Intel Core i7-9700 Review

Get to know the Core i7-9700! This Desktop processor is a beast in Intel's high-end series. Launched in 2019, it's armed with 8 cores and 8 threads. It runs at a base frequency of 3GHz, can boost up to 4.7GHz, and has a power requirement of 65W, ready to power up your gaming rig. The Core i7-9700 is a product of the Coffee Lake Refresh 14nm process and is a part of the acclaimed Core i7 series.

And guess what? The Core i7-9700 is the ultimate successor to Intel's previous-gen gaming champion, the Core i7-8700. The Core i7-8700 was based on the legendary Coffee Lake and 14nm process, and it made its grand entrance into the gaming scene back in 2017. But now, it's time for the Core i7-9700 to take the throne and conquer the gaming world!

Even though the Intel Core i7-9700 only has a TDP of 65W, it still packs a punch. This CPU can go toe-to-toe with the much more expensive AMD Ryzen 7 3800X, which guzzles a whopping 105W of power.

The high number of threads (over 7!) in the Intel Core i7-9700 makes it a monster for tasks that use all the cores at once (multi-threaded workloads), especially for the price. If you edit a lot of videos or work with giant spreadsheets, the Core i7-9700 will give you a noticeable performance boost.

Alright, buying advice time! Before this review, we recommended the Ryzen 7 3700X because it comes with a better stock cooler, can be overclocked, and the platform allows for easier future upgrades.

For gaming, it's a close call. Both the Ryzen 7 3700X and Core i7-9700 are pretty much neck and neck. The Core i7-9700 can sometimes be faster due to better game support and lower latency, but the Ryzen 7 3700X often delivers smoother frame rates thanks to double the threads.

For gamers, both the Ryzen 7 3700X and Core i7-9700 are great choices. They're neck and neck, with a slight edge to the AMD CPU if you don't overclock it. The Core i7-9700's base performance can be achieved with cheaper RAM (around $90), whereas the Ryzen 7 3700X needs faster RAM ($110-$120) to hit the frame rates we showed. The price difference is small though, and with anything less than an RTX 2070 or Vega 64 graphics card, your GPU will bottleneck your performance anyway. BottleneckAtPlay

But beyond gaming, the Ryzen 7 3700X is the future-proof option. The Ryzen 7 platform on A320, B350, B450, X370, X470, X570 motherboards supports upcoming Zen 2 processors. So, if you buy a good A320, B350, B450, X370, X470, X570 board with the Ryzen 7 3700X now, you can easily upgrade to a newer Coffee Lake Refresh CPU later on.

One of the best things about the Intel Core i7-9700 is that it comes with a free CPU cooler! You can grab the Core i7-9700 for $360 without having to spend extra on cooling.

The Intel Core i7-9700 comes with a basic heatsink cooler, nothing fancy. But it gets the job done for this low-power CPU (TDP of 65W). You won't need a fancy aftermarket cooler unless you want to overclock it.

The gaming tests with an RTX 2080 Ti were surprising! The budget-friendly Intel Core i7-9700 (only 360)managedtooutperformthemoreexpensiveRyzen 7 3800X(328) in three games we tested. We know three games aren't everything, but it shows that even a 8 core CPU can still hold its own today. You can even play modern games and stream to Twitch on the Core i7-9700 (playable results, not amazing). As games get more demanding, a 8 core CPU might not be ideal, but the Core i7-9700 can hold its own for now in a pinch.

However, the Intel Core i7-9700 falls a bit behind in clock speeds. The Ryzen 7 3800X can reach 3.9GHz base clock and boost up to 4.5GHz.

Building on the success of mainstream Core i7 CPUs, Intel is now attacking the high-end market with the Core i7-9700 processors, available since Jun 2019.