cinebench R15 which uses all the processor threads.

i7-2600K 614
i9-9900KS 2058
+235%

Cinebench 15 64-bit single-core

Cinebench R15 (standing for Release 15) is a benchmark made by Maxon, authors of Cinema 4D. It was superseded by later versions of Cinebench, which use more modern variants of Cinema 4D engine. The Single Core version (sometimes called Single-Thread) only uses a single processor thread to render a room full of reflective spheres and light sources.

i7-2600K 129
i9-9900KS 216
+67.4%

Cinebench 11.5 64-bit single-core

Cinebench R11.5 is an old benchmark by Maxon, authors of Cinema 4D. It was superseded by later versions of Cinebench, which use more modern variants of Cinema 4D engine. The Single Core version loads a single thread with ray tracing to render a glossy room full of crystal spheres and light sources.

i7-2600K 1.51
i9-9900KS 2.45
+62.3%

TrueCrypt AES

TrueCrypt is a discontinued piece of software that was widely used for on-the-fly-encryption of disk partitions, now superseded by VeraCrypt. It contains several embedded performance tests, one of them being TrueCrypt AES, which measures data encryption speed using AES algorithm. Result is encryption speed in gigabytes per second.

i7-2600K 3.3
i9-9900KS 12.2
+268%

WinRAR 4.0

WinRAR 4.0 is an outdated version of a popular file archiver. It contains an internal speed test, using 'Best' setting of RAR compression on large chunks of randomly generated data. Its results are measured in kilobytes per second.

i7-2600K 3486
i9-9900KS 8353
+140%

x264 encoding pass 2

x264 Pass 2 is a slower variant of x264 video compression that produces a variable bit rate output file, which results in better quality since the higher bit rate is used when it is needed more. Benchmark result is still measured in frames per second.  

i7-2600K 37
i9-9900KS 123
+236%

x264 encoding pass 1

x264 version 4.0 is a video encoding benchmark uses MPEG 4 x264 compression method to compress a sample HD (720p) video. Pass 1 is a faster variant that produces a constant bit rate output file. Its result is measured in frames per second, which means how many frames of the source video file were encoded per second.  

i7-2600K 145
i9-9900KS 279
+92.3%

Gaming performance

Pros & cons summary


Performance score 3.55 12.60
Integrated graphics card 0.66 3.09
Recency 3 January 2011 26 May 2019
Physical cores 4 8
Threads 8 16
Chip lithography 32 nm 14 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 95 Watt 127 Watt

i7-2600K has 33.7% lower power consumption.

i9-9900KS, on the other hand, has a 254.9% higher aggregate performance score, 368.2% faster integrated GPU, an age advantage of 8 years, 100% more physical cores and 100% more threads, and a 128.6% more advanced lithography process.

The Core i9-9900KS is our recommended choice as it beats the Core i7-2600K in performance tests.


Should you still have questions on choice between Core i7-2600K and Core i9-9900KS, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.

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Similar processor comparisons

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Community ratings

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Questions & comments

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