The Intel Comet Lake Core i9-10900K, i7-10700K, i5-10600K CPU Review: Skylake We Go Again
by Dr. Ian Cutress on May 20, 2020 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
- Intel
- Skylake
- 14nm
- Z490
- 10th Gen Core
- Comet Lake
Test Bed and Setup
As per our processor testing policy, we take a premium category motherboard suitable for the socket, and equip the system with a suitable amount of memory running at the manufacturer's maximum supported frequency. This is also typically run at JEDEC subtimings where possible. It is noted that some users are not keen on this policy, stating that sometimes the maximum supported frequency is quite low, or faster memory is available at a similar price, or that the JEDEC speeds can be prohibitive for performance. While these comments make sense, ultimately very few users apply memory profiles (either XMP or other) as they require interaction with the BIOS, and most users will fall back on JEDEC supported speeds - this includes home users as well as industry who might want to shave off a cent or two from the cost or stay within the margins set by the manufacturer. Where possible, we will extend out testing to include faster memory modules either at the same time as the review or a later date.
Test Setup | |
Intel Core 10th Gen | Intel Core i9-10900K Intel Core i7-10700K Intel Core i5-10600K |
Motherboard | ASRock Z490 PG Velocita (P1.30a) |
CPU Cooler | TRUE Copper (2kg) |
DRAM | Corsair Vengeance RGB 4x8GB DDR4-2933 Corsair Vengeance RGB 4x8GB DDR4-2666 |
GPU | Sapphire RX 460 2GB (CPU Tests) MSI GTX 1080 Gaming 8G (Gaming Tests) |
PSU | Corsair AX860i |
SSD | Crucial MX500 2TB |
OS | Windows 10 1909 |
Please note we are still using our 2019 gaming test suite for CPU reviews with a GTX 1080. We are in the process of rewriting our gaming test suite with some new tests, such as Borderlands and Gears Tactics, as well as changing the settings we test and moving up to an RTX 2080 Ti. It's going to take a while to do regression testing for our gaming suite, so please bear with us.
Many thanks to...
We must thank the following companies for kindly providing hardware for our multiple test beds. Some of this hardware is not in this test bed specifically, but is used in other testing.
Scale Up vs Scale Out: Benefits of Automation
One comment we get every now and again is that automation isn’t the best way of testing – there’s a higher barrier to entry, and it limits the tests that can be done. From our perspective, despite taking a little while to program properly (and get it right), automation means we can do several things:
- Guarantee consistent breaks between tests for cooldown to occur, rather than variable cooldown times based on ‘if I’m looking at the screen’
- It allows us to simultaneously test several systems at once. I currently run five systems in my office (limited by the number of 4K monitors, and space) which means we can process more hardware at the same time
- We can leave tests to run overnight, very useful for a deadline
- With a good enough script, tests can be added very easily
Our benchmark suite collates all the results and spits out data as the tests are running to a central storage platform, which I can probe mid-run to update data as it comes through. This also acts as a mental check in case any of the data might be abnormal.
We do have one major limitation, and that rests on the side of our gaming tests. We are running multiple tests through one Steam account, some of which (like GTA) are online only. As Steam only lets one system play on an account at once, our gaming script probes Steam’s own APIs to determine if we are ‘online’ or not, and to run offline tests until the account is free to be logged in on that system. Depending on the number of games we test that absolutely require online mode, it can be a bit of a bottleneck.
Benchmark Suite Updates
As always, we do take requests. It helps us understand the workloads that everyone is running and plan accordingly.
A side note on software packages: we have had requests for tests on software such as ANSYS, or other professional grade software. The downside of testing this software is licensing and scale. Most of these companies do not particularly care about us running tests, and state it’s not part of their goals. Others, like Agisoft, are more than willing to help. If you are involved in these software packages, the best way to see us benchmark them is to reach out. We have special versions of software for some of our tests, and if we can get something that works, and relevant to the audience, then we shouldn’t have too much difficulty adding it to the suite.
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UltraWide - Wednesday, May 20, 2020 - link
Intel's 10th gen is a hard pass for me.I'll wait patiently with my 4770K.
Spunjji - Tuesday, May 26, 2020 - link
Haswell was the last time I remember being excited about an Intel CPU.AnarchoPrimitiv - Wednesday, May 20, 2020 - link
Why is the article stating that the 10900k is "around the same price" as the 3900x when its literally around $100 more (3900x currently goes for $417 and the 10900k has listed at $522, $488 is only the tray price when you buy 1000 or more CPUs)? In my opinion a 25% more expensive CPU isn't "around the same price"dirkdigles - Wednesday, May 20, 2020 - link
Same thoughts - I commented on that earlier. Quite misleading IMO.drothgery - Wednesday, May 20, 2020 - link
comparing retail prices of something just released vs something that's been out for months is silly, so they went by MSRP (which for CPUs is the tray price)?GreenReaper - Wednesday, May 20, 2020 - link
Don't see how that works. You buy based on the performance available now, that is what the charts are based on - so why not the price now?duploxxx - Wednesday, May 20, 2020 - link
perhaps a reviews site should start testing with the defaults…. so put a default cooler on this system and test again in a case and heating next to it and see how much is reall left from this marketing turbo and theoretical benchmarking....jameslr - Wednesday, May 20, 2020 - link
What's a "default cooler"? None of these CPUs come with a "cooler" or HSF unit.GreenReaper - Wednesday, May 20, 2020 - link
So test it anyway, see what happens when you don't include a vital bit of kit in the comparison price.Spunjji - Tuesday, May 26, 2020 - link
The AMD ones do. They could throw in a known-equivalent cooler on the Intel side and repeat a few of the tests with it to see how it fares - one of those $30 Coolermaster jobs should do the trick.At least that way you'd get an idea of the extremes - "properly" cooled with a water loop vs. cooled the way most people used to do home builds.