Intel Unleashes Full Line Of 9th-gen Core Desktop & Notebook Processors

When Intel debuted its 9th-gen Core series last fall, it left many price-points on the table. Since that time, a couple of more models trickled out, but today ushers in the launch of the rest of the lineup. That even includes Celerons and Pentiums, so no matter your budget, there is a processor for you if you’re looking to jump aboard the 9th-gen Core train.

At the top-end, the i9-9900 matches the basic specs of the 9900K, but whittles down the base clock 500MHz to 3.1GHz and retains the same 5.0GHz Turbo speed. Chopping those 500MHz off will bring the price from $488 to $439 (per 1,000 units). It’s important to note that a 9900 without a K is not going to offer all of the overclocking freedom you may want – so bear that in mind.

The 8-core/8-thread 9700 has also seen the introduction non-K SKUs, with both IGP and IGP-less models available for $323, down from $374 with the higher-clocked (and overclock unlocked) 9700K. Similar trends are seen for the 9600 and 9500. There was already a 9400 non-K prior to this, but the bottom four models listed are all brand-new, and will cater to those craving the latest-gen Core at the most affordable price-point.

This full 9th-gen rollout also includes a number of new “T” models, which represent 35W parts. Intel did everything it could to reduce clocks to that power envelope while retaining the same cores and cache, so it’s no surprise that base and Turbo clocks have been reduced quite significantly. The i9-9900T now peaks at 4.4GHz, versus the 9900K’s 5.0GHz, while the base clock dropped 1.5GHz to 2.1GHz.

We mentioned above that there is a new CPU for every price-point, and the bottom-half of this second table highlights that. The lowest-priced SKU is the $42 Celeron G4930, a model that sacrifices 200MHz to create the 35W T variant. We’d never recommend these kinds of bottom-of-the-ladder SKUs unless you have a specific purpose for them; we’d recommend you get at least the top-end Pentiums which offer twice the number of threads. 2 cores in 2019 is hard to look at, so don’t make things worse than they need to be.

In case there weren’t enough SKUs to look over above, here are six more. Today’s launch also involves the first 9th-gen Core processors for mobile, with the top SKU being the i9-9980HK, a 8-core/16-thread part. What? You expected the 9980HK to have 18 cores like the desktop 9980XE? Now why would you think something crazy like that? It’s not like the model number is exactly the same or anything.

Naming nonsense aside, these six processors offer a good range of capabilities for consumers, with even the “lower-end” models sporting 8 threads. It’s nice to see the biggest chip equipped with a 5GHz Turbo, as well as the entire lineup taking advantage of Optane (which isn’t a big surprise). While all of the mobile chips include integrated graphics, these chips would happen to go great with NVIDIA’s just-released GTX 1660 Ti and GTX 1650 for mobile.

We don’t have any one of these new chips in to test, but oddly enough do have a GeForce RTX notebook we’ll be tearing into this week, so stay tuned for that. We’ll inevitably take a look at Intel’s newer chips soon enough, but right now, it seems reviews are scarce, so chances are that notebooks need to find time to reach reviewers.