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i5-9600K Review - A Solid Mid-Range Option - MMORPG.com
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
i5-9600K Review - A Solid Mid-Range Option - MMORPG.com
What if you could have a mid-range chip option that competes not only with its competition, but what is considered to be the go-to option for gamers for the past year? Enter the i5-9600K, a fantastic midrange option for those looking to stay in the Intel family, but don’t want to spend the extra money on the i7-8700K or even step up to the 9700/9900K options. This is our i5-9600K review.
Post edited by SBFord on
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Btw Intel user here, but will be switching to AMD once I see some benchmarks to make my decision.
Not all, make sure to check MB specs before purchase. And most need a prior flash to an updated bios with an 8 series chip before the 9 series is put in.
Exactly what I was thinking and going to point out myself. i5-9600k - Ryzen 5 2600x is the proper comparison.
All Ryzen CPU's are unlocked.
Also if we care only about gaming performance the Ryzen 5 2600 which is even cheaper can some times perform even better than the R7 1700 since it can reach higher OC's.
Honestly when it comes to games and if you have a "budget" to follow AMD is the way to go.. if you want 5 fps more for an extra premium of $200-$500 or even more then go with Intel, of course that statement was true up until now... now with the new Ryzen AMD will have both higher fps and vastly better price, so Intel doesn't even get those extra "5 fps" to give you a reason to spend those extra $200-$500...
And I'm not sure that we should even talk about PCIE 4.0... I'm sure most people saw how ridiculous the performance difference was... i9 9900k + GTX 2080ti vs Ryzen 7 3800x + RX 5700(same performance as GTX 2070)+ X570 motherboard for the Gen 4 PCIE and it outperformed the system that cost probably twice as much with about 60-70% ++. That's ridiculous... Of course whether the difference will be that staggering in games we are yet to see since we all know that benchmarks often times aren't the best option if you want to get an idea on actual performance.
Buying Intel at the moment seems like the dumbest thing a person can do UNLESS they get a great deal, although even then seeing all the issues Intel have lately(vulnerabilities) I probably wouldn't do it.
Still good to see given that this hasn't been the case in recent iterations - although it had been for a long while. Somewhat ironic that the review has to use 2 AMD motherboards since AMD has been pretty good, recently, at being able to have drop in upgrades. (Always worth checking as noted).
Are you a paid troll - this being your first post?
I read through most reviews on a consistent basis but have never been compelled to create an account to respond until this silly review.
You have "accused" the mmorpg.com staff of posting a "sponsored or something else" review without labelling it as such.
I haven't directly accused them of anything only shared how the article comes across with bias from my perspective "..due to sponsorship or something else, I feel there is some bias here..."
I agree, if your intent is to OC, you better go with a high end air or liquid setup in which case the included cooler holds no value other than a backup, however the wraith AMD cooler isn't half bad and will suffice just fine stock or with a slight OC if you wanted.
Then this even brings up a better point, the 9600K is an enthusiast chip from Intel's latest gen, the 1700 is a mainstream first gen Ryzen. How about comparing apples to apples?
And my account is from before time, If I remember correctly way back when EQ stratics and EQ atlas sold out/vanished I came here. So what does is matter if the account is 1 day old or 1 billions days?
Indeed that's the only baffling part. As I mentioned if before there was few fps that you were getting for the "premium" you are paying now that's also gone. It's both more expensive and performs probably worse than the soon to be released 3600 that will be $199.
For me up until 1 month ago the best intel "gaming" cpu's when it came to price/performance were the 9400F and this CPU, but that was only if you considered gaming and nothing else(even then AMD was the better price/performance) and also before the new Ryzen releases... now unless you get a ridiculous deal Intel just ins't worth it, that said I do expect to see ridiculous deals on the used market, since a lot of people will be buying the new Ryzen cpu's, mobos and probably GPU's.
Actually for price vs performance in most all games (except something like GTA5) a quad core is fine, so that points to the 8350K, but this is 2019 so everyone will shy away from an 'i3'.
Where I live the 9400F and 8350k are the same price and on amazon the 9400F is cheaper:P
Generally if people want cheaper builds they can use xeons like the E5 2640 or even the entry Ryzen 3 1200. Both of those will do an excellent job for almost all games, but I believe for the best $ per FPS the 9400F and 9600k were the best. Too lazy too look at chars and honestly it doesn't matter that much.
I personally am just waiting for June 10 to see hopefully everything else AMD has to offer and then I'll probably decide on what fits my needs the best and go AMD.
Why not? They are better than Intel in both price and performance and what's more the new x570 mobo's are with gen4 PCIE though they will be a bit expensive...
So I'm the reviewer on this piece and first and foremost it should be noted that this is in no way sponsored nor was any expectation placed on me at any point in terms of the conclusion of the review.
As far as the testing methodology, the main reason why this review exists is down to the fact my main Intel CPU test bench broke, so we sought out the review to be test ready going forward on both a AMD bench and an Intel bench. I mainly review games as well as other hardware, so having both ecosystems is valuable when testing gaming performance. I'm not MMORPG's main CPU reviewer, however, and since we all also work remote, we can only really test the CPUs we have on hand. I wasn't able to get access to the 2600, but I do have the 1700 on hand, which is why I tested that. The review is slightly different from our normal testing procedures as a result, but it still provides plenty of valuable info for prospective mid-range buys - especially since the 1700 and the whole 2000 series are likely to become cheaper than ever, making this comparison specifically more valuable to budget bound gamers.
As far as the complaint about the cooler - to some it might seem weird to expect it from an overclockable CPU - obviously if you're doing a massive OC the cooler isn't going to be enough. You're going to need a beefier CPU cooler (hence my liquid cooled Intel test bench). However, for many people, OCing isn't even something they think about - and when the competition provides a cooler - for less money as well - it's a valid complaint. I know people who have bought the Ryzen simply so they wouldn't have to spend the extra money on a CPU cooler as it fit their budget better. So something to keep in mind!
Anyways, thanks for reading and I hope this helped!
Ppl who casually game, do yourself a favor, buy a decent b360 motherboard, an Intel i5 9400F and some dirt cheap ddr4 2666. This is plenty enough power to game and it's a super ez no brain set up. Plus you can pick it all up for less than the cost of the i5 9600K and a cooler.