Is spending $300 on an Intel Core i9-9900K worth it? | Ask an expert

Q: An opportunity came up to buy a 9900K for $300. Right now, I own a PC with an 8700K, which I use with an RTX 3080 on an ultrawide 3440x1440p monitor. If I buy the 9900K, I could pass down the 8700K to my kid, who has an i3 chip. Is it worth making this upgrade?A: Even though it’s not the newest processor on the block, a 9900K for $300 is still an excellent deal. But of course, spending money you weren’t planning to requires justification, especially when it’s several hundred dollars.Looking at it from the perspective of just your own benefit, you won’t see that much of a difference in gaming. Moving up to a 9900K will net you higher clock speeds plus extra cores and threads, but for gaming on an ultrawide 1440p monitor, you won’t get any advantage from a more powerful CPU, as you’re GPU-bound. The 9900K might have helped with bottlenecks at standard 1440p, though.To read this article in full, please click here