It’s been officially confirmed! Intel’s lineup of Rocket Lake-S CPUs will be available from the end of March. The new 11th gen CPUs bring PCIe 4.0 support to Intel’s desktop chips for the first time, helping you take advantage of the fastest and best SSD for gaming, although it’s still running on the same 14nm process and 1200 socket as the previous generation. You’ll see a more drastic change with the 12th generation Alder Lake-S range, which is coming later this year, with a brand new 10nm process and LGA 1700 socket.
Thanks to the recent announcement, we’ve got more information about the top CPU in the range, the i9 11900K, in addition to the earlier leaks and rumours. The previous generation i9 was good enough to make our best gaming CPU roundup – could this new one be the same?
Initial leaks of the processor’s performance in an Ashes of the Singularity benchmark were somewhat disappointing when compared to AMD’s flagship offerings, but that particular benchmark is not the most accurate way to estimate a CPU’s potential. With official benchmarks from Intel here, we now have a better idea.
Much of the 11th gen lineup is seeing price hikes over their previous gen equivalents, and the i9 11900K is no different. Here’s everything you need to know about the most expensive chip in the Rocket Lake-S range.
I9 11900K release date
The release date for the 11900K is set for March 30, where it’ll be available to purchase separately to slot inside the best gaming PC build, or found in the newest prebuilt rigs.
I9 11900K price
The 11900K will set you back $539 at MSRP. That’s a $51 increase over the i9 10900K’s $488 list price, so any performance increase needs to back that price bump up.
I9 11900k performance
Despite running on the same 14nm process as the 10th generation, the 11900K sees a 19% IPC gain over the previous i9, but does that actually help boost fps in games, or improve performance in heavy workloads?