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Intel Core i9-10900F

Intel Core i9-10900F: Is It Worth Buying in 2025? A Complete Review

April 2025

Despite the release of new generations of processors, the Intel Core i9-10900F remains a popular choice for budget high-performance builds. Let's explore why this 10-core chip is still relevant and who it is suitable for.

1. Key Specifications: An Oldie with Strong Potential

Architecture and Process

The processor is built on the Comet Lake architecture (14 nm), which debuted back in 2020. Despite its "age," 10 cores and 20 threads (base frequency – 2.8 GHz, max Turbo Boost – 5.2 GHz) provide high multi-threaded performance.

Key Features:

- 20 MB of L3 cache – reduces delays when processing data.

- 65 W TDP – low power consumption for its class.

- Support for Hyper-Threading – 20 logical cores for parallel tasks.

Performance:

- Geekbench 6: 1676 (single-core), 8390 (multi-core).

- In Cinebench R23 tests: ~1350 (Single Core), ~13500 (Multi Core).

A practical example: In 4K video editing in DaVinci Resolve, the i9-10900F performs on par with the Ryzen 9 5900X but lags behind the newer Core i5-14600K in single-threaded tasks due to outdated IPC (instructions per clock).

2. Compatible Motherboards: LGA 1200 Socket and Nuances

Chipsets for the i9-10900F:

- Z490/Z590 – for memory overclocking and maximum performance (although the processor itself is not overclockable).

- B460/B560/H570 – budget options with support for DDR4-2933 MHz.

Recommendations for 2025:

- ASUS ROG Strix Z590-F ($220–250) – the optimal choice for PCIe 4.0 (activated with the 11th generation Intel, but for i9-10900F it operates at PCIe 3.0).

- MSI B560M Pro-VDH ($130–150) – for compact builds.

Important: LGA 1200 motherboards are gradually being phased out, but remain available on the secondary market. When purchasing a new one, check compatibility with Comet Lake via the CPU Support list.

3. Memory Support: Only DDR4

The i9-10900F works exclusively with DDR4:

- Officially supports up to DDR4-2933 MHz.

- In practice, with Z490/Z590 motherboards, it can be overclocked to DDR4-3600 MHz (depending on the memory quality).

Recommendations:

- For gaming: 2x16 GB DDR4-3200 CL16 (e.g., Kingston Fury Renegade, $90–110).

- For work tasks: 4x8 GB DDR4-3600 CL18 (capacity is important for rendering).

Note: DDR5 is not supported — this is a major disadvantage for future upgrades.

4. Power Supply: Power Calculation

With a TDP of 65 W, the processor modestly impacts power consumption, but the graphics card must be considered:

- RTX 4070 (200 W) + i9-10900F: minimum PSU – 550 W (recommended 650 W for headroom).

- RTX 4060 (115 W): 500 W is sufficient.

Recommended Models:

- Corsair RM650x (80+ Gold, $110–130) – quiet and reliable.

- be quiet! Pure Power 12 M 600W ($90–100) – a budget option.

Experience: In builds with i9-10900F and RTX 3080 (320 W), a 750 W PSU does not show drops even under peak loads.

5. Pros and Cons

Pros:

- High multi-threaded performance for $250–300 (new, leftovers from warehouses).

- Low heat – even the BOX cooler handles it under load.

- Compatibility with affordable DDR4.

Cons:

- No PCIe 4.0/5.0 – discrete GPUs and NVMe SSDs won't unleash their full potential.

- 14 nm vs. 7 nm competition – higher power consumption under peak loads (up to 150 W).

- No integrated graphics – a discrete graphics card is required.

6. Use Cases

Gaming

- In Full HD with RTX 4060: stable 100+ FPS in Cyberpunk 2077 (without ray tracing).

- At 1440p, the processor won't bottleneck a GPU like the RTX 4070.

Work Tasks

- Video editing: 4K rendering in Premiere Pro is 20-30% faster than with the Ryzen 7 5800X.

- 3D modeling: Blender and Maya utilize all 20 threads.

Multimedia

- Streaming (OBS + gaming) without lag thanks to the 10 cores.

7. Comparison with Competitors

- AMD Ryzen 7 7700X ($320):

+ Supports DDR5 and PCIe 5.0.

– More expensive by 20–25%.

- Intel Core i5-14600K ($280):

+ Better IPC and supports PCIe 5.0.

– Only 14 cores (6 P-cores + 8 E-cores).

- Ryzen 9 5900X (used, $250):

+ 12 cores, 7 nm.

– Lacks new technologies like AVX-512.

Conclusion: The i9-10900F is a price winner among new processors but falls short in terms of upgrade prospects.

8. Assembly Tips

- Cooling:

— The BOX cooler is sufficient for office tasks, but for gaming/rendering, get a tower cooler (DeepCool AK620, $60) or AIO (NZXT Kraken X53, $130).

- Case:

— At least 2 intake fans. Example – Fractal Design Meshify C ($90).

- Storage:

— Samsung 980 Pro (PCIe 4.0, but the processor will limit speed to 3.0).

9. Conclusion: Who Should Consider the i9-10900F in 2025?

This processor is worth choosing if:

- You need a powerful PC for editing or streaming but are on a budget.

- You are upgrading an old LGA 1200 system.

- You do not plan to switch to DDR5 and PCIe 5.0 in the next 2–3 years.

Target Audience:

- Content creators, streamers, gamers with a GPU level of RTX 4060/4070.

- Office workstations with demanding software (AutoCAD, Photoshop).

Alternative: If your budget allows, it’s better to opt for the Ryzen 7 7700X or Core i5-14600K for future upgrade potential.

In 2025, the Intel Core i9-10900F is a "workhorse" for those who value a balance of price and multi-thread performance but are willing to cope with outdated technologies.

Basic

Label Name

Intel

Platform

Desktop

Launch Date

April 2020

Model Name

The Intel processor number is just one of several factors - along with processor brand, system configurations, and system-level benchmarks - to be considered when choosing the right processor for your computing needs.

i9-10900F

Code Name

Comet Lake

CPU Specifications

Total Cores

Cores is a hardware term that describes the number of independent central processing units in a single computing component (die or chip).

Total Threads

Where applicable, Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology is only available on Performance-cores.

Basic Frequency

2.80 GHz

Max Turbo Frequency

Max Turbo Frequency is the maximum single-core frequency at which the processor is capable of operating using Intel® Turbo Boost Technology and, if present, Intel® Turbo Boost Max Technology 3.0 and Intel® Thermal Velocity Boost. Frequency is typically measured in gigahertz (GHz), or billion cycles per second.

5.20 GHz

Intel Turbo Boost Technology 2.0 Frequency

5.00 GHz

Intel Turbo Boost Technology

Intel® Turbo Boost Technology dynamically increases the processor's frequency as needed by taking advantage of thermal and power headroom to give you a burst of speed when you need it, and increased energy efficiency when you don’t.

2.0

Intel Hyper-Threading Technology

Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology (Intel® HT Technology) delivers two processing threads per physical core. Highly threaded applications can get more work done in parallel, completing tasks sooner.

Yes

Intel Turbo Boost Max Technology 3.0 Frequency

Intel® Turbo Boost Max Technology 3.0 identifies the best performing core(s) on a processor and provides increased performance on those cores through increasing frequency as needed by taking advantage of power and thermal headroom. Intel® Turbo Boost Max Technology 3.0 frequency is the clock frequency of the CPU when running in this mode.

5.10 GHz

Intel Turbo Boost Max Technology 3.0

Yes

L3 Cache

20 MB

CPU Socket

The socket is the component that provides the mechanical and electrical connections between the processor and motherboard.

FCLGA1200

Technology

Lithography refers to the semiconductor technology used to manufacture an integrated circuit, and is reported in nanometer (nm), indicative of the size of features built on the semiconductor.

14 nm

TDP

65 W

Max. Operating Temperature

Junction Temperature is the maximum temperature allowed at the processor die.

100°C

PCI Express Version

PCI Express Revision is the supported version of the PCI Express standard. Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (or PCIe) is a high-speed serial computer expansion bus standard for attaching hardware devices to a computer. The different PCI Express versions support different data rates.

3.0

Number of PCI Express Lanes

A PCI Express (PCIe) lane consists of two differential signaling pairs, one for receiving data, one for transmitting data, and is the basic unit of the PCIe bus. Max # of PCI Express Lanes is the total number of supported lanes.

Intel 64

Intel® 64 architecture delivers 64-bit computing on server, workstation, desktop and mobile platforms when combined with supporting software.¹ Intel 64 architecture improves performance by allowing systems to address more than 4 GB of both virtual and physical memory.

Yes

Instruction Set

The instruction set is a hard program stored inside the CPU that guides and optimizes CPU operations. With these instruction sets, the CPU can run more efficiently. There are many manufacturers that design CPUs, which results in different instruction sets, such as the 8086 instruction set for the Intel camp and the RISC instruction set for the ARM camp. x86, ARM v8, and MIPS are all codes for instruction sets. Instruction sets can be extended; for example, x86 added 64-bit support to create x86-64. Manufacturers developing CPUs that are compatible with a certain instruction set need authorization from the instruction set patent holder. A typical example is Intel authorizing AMD, enabling the latter to develop CPUs compatible with the x86 instruction set.

64-bit

PCI Express Configurations

PCI Express (PCIe) Configurations describe the available PCIe lane configurations that can be used to link to PCIe devices.

Up to 1x16 | 2x8 | 1x8+2x4

Memory Specifications

Memory Type

Intel® processors come in four different types: Single Channel, Dual Channel, Triple Channel, and Flex Mode. Maximum supported memory speed may be lower when populating multiple DIMMs per channel on products that support multiple memory channels.

DDR4-2933

Max Memory Size

Max memory size refers to the maximum memory capacity supported by the processor.

128 GB

Memory Channels

The number of memory channels refers to the bandwidth operation for real world application.

Bus Speed

8 GT/s

Max Memory Bandwidth

Max Memory bandwidth is the maximum rate at which data can be read from or stored into a semiconductor memory by the processor (in GB/s).

45.8 GB/s

ECC Memory Supported

ECC Memory Supported indicates processor support for Error-Correcting Code memory. ECC memory is a type of system memory that can detect and correct common kinds of internal data corruption. Note that ECC memory support requires both processor and chipset support.

Miscellaneous

Intel Virtualization Technology (VT-x)

Intel® Virtualization Technology (VT-x) allows one hardware platform to function as multiple “virtual” platforms. It offers improved manageability by limiting downtime and maintaining productivity by isolating computing activities into separate partitions.

Yes

Intel Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (VT-d)

Intel® Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (VT-d) continues from the existing support for IA-32 (VT-x) and Itanium® processor (VT-i) virtualization adding new support for I/O-device virtualization. Intel VT-d can help end users improve security and reliability of the systems and also improve performance of I/O devices in virtualized environments.

Yes

Intel Standard Manageability (ISM)

Intel® Standard Manageability is the manageability solution for Intel vPro® Essentials platforms and is a subset of Intel® AMT with out-of-band management over Ethernet and Wi-Fi, but no KVM or new life cycle management features.

Intel® SSE4.1 | Intel® SSE4.2 | Intel® AVX2

Enhanced Intel SpeedStep Technology

Enhanced Intel SpeedStep® Technology is an advanced means of enabling high performance while meeting the power-conservation needs of mobile systems. Conventional Intel SpeedStep® Technology switches both voltage and frequency in tandem between high and low levels in response to processor load. Enhanced Intel SpeedStep® Technology builds upon that architecture using design strategies such as Separation between Voltage and Frequency Changes, and Clock Partitioning and Recovery.

Yes

Execute Disable Bit

Execute Disable Bit is a hardware-based security feature that can reduce exposure to viruses and malicious-code attacks and prevent harmful software from executing and propagating on the server or network.

Yes

Cache

CPU Cache is an area of fast memory located on the processor. Intel® Smart Cache refers to the architecture that allows all cores to dynamically share access to the last level cache.

20 MB Intel® Smart Cache

Intel AES New Instructions

Intel® AES New Instructions (Intel® AES-NI) are a set of instructions that enable fast and secure data encryption and decryption. AES-NI are valuable for a wide range of cryptographic applications, for example: applications that perform bulk encryption/decryption, authentication, random number generation, and authenticated encryption.

Yes

Intel Boot Guard

Intel® Device Protection Technology with Boot Guard helps protect the system’s pre-OS environment from viruses and malicious software attacks.

Yes

Intel VT-x with Extended Page Tables (EPT)

Intel® VT-x with Extended Page Tables (EPT), also known as Second Level Address Translation (SLAT), provides acceleration for memory intensive virtualized applications. Extended Page Tables in Intel® Virtualization Technology platforms reduces the memory and power overhead costs and increases battery life through hardware optimization of page table management.

Yes

Intel OS Guard

Yes

Benchmarks

Geekbench 6

Single Core Score

1676

Geekbench 6

Multi Core Score

8390

Geekbench 5

Single Core Score

1294

Geekbench 5

Multi Core Score

9353

Passmark CPU

Single Core Score

3041

Passmark CPU

Multi Core Score

20112

Compared to Other CPU

Geekbench 6 Single Core

Ryzen 5 240

1878 +12.1%

Core i5-11260H

1750 +4.4%

Core i9-10900F

1676

EPYC 7713

1625 -3%

Core i3-1115G4

1560 -6.9%

Geekbench 6 Multi Core

Xeon W-2255

9372 +11.7%

Xeon Gold 6130T

8783 +4.7%

Core i9-10900F

8390

Core i7-9800X

7991 -4.8%

Core i5-12500T

7479 -10.9%

Geekbench 5 Single Core

Xeon W-1290P

1398 +8%

Core i7-11700T

1336 +3.2%

Core i9-10900F

1294

Ryzen 7 5825C

1257 -2.9%

Ryzen 7 3700X

1212 -6.3%

Geekbench 5 Multi Core

10708 +14.5%

Ryzen 7 8840U

9940 +6.3%

Core i9-10900F

9353

Core i5-12500

8738 -6.6%

Xeon E7-4880 v2

8214 -12.2%

Passmark CPU Single Core

Ryzen 9 5980HS

3200 +5.2%

Core i7-11700

3118 +2.5%

Core i9-10900F

3041

Core i7-11370H

2944 -3.2%

Ryzen 5 5625U

2889 -5%

Passmark CPU Multi Core

Ryzen 5 8500G

21687 +7.8%

Ryzen 7 PRO 6860Z

20863 +3.7%

Core i9-10900F

20112

Ryzen 5 8540U

19425 -3.4%

Xeon W-1290E

18786 -6.6%