A mysterious Coffee Lake Refresh (CFL-R) processor claiming to be the Intel Core i9-9900T, was up for auction on Yahoo! Auctions two days ago. The “T” suffix suggests the chip is a low-power variant of the Intel Core i9-9900K octa-core processor.

(Image credit: mehhe859/Yahoo! Auctions)

The processor listed was said to be an engineering sample (ES). Accompanying photos show a QQC0 identifier on its integrated heatsink (IHS). The Intel Core i9-9900T is expected to be produced under Intel's 14nm++ process and inherit the Core i9-9900K's eight cores, 16 threads and 16MB of L3 cache. However, being a T-series chip, it should come with slower clock speeds to earn the 35W TDP (thermal design power) badge.

See how the specs listed for the alleged Core i9-9900T compare to the Core i9-9900K and i9-9900KF in the table below:

Model Cores / Threads Base Frequency Boost Frequency Memory Support Processor Graphics Cache TDP MSRP Core i9-9900K 8 / 16 3.6 GHz 5 GHz (1 / 2 Core)4.8 GHz (4 Core)4.7 GHz (6 / 8 Core) DDR4-2666 Intel UHD Graphics 630 16MB 95W $488 - $499 Core i9-9900KF 8 / 16 3.6 GHz 5 GHz (1 / 2 Core)4.8 GHz (4 Core)4.7 GHz (6 / 8 Core) DDR4-2666 N/A 16MB 95W $499 Core i9-9900T 8 / 16 1.7 GHz 3.8 GHz GHz (1 / 2 Core)? GHz (4 Core)3.3 GHz (6 / 8 Core) DDR4-2666 Intel UHD Graphics 630 16MB 35W ?

According to the marking on the IHS seen in the auction's photos, the Core i9-9900T features a 1.7GHz base clock. The seller specified a 3.8GHz boost clock, but that's likely the single-core and dual-core boost. We think the all-core boost for the Core i9-9900T could be around 3.3GHz. The seller also claimed that the processor is faster than the Intel Core i7-8700K.

Intel Core i9-9900T Price

The high-end and unlocked Core i9-9900K retails between $488 and $499, while the Core i9-9900KF, which lacks the integrated Intel UHD Graphics 630 (GT2) iGPU, goes for $499. The auction had the Core i9-9900T listed for 35,000 yen (about $319.39). Theoretically, the Core i9-9900T should carry a lower price tag than the Core i9-9900K or Core i9-9900KF. However, with Intel, that's not always the case, as we saw with the Core i9-9900KF, which everyone thought would cost much less than the Core i9-9900K.