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Intel Core i9-9900K may boost to 5GHz

If the specs are correct, we can't wait to see the cooling systems.

Lori Grunin Senior Editor / Advice
I've been reviewing hardware and software, devising testing methodology and handed out buying advice for what seems like forever; I'm currently absorbed by computers and gaming hardware, but previously spent many years concentrating on cameras. I've also volunteered with a cat rescue for over 15 years doing adoptions, designing marketing materials, managing volunteers and, of course, photographing cats.
Expertise Photography, PCs and laptops, gaming and gaming accessories
Lori Grunin
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Specs for the two as-yet unannounced CPUs in the next generation of Intel processors may have seeped out onto the web. If they're correct, Intel is bumping both the i9-9900K and i7-9700K to eight cores; the i9-9900K will get a boost clock to 5GHz on two of the cores and up to 4.7GHz on all. Intel's K series of processors are the unlocked versions that can be overclocked.

The i7-9700K however, will be very close -- it will boost to 4.9GHz on a single core (4.8GHz on two), or 4.6GHz on all cores. The difference is the i7 is dropping hyperthreading, the technology that gives you eight threads on a quad-core processor, for example. At four cores, the most common popular optimization for most software, the i7-9700K boosts to 4.7GHz and the i9-9900K to 4.8GHz. So the gap between the the two processors many not be that large for tasks that don't take advantage of hyperthreading or more cores.

Wccftech found a confirmation of the ninth-gen processors in Intel's microcode update guidance a few weeks ago, but other specs -- and SiSoft Sandra benchmark results for the i7-9700K -- have also surfaced.

Although they're ninth-generation in name and model number, the processors use a variation of the eighth-generation Coffee Lake architecture dubbed Coffee Lake-S. 

Intel did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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