Brief Overview

So, we can just end things there with the overclocking explanation. However, there is a bit more to the story. The 10900 has the same specs as the 10900K. It has ten cores, twenty threads, 20Mb of L3 cache, and the same socket. However, there is another key difference here, which is in the power draw. 

The Core i9 10900 has a lower power draw than the 10900K. The former has a TDP of 65W, while the unlocked processor has a 125W TDP. This means two things: First, the 10900 is more efficient and in theory, a bit easier to cool. Secondly, the 10900 will be limited in terms of power, when comparing with the 10900K.

Now, in productivity, this does make a difference. Due to the power draw headroom, sometimes the 10900K can pull out ahead of the 10900. However, the difference in gaming is negligible. In fact, both of these processors perform exactly the same in most games. So if you want to save some cash, going with the Core i9 10900 isn’t a bad option, is it?

You can also save some money and get a cheaper cooler. If you were to overclock, you would need a beefy setup to make sure that this chip has sustained clocks. You don’t need to worry about that with the 10900. Technically, you can get away with a B460 motherboard as well, but that’s going to limit your RAM speed.

So, you get the same gaming performance and save some money on the cooler. Other than that, you don’t need to worry about motherboard VRMs much either, unless you want to upgrade down the line. So for people who want incredible gaming performance, and don’t care about overclocking, this is a great processor.