Intel Cuts Prices of iGPU-devoid 9th Gen Core F and KF SKUs by up to 20 Percent

[btarunr]

Intel Monday revised prices of select 9th generation Core "Coffee Lake Refresh" desktop processor models. These price cuts target the "F" and "KF" brand extensions, which denote a lack of integrated graphics. The price cuts range from 5 percent to 20 percent, and cover key fast-moving SKUs popular with the DIY gaming PC crowd that likes to pair these chips with discrete graphics cards. The entry-level Core i3-9100F gets the biggest cut of the lot. The 4-core/4-thread chip is now selling for USD $97, a 20 percent cut from its $122 MSRP.

Other noteworthy cuts include the popular Core i5-9400F 6-core/6-thread processor, which is now going for $157, compared to its $182 original price. This chip has seen sub-$160 pricing in promotional sales on popular e-tailers such as Newegg. The Core i7-9700F and i7-9700KF are the other popular SKUs among the premium gaming PC build crowd. The two 8-core/8-thread chips are now priced at $298 and $349, respectively. Leading the pack is the Core i9-9900KF, which is going for $463, a small 5% saving over the i9-9900K which you can spend elsewhere, such as slightly faster RAM.



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[Zareek]

The way it should have been in the first place. Technically you are getting less capability, you should pay less too.

 

[AsRock]

Maybe it's better to sell them now at a loss or closer to a loss than have a total loss.

 

[Cheeseball]

That i5-9500F is practically bang-for-buck if you're into Intel CPUs now.

 

[GorbazTheDragon]

Lol just moved to a 3600 last week and it's really impressive how bad the security fixes hit... Basically couldn't do anything in the background with a 7700k or games would start stuttering...

I really can't recommend any of those parts at all.

 

[TheMadDutchDude]

Maybe it's better to sell them now at a loss or closer to a loss than have a total loss.

A loss? Really? They don’t cost that much to produce...

Intel is still making a fortune with these chips.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

I bought a 9600K (non-F) for $199 a month ago, so I’m curious what this will look like at actual retail.

 

[R0H1T]

Interestingly enough the price differential is (near) a constant 25$ across the board between IGP & IGP less variants, I wonder what's up with that?

 

[hat]

Lol just moved to a 3600 last week and it's really impressive how bad the security fixes hit... Basically couldn't do anything in the background with a 7700k or games would start stuttering...

I really can't recommend any of those parts at all.

Do keep in mind you're comparing a 4 core chip to a 6 core chip...

 

[Lorec]

According to Intels website i5-9500F is a 6c6t.
Here on the pic it says 8c8t?

 

[R0H1T]

The i5 is definitely a 6c/6t part.

 

[GorbazTheDragon]

Do keep in mind you're comparing a 4 core chip to a 6 core chip...

I didn't get stuttering in games while watching videos on the i7 before the security patches started coming through...

Either way at the 3600 price bracket today you are looking at 6c6t from intel which is going to be even worse than a 7700k in terms of context switching performance...

 

[ZoneDymo]

wow 20 bucks on nearly 500 dollars? imma get like 100 of them badboiz

Maybe it's better to sell them now at a loss or closer to a loss than have a total loss.

you dont seriously think these prices are anywhere close to a loss right?
or are you saying the prices should be lowered a lot further then they are doing here now?

 

[john_]

20% in the title.
$25 in reality

You have to love percentages

 

[fynxer]

Haha 30 buck cut for 9900KF, they must really had a hard time with making that calculation.

People at Intel are so cheap that they cry when taking a dump.

A price cut of 100 buck would have shaken up the market a little bit BUT 30 buck will hardly make a dent in to AMD owning 80% of consumer cpu sales.

They are trying to hold out for as long as possible BUT it will just make it worse. Not until Intel's consumer segment is on life support (under 10% sales) will they understand that REAL price cuts that is necessary to compete with AMD.

These are the cuts Intel should have made
9900KF ~$379
9700KF ~$279
9600KF ~$199
This would give AMD a run for their money, given the maturity and good yield of 14++++++++++ process these prices is no problem for Intel.

 

[john_]

Not until Intel's consumer segment is on life support (under 10% sales) will they understand that REAL price cuts that is necessary to compete with AMD.

Even if they go down to 1% of the retail market, they wouldn't cut those prices significantly, if they still sell a huge number of CPUs to OEMs. And the prices you posted, probably they are already in effect with OEMs, so Intel probably is just fine.

 

[R0H1T]

Well yeah Intel's blood line still remains their channel partners, OEM, ODM sales & of course (enterprise) servers. DIY doesn't even register on the Richter scale for them.

This is precisely why they've been able to get away with overcharging for parts that ought to have been priced lower, especially in the recent past.

 

[GorbazTheDragon]

Agreed, but AMD is finally starting to put some attention into pushing their products through OEM sales and they are making leaps and bounds on the HPC/server market. So intel does need to make the right moves in the next 2-3 years.

 

[zo0lykas]

Need change topic u see price cut around 20 dollars

 

[Shatun_Bear]

Lol just moved to a 3600 last week and it's really impressive how bad the security fixes hit... Basically couldn't do anything in the background with a 7700k or games would start stuttering...

I really can't recommend any of those parts at all.

That's the thing - 9900K, 9700K have also been hammered by security patches but reviewers do not test with the numerous patches that have been released over the past 2 years.

I would like TPU to do benches with security patches applied to mimic what consumers will experience at home.

 

[GorbazTheDragon]

Problem is if you are using a relatively clean install and not doing anything in the background it's fine, the performance is barely going to be different (it seems like 0 difference if you are using a true benching setup with stripped windoze)... But for me even turning on Discord gave me some noticeable stuttering, and a lot of people have small apps open in the background while they play.

The problem with context switching performance is there are basically no benchmarks for it and I don't really know of a good way to translate potential benchmark results (e.g running cinebench at 32 threads per core) into meaningful real world results... Testing game performance with frame times while having discord or a video playing in the background isn't exactly consistent...

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

Problem is if you are using a relatively clean install and not doing anything in the background it's fine, the performance is barely going to be different (it seems like 0 difference if you are using a true benching setup with stripped windoze)... But for me even turning on Discord gave me some noticeable stuttering, and a lot of people have small apps open in the background while they play.

The problem with context switching performance is there are basically no benchmarks for it and I don't really know of a good way to translate potential benchmark results (e.g running cinebench at 32 threads per core) into meaningful real world results... Testing game performance with frame times while having discord or a video playing in the background isn't exactly consistent...

Here's the thing, right? If jsut opening discord woudl tank your performance, then it should be really noticeable in the business world, right? All they do is switch between excell spreadsheets, word docs, chrome webpages, and IE webpages, often with a music stream in the background. Nothing at work is having these problems. We have systems ranging from ivy bridge to kaby lake, all running 10 with the latest security patches. Nboody is reporting these massive stuttering issues. I rebuilt my ivy bridge PC out of interest, pulling the GPU out of my ryzen build to do so, and didnt see any problems running discord, MSI afterburner, a podcast in the background, and borderlands 2 at the same time.

Reviewers have not mentined seeing stuttering in their reviews, I havent seen it, either at home or in a business setting. If the problems were anywhere near as bad as you describe, there would be lawsuits flying and hundreds of forum threads on how poorly intel rigs were performing. In cases like borderlands 3, the stuttering was rumored but never confirmed, and seemed to be isolated to a bad installation on a reddit user's machine. Stuttering could be caused by many issues, slow storage, high memory latency, a failing motherboard or power supply, even a software configuration isue. The rpoblems you are having suggest soemthing wrong with your machine, not intel in general.

 

[GorbazTheDragon]

It's not going to be very noticeable if you don't have some main process that is going to be affected by context switching time... 20ms of CPU time to switch threads to something else and back won't make excel feel much slower, but in a game 20ms can add enough to make a noticeable stutter.

If you have ever compared the 4c4t to 4c8t CPUs you would know exactly what it is like.

Most people don't complain much about stuttering (csgo of all games is one of the worst stutterfests on everything other than zen2 and most people don't complain) but if you are accustomed to 0 stutter gameplay you will definitely notice the difference. If you can deal with it keep it I guess, but I'm not going to recommend a second tier experienced if I know there is a better one for the same or less.

The people who are hit most are the cloud server guys, ask any of them and you will realise how big the hit actually is, it doesn't have as huge effect on games, but the effect is there.

 

[Vayra86]

It's not going to be very noticeable if you don't have some main process that is going to be affected by context switching time... 20ms of CPU time to switch threads to something else and back won't make excel feel much slower, but in a game 20ms can add enough to make a noticeable stutter.

If you have ever compared the 4c4t to 4c8t CPUs you would know exactly what it is like.

Most people don't complain much about stuttering (csgo of all games is one of the worst stutterfests on everything other than zen2 and most people don't complain) but if you are accustomed to 0 stutter gameplay you will definitely notice the difference. If you can deal with it keep it I guess, but I'm not going to recommend a second tier experienced if I know there is a better one for the same or less.

The people who are hit most are the cloud server guys, ask any of them and you will realise how big the hit actually is, it doesn't have as huge effect on games, but the effect is there.

While true I must say that I've also had major stutter pre-security problems and patches on my 3570K in any CPU heavy game. Its the 4 cores more than anything else, still, but like you say, the effect is still there.

And... @TheinsanegamerN no stutter on work laptops? Between the VPN, network hitching and major latency there is definitely stuttery behaviour left and right. Even working with some hefty word documents can be... sub optimal.

And reviewers yeah... Reviews don't see a lot of things more often than not plus they're made on release date, not years later.

Meanwhile, ontopic - I get the idea Intel did this price cut only for the headline, it was probably cheaper than marketing

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

2700X is down to $159 at Microcenter now. That might have swayed my CPU opinion a month ago. Oh well.