AMD’s Ryzen 5000-series looks set to compete with Intel’s best CPUs like never before. Building on the strong pedigree of the Zen and Zen 2 architectures, the Zen 3 design makes great strides in performance and efficiency. If AMD’s claims about the 5900X prove true, it could be a new performance king in the making.
In Intel’s 10900K, though, it faces stiff competition. With 10 cores and a clockspeed in excess of 5GHz, the 10900K is nothing to laugh at. Until now, it has proven itself the king of high-end gaming in most recent games.
One of these chips will be the best CPU for the next six months, at least, but which will it be? The AMD Ryzen 5900X, or the Intel Core i9-10900K?
Pricing and availability
The Intel Core i9 10900K debuted in April 2020 alongside the rest of the 10th-generation Comet Lake series of Intel CPUs. Its suggested retail price is $488, but it regularly sells for much more than that — over $700 at some retailers. The graphics-free Core i9-10900KF is often cheaper, at around $650.
AMD debuted the Ryzen 9 5900X at its Zen 3 showcase on October 8, and it will go on sale on November 5. Its suggested retail price is a more modest $549. Due to AMD’s solid relationship with external foundry operator, TSMC, supply issues are less common for AMD than they are for Intel. It’s possible that extreme demand for Ryzen 5000 CPUs could lead to supply issues, but we’ll need to wait and see for the chips to release before we can say what effect that will have on pricing.
Performance
AMD made bold claims with the debut of the Ryzen 5900X, suggesting that at long last, AMD may have reclaimed the gaming performance crown Intel has held on to for almost 15 years. Although we must await third-party benchmarks to confirm these claims, the specifications and AMD’s own first-party benchmarks suggest that the Ryzen 5900X may be able to beat the Core i9-10900K just about everywhere.
Intel Core i9-10900K
AMD Ryzen 5900X
Architecture
Comet Lake
Zen 3
Process node
14nm+
7nm+
Cores
10
12
Threads
20
24
Base clock
3.7GHz
3.7GHz
Max single-core boost clock
5.3GHz
TBD
Max all-core boost clock
4.9GHz
4.8GHz
Cache
20MB
70MB
Max memory speed support
2,933MHz
TBD
TDP
125W
105W
CPU Socket
LGA1200
AM4
An advantage in core and thread counts gives the Ryzen 5900X an immediate advantage in multi-threaded workloads. That won’t make much of a difference in most games, but will help it maintain the now-typical AMD productivity performance lead, especially in intensive tasks like video editing and trans-coding.
Where AMD made significant gains with this generation of CPUs, though, is in IPC and clock speed. The Ryzen 3000-series of Zen 2 CPUs already offered a greater IPC than Intel’s Comet Lake processors, but lost out significantly on clock speed, making Intel CPUs better at tasks with more limited thread counts and where per-core performance is more desirable — like gaming.
AMD says that will change with Zen 3. With another large uptick in IPC — AMD claims as high as 19% — the performance gap could be all but eliminated at the single-thread level. Combine that with a small, but not insignificant, clock speed increase over its predecessor, and the 5900X appears to have enough single-threaded grunt to take on Intel’s best in gaming.
AMD claims that its 5900X can beat the 10900K by up to 21 percent in some games, though more modest games are more typical, and it’s far from uniform. it also showed the 5900X dominating the 10900K in Cinebench 1T, showing its strength in single threaded tasks, though AMD hardware is known to run better on Cinebench benchmarks than Intel’s.
Productivity results should be even more impressive — that’s AMD’s wheelhouse after all.
We’ll have to wait to test final hardware to be sure, but AMD’s Ryzen 5900X looks promising on paper.
Power, cooling, and overclocking
A notable aspect of Intel’s Comet Lake series is the greater thermal design power (TDP) demands of its CPUs. That’s lead to increased power draw, especially for the more capable K-series processors, though the CPU’s refined internal heatspreader typically allows the chips to run at comfortable temperatures without an overwrought cooling solution.
AMD’s process node advantage (7nm vs 14nm) and further architectural refinements of the 5000-series means that its CPUs not only run at speeds similar to Intel’s, but do so at a slimmer TDP of 105 watts. That should mean they run cooler in general, and require a less strenuous cooling solution to retain comfortable temperatures, as well as demanding less power from the PSU, making them more viable for efficient, smaller form factor PCs.
Overclocking is one region where Intel may enjoy more of an advantage for those who like to tweak their hardware.
Chipset support
Intel’s Core i9-10900K is supported by a wide range of 400-series chipsets, including the Z490, B470, B460, and H410. That might make buying the right motherboard a little confusing, but it does give you plenty of options. Most should also be socket-compatible with the next-generation Rocket Lake CPUs too.
AMD’s 5900X is compatible with existing X570 and B550 motherboards after a BIOS update, as well as some B450 and x470 motherboards, manufacturer depending. AMD has confirmed that it won’t launch a new chipset with its Zen 3 CPUs.
This will be the last generation of AMD CPUs that make use of its AM4 socket, so next-generation Zen 4 CPUs will almost certainly require a motherboard upgrade, making Intel’s Comet lake somewhat more future-proof.
Zen 3 is the AM4 swan song everyone wanted
Since the launch of the first generation Ryzen CPUs, AMD has been clawing back performance and mind share from Intel’s previously commanding lead. Where it managed to steal the productivity top spot relatively easily, single threaded and gaming performance has taken far more effort. It’s somewhat poetic that on the last AM4 CPU, AMD finally managed to take the crown in just about every category. The Ryzen 9 5900X is a generation-defining CPU, and though expensive, represents one of the most exciting CPUs ever made.
The Intel Core i9-10900K is no slouch and in certain games is likely to be the more impressive of the two chips, but as multi-threading performance becomes ever more important, the 5900X is only likely to increase its lead. 11th-generation Rocket Lake CPUs may steal the crown back for Intel, but that could be as much as six months away.
We have a few weeks to wait for general Zen 3 availability, but with the 10900K stock and pricing problems, the 5900X is worth waiting for.