Essentials
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Product Collection 11th Generation Intel® Core™ i9 Processors
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Code Name Products formerly Rocket Lake
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Vertical Segment Desktop
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Processor Number i9-11900
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Status Launched
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Launch Date Q1'21
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Lithography 14 nm
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Use Conditions PC/Client/Tablet
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Recommended Customer
Price $439.00 - $449.00
CPU Specifications
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# of Cores 8
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# of Threads 16
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Processor Base
Frequency 2.50 GHz
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Max Turbo Frequency 5.20 GHz
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Intel® Thermal
Velocity Boost Frequency 5.20 GHz
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Cache 16 MB Intel® Smart Cache
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Bus Speed 8 GT/s
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Intel® Turbo Boost Max
Technology 3.0 Frequency ‡ 5.10 GHz
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Intel® Turbo Boost
Technology 2.0 Frequency‡ 5.00 GHz
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TDP 65 W
Supplemental Information
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Embedded Options
Available No
Memory Specifications
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Max Memory Size
(dependent on memory type) 128 GB
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Memory Types DDR4-3200
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Max # of Memory
Channels 2
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Max Memory Bandwidth 50 GB/s
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ECC Memory
Supported ‡No
Processor Graphics
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Processor
Graphics ‡Intel® UHD Graphics
750
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Graphics Base
Frequency 350 MHz
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Graphics Max Dynamic
Frequency 1.30 GHz
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Graphics Video Max
Memory 64 GB
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Execution Units 32
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4K Suppor tYes, at 60Hz
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Max Resolution (HDMI) ‡4096x2160@60Hz
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Max Resolution (DP) ‡5120 x 3200 @60Hz
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Max Resolution (eDP -
Integrated Flat Panel) ‡5120 x 3200 @60Hz
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DirectX* Support 12.1
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OpenGL* Support 4.5
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Intel® Quick Sync
Video Yes
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Intel® InTru™ 3D
Technology Yes
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Intel® Clear Video HD
Technology Yes
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Intel® Clear Video
Technology Yes
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# of Displays
Supported ‡3
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Device ID 0x4C8A
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OpenCL* Support 3.0
Expansion Options
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Scalability 1S Only
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PCI Express Revision 4.0
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PCI Express
Configurations ‡ Up to 1x16+1x4, 2x8+1x4, 1x8+3x4
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Max # of PCI Express
Lanes 20
Package Specifications
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Sockets Supported FCLGA1200
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Max CPU Configuration 1
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Thermal Solution
Specification PCG 2019C
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Intel® Thermal
Velocity Boost Temperature 70 °C
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TJUNCTION100°C
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Package Size37.5 mm x 37.5 mm
Advanced Technologies
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Intel® Deep Learning
Boost (Intel® DL Boost) Yes
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Intel® Optane™ Memory
Supported ‡ Yes
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Intel® Thermal
Velocity Boost Yes
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Intel® Turbo Boost Max
Technology 3.0 ‡ Yes
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Intel® Turbo Boost
Technology ‡ 2.0
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Intel vPro® Platform
Eligibility ‡ Yes
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Intel® Hyper-Threading
Technology ‡ Yes
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Intel® Virtualization
Technology (VT-x) ‡ Yes
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Intel® Virtualization
Technology for Directed I/O (VT-d) ‡ Yes
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Intel® VT-x with
Extended Page Tables (EPT) ‡ Yes
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Intel® 64 ‡ Yes
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Instruction Set 64-bit
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Instruction Set
Extensions Intel® SSE4.1, Intel® SSE4.2, Intel® AVX2,
Intel® AVX-512
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Idle States Yes
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Enhanced Intel
SpeedStep® Technology Yes
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Thermal Monitoring
Technologies Yes
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Intel® Identity
Protection Technology ‡ Yes
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Intel® Stable Image
Platform Program (SIPP) Yes
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Intel® Gaussian and
Neural Accelerator 2.0 Yes
Security & Reliability
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Intel® AES New
Instructions Yes
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Secure Key Yes
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Intel® Software Guard
Extensions (Intel® SGX) No
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Intel® OS Guard Yes
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Intel® Trusted
Execution Technology ‡ Yes
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Execute Disable
Bit ‡ Yes
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Intel® Boot Guard Yes
The fact that the Intel Core i9-11900K is a powerful desktop
processor is indisputable. But it also comes as heavyweight processors such
as the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X have
claimed both the multi-core and the single-core crowns, and Intel is struggling
to hold on to relevance in the desktop market.
With Intel’s 12th-generation Alder Lake-S processors rumored
to arrive as soon as September
2021, the Intel Core i9-11900K and the rest of the 11th-generation
lineup feels more like a stopgap than chips to get really excited about.
That is even evident
in the tech behind this processor. Intel backported the 10nm Ice Lake
architecture to a 14nm process for the Intel Core i9-11900K, which is the core
reason why it’s back down to an 8-core, 16-thread design. This makes its place
in the CPU market really odd, because while it does mean that the processor has
extremely strong single-core performance, it falls so far behind in multi-core
that it's definitely not worth the sticker price for anyone that uses their
computer for more than just playing games.
The Intel Core
i9-11900K will easily power through pretty much any workload you throw at it.
Sadly, at the end of the day, there are plenty of other processors that can do
so, which means there’s little reason to jump on the Intel Core i9-11900K over
other processors – even older Intel ones.
Price and availability
The Intel Core
i9-11900K will be available March 30, with a suggested retail price of $539
(about £390, AU$710). That price positions this processor as a direct
replacement for the Intel Core i9-10900K and a competitor to the AMD Ryzen 9
5900X.
Intel’s processors
have seemed to elude the recent availability problems faced by graphics cards
and AMD processors recently, so we’re not sure if the prices will go up much
higher.
However, when prices
do get back to normal across the industry, the Intel Core i9-11900K doesn’t
look particularly great when put up against the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X, or even the
much cheaper $449 (£419, AU$799) AMD Ryzen 7 5800X. Intel does rack up some
wins in some single-threaded applications and games. But when you’re willing to
spend nearly a thousand bucks on just your CPU and motherboard, it’s unlikely
that you’ll just be using your computer to play some Overwatch.
For folks that are
looking to get in on some creative applications without jumping to an HEDT
(high end desktop) platform, you’re probably going to want to look elsewhere.
Chipset and features
Like every other
desktop platform launched since Skylake back in 2015, the Intel Core i9-11900K
is based on the Rocket Lake-S architecture – which is manufactured on a 14nm
process. However, unlike Comet Lake, Kaby Lake and Coffee Lake before it, this
isn’t just another iteration of Skylake itself.
Rather, Intel took the
core design of its 10nm Ice Lake processors, which are primarily found in
laptops, and backported it to the 14nm manufacturing process. Intel claims that
this lets it push clock speeds higher than its 10nm process would allow, which
is important for gaming. However, when combined with the Intel Xe graphics
present on the die, there is less room on the chip for CPU cores, which means
that the Intel Core i9-11900K has just 8 CPU cores, down from the 10-core
design of the Intel Core i9-10900K.
That sounds bad, but
this new Cypress Cove core does allow Intel to not only push clock speeds
slightly higher – up to 5.3GHz on a single core – but also allows for a pretty
substantial 19% boost in Instructions Per Cycle (IPC) performance.
However, it looks like
a pretty big part of the improvement that comes with Cypress Cove results in
higher power consumption and, with it, higher temperatures.
During heavy
workloads, particularly those like Blender, the Intel Core i9-11900K can reach
up to a whopping 203W of power consumption, and that’s with disabling the
Multi-Core enhancement that the Asus ROG Maximus XIII Hero enabled by default.
Having that option enabled pushed power consumption all the way up to around
230W, which is more than a lot of modern graphics cards will use.
With power consumption
this high, temperatures can also jump up considerably. With all stock settings,
the Intel Core i9-11900K can reach up to 82°C, a pretty considerable jump over
the 76°C that the Intel Core i9-10900K reaches under the same conditions. We’re
not using a lightweight CPU cooler either – this is with a 360mm AIO cooler, so
if you’re thinking about grabbing this processor, consider grabbing a robust
cooler as well.
It doesn’t look too good, either, that the Intel Core i9-11900K
arrives just weeks after Team Blue discontinued its CPU overclocking warranty.
We typically don’t cover overclocking in our reviews, as it still voids your
warranty, but with these processors consuming more power and spitting out more
heat than ever before, overclocking is going to be even more difficult.
If you’ve been lucky enough to get your hands on a power-hungry
graphics card, like the RTX 3090 and you were hoping to pair it with this
processor, it’s probably a good idea to make sure you have a power supply that
can handle the load.
It’s not all bad, though. With the Intel Core i9-11900K, Intel
has finally worked in PCIe 4.0 support, which means you will be able to use
the best SSDs on the market. Even some Z490 boards will be
able to use this functionality, but you’re going to want to check your
motherboard’s manufacturer’s website to see if it’s supported.
Review:
Intel seems
to have made some significant improvements core-for-core in 11th Gen processors
over 10th Gen processors. And the integrated graphics is certainly a great
improvement but it will have to get a little better to compete with AMD’s
Vega11 iGPU.
