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2019 iMac i5-9600K/i9-9900K or i5-9600KF/i9-9900KF?

J

JacobHarvey

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 2, 2019
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Somewhere
I am just wondering if the 9th gen CPUs in the 2019 iMac are regular 'K' series processors that do contain Intel graphics for Quicksync encoding.

There have been a few mentions that they are only 'KF' series processors (including in a linus tech tips review of the latest iMac) with Intel graphics completely disabled and no Quicksync capability.

Screenshots of a program such as CPU-Z in bootcamp (including the graphics panel) would likely settle this once and for all. If anyone could help clear this up with their new iMac 2019 it would be greatly appreciated
 
if you have access to the command prompt,
type
Code: 
sysctl -n machdep.cpu.brand_string

for instance, on my machine

Code: 
Typhon:~ jeremy$ sysctl -n machdep.cpu.brand_string
Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4690 CPU @ 3.50GHz
 
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$ sysctl -n machdep.cpu.brand_string
Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-9900K CPU @ 3.60GHz

But, I am not sure that this proves it. Whether it is strictly the K or KF does not really matter if the iGPU is disabled.
 
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JacobHarvey said:
I am just wondering if the 9th gen CPUs in the 2019 iMac are regular 'K' series processors that do contain Intel graphics for Quicksync encoding.

There have been a few mentions that they are only 'KF' series processors (including in a linus tech tips review of the latest iMac) with Intel graphics completely disabled and no Quicksync capability.

Screenshots of a program such as CPU-Z in bootcamp (including the graphics panel) would likely settle this once and for all. If anyone could help clear this up with their new iMac 2019 it would be greatly appreciated
Click to expand...

At the end of the day, does it matter? If you want to purchase a 2019 iMac with a Core i9, you get what you get.

I find it hard to imagine that Apple is using the KF-Series as the only other Mac in the lineup without QuickSync support is the iMac Pro. I also find it hard to believe Apple is using the KF-Series as those CPUs are more expensive than the K-Series as a boxed retail SKU.

FWIW, Apple has always disabled the iGPU on iMacs with a dGPU. I have a Late 2013 27" w/ a Core i7-4771 and the HD Graphics 4600 does not even register in System Information.

Apple is using a private API to connect to the QuickSync hardware through Final Cut Pro X or Compressor. Please see this discussion of Handbrake adding QuickSync support and the lack of a way to do it through macOS - https://github.com/HandBrake/HandBrake/issues/720

If your concern is being able to use QuickSync in a Windows 10 Boot Camp partition with Handbrake or Premiere, that is a completely different animal. In which case, your best bet is to purchase the iMac with the 9900K, partition it, install Windows 10 on said Boot Camp partition and use CPU-Z to determine which CPU they are using.

If they are using the KF-Series and you want the K-Series, box it up and send it back within the 14 day window.
 
JacobHarvey said:
Screenshots of a program such as CPU-Z in bootcamp (including the graphics panel) would likely settle this once and for all. If anyone could help clear this up with their new iMac 2019 it would be greatly appreciated
Click to expand...

I can do this when I get home, unless someone else does it first.

jerwin said:
How does he know? And what's this about the imac pro supporting 46 threads?
Click to expand...

I assume they would have used CPU-Z in bootcamp, but maybe they took it apart. They took the iMac Pro apart, but maybe they didn't this time since it's a huge pain.

Did he say 46 in the video? Don't care to watch it a second time since I watched it the other day. Should be 36, since it goes up to 18 cores with hyper threading is 36.

Anyway, it's refreshing to hear Linus praise Apple and the iMac multiple times in a video and say that it's reasonably priced. But who knows, maybe this is a new form of reverse click baiting to trigger the PC master race people. Either way my experience aligns with his. This is a very nice machine and probably has the one of the best price to performance ratios for a Mac.
 
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probably a typo
Screen Shot 213.png
 
The only thing I can tell is that the i9 iMac has no trouble playing any 10-bit 4k HDR content.

The system does not even blink. CPU usage is 5% for these videos.
So hardware decoding is definitely involved somewhere.

But I don't know if it means anything regarding Quicksync and i9-9900K vs 9900KF.
 
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JacobHarvey said:
I am just wondering if the 9th gen CPUs in the 2019 iMac are regular 'K' series processors that do contain Intel graphics for Quicksync encoding.

There have been a few mentions that they are only 'KF' series processors (including in a linus tech tips review of the latest iMac) with Intel graphics completely disabled and no Quicksync capability.

Screenshots of a program such as CPU-Z in bootcamp (including the graphics panel) would likely settle this once and for all. If anyone could help clear this up with their new iMac 2019 it would be greatly appreciated
Click to expand...
Here is a screenshot from CPU-Z running in Bootcamp Windows 10 on the i9 iMac 5K in my signature:

Capture.JPG
 
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macduke said:
Here is a screenshot from CPU-Z running in Bootcamp Windows 10 on the i9 iMac 5K in my signature:

View attachment 833725
Click to expand...

Thank you for that, this settles it once and for all. Good that they use proper K series 9th Gen processors to allow for Quick Sync in FCP X and in Windows. Seems that Linus and quite a few websites got that detail wrong

Just out of interest, do the intel graphics appear at all in the graphics panel of CPU-Z? (they probably won't due to the dedicated GPU though)
 
JacobHarvey said:
Thank you for that, this settles it once and for all. Good that they use proper K series 9th Gen processors to allow for Quick Sync in FCP X and in Windows. Seems that Linus and quite a few websites got that detail wrong

Just out of interest, do the intel graphics appear at all in the graphics panel of CPU-Z? (they probably won't due to the dedicated GPU though)
Click to expand...
The dropdown box for GPU selection was grayed out and defaulted to my Vega 48. Glad to answer it. I was starting to wonder as well. Maybe Apple is just doing something tricky to disable the integrated GPU through firmware or something?
 
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macduke said:
The dropdown box for GPU selection was grayed out and defaulted to my Vega 48. Glad to answer it. I was starting to wonder as well. Maybe Apple is just doing something tricky to disable the integrated GPU through firmware or something?
Click to expand...

Just did a bit of further googling and reading and it appears that Apple does deliberately disable Intel graphics when a dedicated GPU or eGPU is being used in Windows bootcamp.

Work-arounds such as those outlined in the following forum appear to be needed if you need to the keep the iGPU active in Windows for Quick Sync or other purposes:

https://egpu.io/forums/mac-setup/ho...ctivated-when-booting-into-windows-boot-camp/

In macOS Quick Sync should work fine with Apple apps such as Compressor without any tinkering.
 
If anybody sees this message, just out of interest is the motherboard chipset a Z390 model? (shows up in the ‘mainboard’ tab of CPU-Z).

If it is a Z390 Apple should have really upgraded the four USB-A ports to Gen 2 speeds (10Gbps) from Gen 1 (5Gbps) to save us from having to ‘waste’ a thunderbolt port when connecting USB SSDs for fastest speeds on the 2019 iMac.

Edit: actually system profiler in macOS might directly reveal the speed of the four USB-A ports
 
spiderpumpkin said:
So does this mean that Apple is using a mix of 9900K and 9900KF processors and it's just bad luck if you get a 9900KF?
Click to expand...

That CPU-Z screenshot is from an overclocked 9900KF, not from an iMac. Haven’t seen evidence that Apple is using the KF at all. Boxed KF CPUs actually cost more than their K equivalents, so it makes zero sense for Apple to use them.
 
Zdigital2015 said:
That CPU-Z screenshot is from an overclocked 9900KF, not from an iMac.
Click to expand...

Sorry- wrong screenshot. This is the one I meant to post.

du9qly.png



In all seriousness, the fact that CPU-Z picks up the KF designation strongly implies that CPU-Z could be used to identify imacs with the KF part.

Can we really trust Linux Tech Tips?
 
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