Intel Core i9-11900K Review

1. Introduction2. Rocket Lake is New, New, New3. Test Setup4. Cinebench R15 and R235. 3D Mark, 7-Zip and Handbrake6. Blender and AIDA647. Game tests at 1440p and 1080p8. Power and heat9. Closing Thoughts10. View All Pages

Intel makes a number of bold claims for the technologies inside 11th Gen Rocket Lake.

We are currently unable to judge the value of Deep Learning Boost, however the claimed 19 percent increase in IPC is central to Rocket Lake as it means that Intel can justify the step back from ten cores to eight.

Another major change with Rocket Lake is the step up  from PCIe Gen 3 to Gen 4 and in addition you now get 20 lanes of PCI Express from the CPU (Comet Lake-S has 16 lanes) that support both the graphics slot and also the primary M.2 storage drive.

The matching Z590 chipset, meanwhile, continues to support PCIe Gen 3 so while you get some tweaks to the USB support there are no dramatic changes in terms of features and hardware.

Having said that, the Z590 chipset does have one very interesting aspect as the combination of an 11th Gen Core i9 CPU with a Z590 motherboard means you can use Intel Adaptive Boost Technology to ramp up CPU clock speed dynamically.

Become a Patron!