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Intel Core i9-10900K

Intel Core i9-10900K in 2025: Is it Worth Buying the Legendary 10-Core Processor Today?

Relevant Analysis for Gamers, Enthusiasts, and Professionals

Key Specifications: Architecture, Process Technology, and Key Features

The Intel Core i9-10900K, released in 2020, remains an iconic solution for many users. Despite its age, its specifications are impressive:

- Architecture: Comet Lake-S (14 nm+++).

- Cores/Threads: 10/20.

- Frequencies: Base — 3.7 GHz, maximum in turbo mode — up to 5.3 GHz (Turbo Boost Max 3.0).

- Cache: 20 MB L3.

- TDP: 125 W (real power consumption when overclocked can reach 250 W).

- Graphics: Intel UHD Graphics 630 (basic 4K support, but unsuitable for gaming).

Key Features:

- Support for Hyper-Threading for multithreaded workloads.

- Unlocked multiplier for overclocking.

- Thermal Velocity Boost and Intel Adaptive Boost technologies for automatic frequency increases.

Performance in 2025:

- Geekbench 6: 1753 (Single-Core), 9267 (Multi-Core).

- In games (e.g., Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty), it delivers 90-120 FPS paired with an RTX 4070 Ti on Ultra settings (1080p).

- For rendering in Blender (BMW scene), it takes about 7.5 minutes — on par with the Ryzen 7 5800X.

Compatible Motherboards: Sockets and Chipsets

The processor uses the LGA 1200 socket, supported by the following chipsets:

- Z490: Best choice for overclocking (e.g., ASUS ROG Maximus XII Hero). Supports PCIe 3.0, DDR4 RAM overclocking up to 4800 MHz (with XMP).

- B460/H470: Budget boards without overclocking (ASUS TUF Gaming B460-Plus). RAM frequency is limited to 2933 MHz.

- H410: For office builds (Gigabyte H410M S2H).

Important in 2025:

- New LGA 1200 boards are no longer being produced. Prices for remaining stock start from $120 (Z490) to $60 (H410).

- For maximum performance, look for models with a strong VRM (e.g., MSI Z490 Tomahawk).

Supported Memory: DDR4 and Limitations

The i9-10900K works only with DDR4:

- Officially supports up to 2933 MHz (without overclocking).

- With the Z490 chipset and XMP profiles, modules up to 4800 MHz can be used.

Recommendations:

- For gaming: 2x16 GB DDR4-3600 CL16 (e.g., G.Skill Trident Z Neo).

- For work tasks: 4x8 GB DDR4-3200 CL18 (capacity is more important than speed).

Why No DDR5?

The Comet Lake architecture is not designed for DDR5. This is a significant downside for upgrading in 2025.

Power Supply: Power Calculation and Examples

When building a system with the i9-10900K, consider:

- Without Overclocking: 125 W (processor) + 250-300 W (graphics card level RTX 4070).

- With Overclocking: Up to 250 W (processor) + 350 W (RTX 4080).

Recommended PSUs:

- Minimum: 650 W (Corsair RM650x, 80+ Gold, $110).

- For overclocking and high-end graphics cards: 850 W (Seasonic PRIME GX-850, $160).

Tip: Don’t skimp on the power supply! Cheap models (EVGA W1, Thermaltake Smart) may not withstand peak loads.

Pros and Cons of the i9-10900K in 2025

Pros:

1. Gaming: High IPC and frequency up to 5.3 GHz provide smooth FPS.

2. Overclocking Potential: With good cooling, it’s easy to reach 5.1 GHz on all cores.

3. Price: New processors sell starting from $250 (cheaper than the Ryzen 7 7700X).

Cons:

1. Energy Efficiency: 14 nm vs. 5 nm of Ryzen 8000 — high heat and electricity costs.

2. No PCIe 4.0/5.0: SSDs and graphics cards don’t fully realize their speed.

3. “Dead” Platform: No upgrade to newer CPUs without replacing the motherboard.

Use Cases: Where is the i9-10900K Still Relevant?

1. Gaming: Ideal for 1080p/1440p. Paired with an RTX 4070 Ti, it can handle any AAA titles.

2. Work Tasks: Video editing in Premiere Pro, 3D modeling in SolidWorks.

3. Streaming: NVENC + 10 cores can handle encoding in OBS without lag.

Practical Example:

Streamer build: i9-10900K + RTX 4060 + 32 GB DDR4. Recording at 1080p60 + streaming on Twitch — CPU load does not exceed 70%.

Comparison with Competitors

1. AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D ($300):

- Pros: Better in games (+15% FPS), PCIe 4.0 support.

- Cons: 8 cores vs. 10 for Intel.

2. Intel Core i5-14600K ($320):

- Pros: Newer architecture (Raptor Lake), DDR5, PCIe 5.0.

- Cons: Higher price, requires platform replacement.

3. Ryzen 9 7900 ($400):

- Pros: 12 cores, 5 nm, energy efficiency.

- Cons: More expensive, difficult upgrade path for LGA 1200 owners.

Conclusion: The i9-10900K is preferable only when there is a discount or if building on an old platform.

Practical Assembly Tips

1. Cooling:

- Minimum: DeepCool AK620 ($60).

- For overclocking: Arctic Liquid Freezer II 360 ($120).

2. Case: Choose models with ventilation (Lian Li Lancool 216). CPU temperature should not exceed 85°C.

3. Thermal Paste: Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut or Arctic MX-6.

4. BIOS: Update to the latest version for improved stability.

Final Conclusion: Who Should Consider the i9-10900K in 2025?

This processor is worth considering for:

- Gamers on a budget looking to upgrade an old system on LGA 1200.

- Enthusiasts wanting to experiment with overclocking.

- Professionals needing 10 cores for rendering without paying extra for DDR5.

Alternative: If you're building a PC from scratch, consider the Ryzen 5 8600G or Core i5-14600K. They offer modern technologies at a comparable price.

Price of the new i9-10900K in April 2025: $250-$300 (remaining stock). Don’t overpay — check for warranty availability!

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.

i9-10900K

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

3.70 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.

5.30 GHz

Intel Turbo Boost Technology 2.0 Frequency

5.10 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.

5.20 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

125 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.

GPU Specifications

Integrated Graphics Model

An integrated GPU refers to the graphics core that is integrated into the CPU processor. Leveraging the processor's powerful computational capabilities and intelligent power efficiency management, it delivers outstanding graphics performance and a smooth application experience at a lower power consumption.

Intel® UHD Graphics 630

Graphics Base Frequency

Graphics Base frequency refers to the rated/guaranteed graphics render clock frequency in MHz.

350 MHz

Graphics Frequency

Graphics max dynamic frequency refers to the maximum opportunistic graphics render clock frequency (in MHz) that can be supported using Intel® HD Graphics with Dynamic Frequency feature.

1.20 GHz

Graphics Video Max Memory

64 GB

4K Support

Yes | at 60Hz

DirectX Support

DirectX* Support indicates support for a specific version of Microsoft’s collection of APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) for handling multimedia compute tasks.

Max Resolution (HDMI)

Max Resolution (HDMI) is the maximum resolution supported by the processor via the HDMI interface (24bits per pixel & 60Hz). System or device display resolution is dependent on multiple system design factors; actual resolution may be lower on your system.

4096 x 2160@30Hz

Max Resolution (DP)

Max Resolution (DP) is the maximum resolution supported by the processor via the DP interface (24bits per pixel & 60Hz). System or device display resolution is dependent on multiple system design factors; actual resolution may be lower on your system.

4096 x 2304@60Hz

Max Resolution (eDP - Integrated Flat Panel)

Max Resolution (Integrated Flat Panel) is the maximum resolution supported by the processor for a device with an integrated flat panel (24bits per pixel & 60Hz). System or device display resolution is dependent on multiple system design factors; actual resolution may be lower on your device.

4096 x 2304@60Hz

Number of Displays Supported

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 Clear Video HD Technology

Intel® Clear Video HD Technology, like its predecessor, Intel® Clear Video Technology, is a suite of image decode and processing technologies built into the integrated processor graphics that improve video playback, delivering cleaner, sharper images, more natural, accurate, and vivid colors, and a clear and stable video picture. Intel® Clear Video HD Technology adds video quality enhancements for richer color and more realistic skin tones.

Yes

Intel Clear Video Technology

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 InTru 3D Technology

Yes

Intel OS Guard

Yes

OpenGL Support

OpenGL (Open Graphics Library) is a cross-language, multi-platform API (Application Programming Interface) for rendering 2D and 3D vector graphics.

4.5

Intel Quick Sync Video

Intel® Quick Sync Video delivers fast conversion of video for portable media players, online sharing, and video editing and authoring.

Yes

Benchmarks

Geekbench 6

Single Core Score

1753

Geekbench 6

Multi Core Score

9267

Geekbench 5

Single Core Score

1362

Geekbench 5

Multi Core Score

11000

Passmark CPU

Single Core Score

3145

Passmark CPU

Multi Core Score

23042

Compared to Other CPU

Geekbench 6 Single Core

Core i7-11390H

1986 +13.3%

Core i9-11900H

1886 +7.6%

Core i9-10900K

1753

EPYC 7413

1677 -4.3%

Xeon E-2246G

1628 -7.1%

Geekbench 6 Multi Core

Ryzen Z1 Extreme

10616 +14.6%

Xeon W-2191B

9788 +5.6%

Core i9-10900K

9267

Ryzen 7 PRO 5845

8729 -5.8%

4800S

8323 -10.2%

Geekbench 5 Single Core

Ryzen 5 PRO 5650G

1492 +9.5%

EPYC 9354P

1431 +5.1%

Core i9-10900K

1362

Ryzen 5 PRO 6650H

1311 -3.7%

Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3945WX

1270 -6.8%

Geekbench 5 Multi Core

Core i7-12700F

13090 +19%

Xeon Gold 6346

12084 +9.9%

Core i9-10900K

11000

Core i9-9900X X-series

10176 -7.5%

Ryzen 9 3950X

9500 -13.6%

Passmark CPU Single Core

Core i7-13700E

3272 +4%

Core i7-1260U

3206 +1.9%

Core i9-10900K

3145

Core i7-10700K

3059 -2.7%

Xeon Gold 6421N

2978 -5.3%

Passmark CPU Multi Core

Core i5-13400F

25268 +9.7%

Xeon E5-2699A v4

24208 +5.1%

Core i9-10900K

23042

Core i9-10900X

22480 -2.4%

Ryzen 5 7640U

21592 -6.3%