Benchmarks: CPU
Evaluated by PiFast, single-threaded performance is line with a Core i7-8700K. Logs show that the Core i9-9900K chip rarely boosts to 5.0GHz. Cinebench's single-thread evaluation puts Ryzen in much closer proximity.
The last two graphs show that creators who can use all CPU cores are better advised going for an AMD Ryzen system. The Intel CPU is no slouch, but the Ryzen is 44 percent faster in Cinebench and 33 percent quicker in the strenuous Blender Classroom test.
Shouldn't one expect more performance from the 9900K; it's not that much quicker than the 8700K, right?
Here's where the power limits we spoke about on the first page come into play. MSI knows it has relatively meagre cooling ability, so the chip boosts very briefly to a higher PL2 limit and then pulls back to a sustained PL1. In terms of frequency, that means just a couple of seconds at an all-core 4.7GHz - the chip's rated speed - followed by 4.3-4.4GHz the rest of the time. Averaged over the entire Blender run, the 9900K returns a sustained 4.382GHz frequency, which intimates a 120W long-term TDP.