Intel's Core i9-9900KS special edition CPU is out now

Intel’s best gaming CPU just got even better. Launching today (October 30th), the Intel Core i9-9900KS is primed to deliver a massive 5.0GHz all-core turbo speed straight out of the box. It’s going to cost you, though, as this special edition CPU has a recommended retail price of $513.

UK pricing is yet to be confirmed, but given the regular Intel Core i9-9900K already goes for around £480 at time of writing, I wouldn’t be surprised if it also broke the 500 quid mark. Now you might be thinking that’s a lot of cash to spend on a processor, and you’d be 100% correct in that assessment. Heck, that’s probably at least half what I paid for my entire PC, let alone a single component of it. Indeed, with that kind of money, you could buy an Nvidia RTX 2070 Super and still have cash left over.

However, if you’re mad about your overclocking and want the bestest best PC components on the planet, then there’s no denying the 9900KS has a certain allure to it. It still has eight cores and sixteen threads to its name, for example, but its base clock speed has been raised from 3.6GHz to 4.0GHz, making it even nippier than it was before. It’s also compatible with Intel’s new free Performance Maximizer software, too, which lets you overclock it with just a couple of clicks. It does, however, have a higher TDP of 127W compared to the regular 9990K’s 95W, so you’ll definitely need to employ some serious cooling apparatus to keep it running at those high speeds.

Of course, I’ll be testing the 9900KS in due course to see exactly how much faster it is in practice, but compared to a three-year old PC with one of Intel’s Core i7-6700K CPUs inside it, Intel claim you should see up to 27% faster multi-tasking performance when you’re playing games, streaming and recording your gameplay footage at the same time, and up to 35% higher frame rates when playing games as well. It’s also 17% faster at 4K video editing than Intel’s 8th Gen Coffee Lake Core i7-8700K CPU, according to Intel, and up to 78% faster than the three-year-old i7-6700K.

Being a special edition processor, though, you’ll need to get your skates on if all that sounds like your cup of CPU tea, as the Core i9-9900KS will only be available for a limited time and in limited quantities.