Intel Core i9-15900K Possibly Misidentified in Geekbench Leak: Underwhelming Scores
Hold on a minute, folks. We might have just gotten a sneak peek at the elusive Intel Core i9-15900K. Or have we. A Geekbench result has surfaced, supposedly showing Intel's next-gen flagship CPU in action. But the numbers. Well, they are not exactly setting the world on fire. Let's dive into what this could mean.
Geekbench Scores: Underwhelming or Misleading?
So, what scores do we see in the Geekbench listing? Rather modest scores for what is supposed to be a top-tier processor: a single-core of just 2279 and a multi-core of 11690. Compare this to the current king of the hill, the Core i9-14900K, which routinely crushes Geekbench with scores closer to 3000 and 20000, respectively, and something does not quite add up.
The Case of the Mislabeled Sample
So, what is going on here? The most likely explanation is that we are not actually looking at a true Core i9-15900K, at least not in its final form. Think about it: the specs listed in Geekbench are almost identical to the 14900K - same core and thread count (24 cores, 32 threads), same cache sizes, even the same LGA 1700 socket. It even carries the same "GenuineIntel Family 6 Model 183 Stepping 1" identifier, which is characteristic of Raptor Lake and Raptor Lake Refresh, not the upcoming Arrow Lake architecture expected for 15th-gen chips.
Is this an early engineering sample of a 14900K, maybe misidentified, or some other early test chip with deliberately lowered clocks for validation purposes? It certainly sounds a heck of a lot more plausible than a catastrophically underperforming 15900K.
Clock Speeds Tell a Story
Look at the clock speeds the benchmark reports: a base clock of just 800 MHz and a boost of 4.8 GHz. The retail 14900K, meanwhile, has a P-core boost clock of as high as 5.8 GHz. This large clock speed discrepancy could explain a lot of the performance difference we are seeing here.
Tested on a B760 Board - Does it Matter?
Curiously, the processor was tested on a JGINYUE B760I Snow Dream motherboard, an ITX board using the B760 chipset. While B760 is not exactly high-end, it should not inherently cripple a CPU to this extent, especially in Geekbench. The motherboard choice is probably less of a factor than the likely misidentification or early sample status of the CPU itself.
Do Not Jump to Conclusions Just Yet
In other words, while a "Core i9-15900K" hitting Geekbench is interesting, anemic scores and technical details strongly suggest this is not indicative of the final product-if a 15900K even exists as a discrete product. It is far more likely we are looking at an early engineering sample, a mislabeled 14900K, or simply a database anomaly. So, for now, temper your expectations and take this benchmark with a massive grain of salt. The real 15th-gen Intel story is still likely to unfold with the true Arrow Lake architecture.
