Hang on, an Intel i9-9900K 8 core overclockable desktop CPU in a laptop? Yep that’s right,
let’s take a look at performance, overclocking and of course thermals to see just how well
this beast of a machine runs.
For testing I’m using the Metabox P750TM-G, which is the Clevo P750TM1 laptop, so you’ll
find it branded under a few different names around the world. It’s available with a
6 core i7-9700K desktop CPU, but also crazily enough the 9900K, which is what I’ve got
here, along with GTX 1080 graphics, so quite a powerful laptop.
Before we get into the benchmarks let’s talk about thermals and overclocking, as this
will help you better make sense of the results. All temperatures were tested with an ambient
room temperature of 25 degrees Celsius, and there is a single heatpipe between the CPU
and GPU, so a change in temperature of one may affect the other. These are the stock
clock speeds and the overclocked speeds I was able to set, I wasn’t able to set speeds
above this so there does appear to be a limitation somewhere, but as we’ll see soon this is
largely irrelevant due to thermal throttling.
The stress tests were done with Aida64 and the heaven benchmark run at the same time
in order to try and fully utilize both the processor and graphics, and this is resulting
in thermal throttling on the CPU at 98 degrees Celsius. Even with varying settings including
maxing out the fan, boosting the default 95 watt TDP limit or undervolting the CPU by
-0.1v nothing changes in this workload in terms of temperature, but it was a little
cooler in the gaming tests at stock, but we see thermal throttling once we boost the power
limit and apply the undervolt. There are no separate tests for gaming with the fans maxed
out as they were already at maximum in this test.
These are the clock speeds for the same tests just shown. In the stress tests we can see
that the clock speed of the CPU rises by around 10% once we undervolt the CPU, boost its power
limit, and overclock the cores, although the overclock isn’t actually doing anything
here. The all core turbo speed of the i9-9900K is 4.7GHz, and this isn’t being hit here
in our stress test, the best we can reach is 4.4GHz on all 8 cores, so still not bad,
but this does mean that overclocking in sustained multicore load will not benefit us, as we’re
not even hitting the max stock turbo boost speed due to the previously mentioned thermal
throttling.
With that background information out of the way I’ll start off with some CPU specific
tests, so applications like Blender, Cinebench, Handbrake and Adobe Premiere, and then move
into the gaming benchmarks afterwards. We’re only looking at raw performance here, don’t
forget to subscribe to see the full review of this crazy laptop.
We’ll kick things off with Cinebench, at the bottom of the graphs I’ve got results
for the i7-8750H, a typical current generation 6 core laptop CPU just for comparison. Next
up I’ve also got results from a i9-9900K in a desktop PC at stock so we can get an
idea of how the chip performs outside of a laptop, as we are of course subject to thermal
throttling under high multicore load in our laptop. Finally at the top we’ve got the
laptop result with a -0.1v undervolt applied, the power limit boosted from the default 95
Watt TDP, and with the cores slightly overclocked, but as mentioned before this does not seem
to benefit us in multicore load, however some of these tests don’t use all cores in a
sustained manner, so the boosted clock speeds can actually be reached in some cases.
Most of the performance gain is from the undervolt as that allows the CPU to run cooler and clock
higher as a result, and all tests were run with the fans maxed out to attempt to reduce
thermal throttling as much as possible. Anyway in Cinebench the desktop 9900K at stock was
only 3% ahead of the laptop chip once optimized, not bad. Compared to the standard i7-8750H
we see in most laptops though, the 9900K laptop was a massive 65% better in multicore, and
16% better in single core, pretty crazy.
Adobe Premiere was tested by exporting one of my videos with the default high bitrate
preset. Interestingly in this test the laptop 9900K was just able to beat the desktop PC
9900K result, likely as the overclocks were able to be reached, either way fairly similar
performance between them. When we compare the best result from the laptop 9900K it’s
completing the export 28% faster than the i7-8750H.
I’ve also tested Adobe Premiere’s Warp Stabilizer, with just one clip at a time,
so this is where we should expect to see single core performance shine. Sure enough the overclocked
laptop 9900K is able to complete the task just 2% quicker than the stock 9900K in a
desktop as I was able to boost single core speeds from the stock 5.0GHz to 5.2GHz, and
then 19% faster compared to the 8750H which tops out at 4.1GHz in single core.
Next up we’ve got Blender, and there’s a pretty nice difference here. In the Classroom
benchmark, the best result from the laptop 9900K is 45% quicker compared to the 8750H,
and then 46% faster in the BMW benchmark. Compared with the PC though, the PC 9900K
was about 10% faster than the best result of the laptop in the Classroom benchmark,
and 9% faster in the BMW benchmark, not too surprising as this is pretty hard on the CPU
so the throttling on the laptop would be in full effect.
I’ve used Handbrake to convert a 4K video file to 1080p, and then a separate 1080p file
to 720p. Interestingly in the 1080p test the PC 9900K is about 5% faster than the laptop,
but then in the 4K test the laptop is around 6% faster than the PC at stock. When compared
with the 8750H though, the laptop is 65% faster converting the 4K file, and 54% faster with
the 1080p one.
7-Zip was used to test compression and decompression speeds, not too sure why my compression speeds
on the desktop 9900K are a bit lower though, but I don’t have that CPU anymore to double
check that one. The best result from the laptop was seeing 80% faster compression and and
79% faster decompression when compared with a typical 8750H, a pretty massive difference.
VeraCrypt was used to test AES encryption and decryption speeds. Unfortunately I haven’t
got 9900K PC results for this one as I used a different version of VeraCrypt so the results
aren’t valid here. Comparing the 8750H to the best result from the laptop though, the
laptop was getting us 60% faster decryption and 50% faster encryption.
The V-Ray benchmark renders an image using the CPU, and with the modifications to the
laptop applied we’re actually able to match the 9900K in the PC at stock, pretty amazing
for a laptop. Comparatively, the laptop 9900K was 35% faster than the 8750H in this test.
The Corona benchmark also uses the CPU to render an image, and visually the results
are looking pretty similar to V-Ray. In this test the best result from the laptop 9900K
was 42% quicker compared to the 8750H, while the PC was 8% faster than the laptop.
The desktop 9900K can of course be overclocked too, and much better than what we saw possible
in the laptop as generally there are much less thermal constraints, but I still think
it’s excellent that in many of the tests the laptop 9900K was able to match and sometimes
beat a 9900K in a PC at stock.
Now let’s take a look at some game results. These tests were all run with the 9900K at
stock. I did originally plan on testing all games at both stock and with the undervolt,
power limit boost and overclocks applied to the CPU, but after testing 3 games I saw about
the same performance, in some cases a couple of FPS worse or better, so it didn’t seem
to help much if at all.
Fortnite was tested using the replay feature, and we’re seeing some pretty crazy frame
rates, over 400 FPS averages at low settings, and even at epic with everything maxed out
at 1080p it was still 145 FPS.
Battlefield 5 was tested in campaign mode rather than multiplayer as it’s easier to
consistently reproduce the test run. Even at ultra settings we’re still able to hit
100 FPS, turn the settings down a little lower and we’re ready to smash gaming with a 144Hz
display.
CS:GO was tested with the Ulletical benchmark, and again we’re seeing very good results
here, over 300 FPS averages even maxed out, with above 400 possible with minimum settings
in this test.
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey was tested with the built in benchmark, and although it seems
to be a poorly optimized game we’re still able to average around 60 FPS at ultra settings,
and considering the game doesn’t really need a super high frame rate to play this
is quite good.
Far Cry 5 was also tested with the built in benchmark, and these are the best results
I’ve ever seen in a laptop, easily able to pass 100 FPS averages at ultra settings,
and around 140 at low.
Rainbow Six Siege was another that was tested with the built in benchmark, and as a benchmark
that runs very well on modern hardware we’re seeing some very nice results here, over 200
FPS averages even with ultra settings, with the 1% low still sitting at 144 FPS.
I’ll be covering more games in the full review, so get subscribed to see that one.
I’ve used my thermal camera to check out the areas where you’ll actually be putting
your hands, and at idle it was in the mid 30s, pretty normal. While gaming it got to
about the mid 40s in the center, cooler than I was expecting, and then very similar results
with the CPU and GPU stress tests running. With the fans maxed out and undervolt applied
it’s perhaps just a touch cooler.
As for the fan noise produced by the laptop I’ll let you have a listen to some of these
tests.
At idle it was fairly silent, only just audible. While under stress test it was a little louder
than most other gaming laptops I’ve tested, and while gaming and with the fan maxed out
it was quite loud.
With serious hardware like this you’d expect almost non existent battery life. It’s got
a fairly large 82 watt hour battery, and it is removable so in theory you could buy more
and quickly replace them as needed. While just watching YouTube I got 2 hours and 36
minutes, and 1 hour and 5 minutes while gaming, not great but I’ve seen similar with cheaper
laptops that had lower specs too.
When it comes down to it the major limitation here, as expected, is thermal throttling.
With that said though, it still is possible to get near 9900K in a desktop PC at stock
performance in a laptop, which is extremely impressive. Especially when you consider that
about a year ago I looked at the 8700K model of this laptop, which was thicker and had
two power bricks instead of the one we’ve got here, so not only is it smaller it’s
also more powerful. It is still thicker than your average laptop, but it’s not actually
too bad. I could easily see myself travelling with this machine and using it to smash video
editing and exports, unfortunately it’s got to go back before I go to CES so I’m
not able to put it to the test in the real world.
So what did you guys think about a laptop with i9-9900K? Granted it’s not for most
people I still think it’s impressive that it even exists at all, I didn’t see it coming
based on the temperatures I measured in my 9900K test PC back when the CPU launched.
It does cost a fair bit, but it’s still not as expensive as I thought, you can find
up to date pricing linked in the description. As Metabox are an Australian company prices
are in Australian dollars, so for just over $3000 AUD, or $2300 USD we can get a 9900K
laptop, though price will vary depending on the other components you select. Would you
buy a 9900K laptop? Or are you just fine with normal laptop CPUs? Let me know your thoughts
down in the comments, and don’t forget to subscribe for the full review of the laptop
as well as future tech videos like this one.