Intel Core i9 9900K vs AMD Ryzen 9 5900X

41 out of 100
Intel Core i9 9900K
VS
59 out of 100
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X

We compared two desktop CPUs: the 3.6 GHz Intel Core i9 9900K with 8-cores against the 3.7 GHz AMD Ryzen 9 5900X with 12-cores. On this page, you'll find out which processor has better performance in benchmarks, games and other useful information.

Review

General overview and comparison of the processors
Single-Core Performance
Performance in single-threaded apps and benchmarks
Multi-Core Performance
Measure performance when all cores are involved
Power Efficiency
The efficiency score of power consumption
The "iGPU" and "Power Efficiency" have a minor impact on the DeviceFacts Score for desktop CPU.
DeviceFacts Final Score
Choose your main usage scenario to recalculate the Final Score and see which CPU suits your needs.
πŸ”Œ Usage Scenario:

Value for money (Beta)

Global average CPU prices are used by default! For better accuracy, enter your current prices and click β€œCalculate".
Currency
VS
11.7
(Bad)
Value Index
54.4
(Average)

Key Differences

What are the key differences between 5900X and 9900K
Advantages of Intel Core i9 9900K
  • Includes an integrated GPU Intel UHD Graphics 630
  • More than 10Β° C higher critical temperature
  • 4% higher Turbo Boost frequency (5 GHz vs 4.8 GHz)
Advantages of AMD Ryzen 9 5900X
  • Has 48 MB larger L3 cache size, helping fully utilize a high-end GPU in gaming
  • More modern manufacturing process – 7 versus 14 nanometers
  • Has 4 more physical cores
  • 40% faster in a single-core Geekbench v6 test - 2263 vs 1621 points
  • Newer - released 2 years and 1 month later
  • Newer PCI Express version – 4.0
  • Around 6.08 GB/s (15%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
Cinebench Scores (#112th place)

GeekBench v6

The new version of this benchmark emulates common operations often used in real-world apps
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
2263
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
12701
File compression 545.7 MB/sec 1170 MB/sec
Clang compilation 67.7 Klines/sec 126 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 175.1 pages/sec 217.8 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 275.6 Mpixels/sec 362 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 159 pages/sec 232 pages/sec
Background blur 40.4 images/sec 38.7 images/sec
Photo processing 68.6 images/sec 85.1 images/sec
Ray tracing 14.5 Mpixels/sec 31.5 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] – 610 & 441 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
3465
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
38888
Integer math 66.1 GOps/sec 139.7 GOps/sec
Floating point math 41 GOps/sec 77.6 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 46M Primes/sec 257M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 36.1M Strings/sec 51.5M Strings/sec
Data encryption 6.3 GBytes/sec 31 GBytes/sec
Data compression 282.6 MBytes/sec 498.8 MBytes/sec
Physics 929 Frames/sec 1984 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 19B Matrices/sec 33.1B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] – 17571 & 27058 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU
178.22
316.84

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 7.4 PPW 11.4 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 85.8 PPW 121 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 190.1 PPW 370.4 PPW
Blender / Watt 1.88 PPW 3.02 PPW
These are rough calculations, as most CPUs surpass PL1 TDP wattage even in multicore workloads.

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
Intel Core i9 9900K
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-01-01 (Mr Scare)Cinebench 202479 / 662
πŸ“˜ 2025-08-09 (EndOfTheWorld77)Cinebench 202478 / 591
πŸ“˜ 2024-03-28 (Gribbstar)Cinebench 202479 / 706
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-03-19 (D)Cinebench 202467 / 893
πŸ“˜ 2025-11-02 (Zoli)Cinebench 202493 / 1254
πŸ“˜ 2025-10-12 (Otamatone)Cinebench 202492 / 981
πŸ“˜ 2025-10-08 (aref)Cinebench 202494 / 1015
πŸ“˜ 2025-08-15 (SnakeyB)Cinebench 2024120 / 380

Specifications

Full technical specification of Intel Core i9 9900K and AMD Ryzen 9 5900X

General

Vendor Intel Amd
Released October 8, 2018 October 8, 2020
Type Desktop Desktop
Instruction Set x86-64 x86-64
Codename Coffee Lake Zen 3 (Vermeer)
Model number i9-9900K -
Integrated GPU UHD Graphics 630 No
Rival Equivalent - AMD Ryzen 9 3900X - Intel Core i9 11900K
Successor - Intel Core Ultra 9 285K - AMD Ryzen 9 9900X
AMD Ryzen CPU ranking (#70th place)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 8 12
P-Threads 16 24
Base Frequency (P) 3.6 GHz 3.7 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) 5 GHz 4.8 GHz
Total
Total Cores 8 12
Total Threads 16 24
Bus Frequency 100 MHz 100 MHz
Multiplier 36x 37x
Bus Bandwidth 8 GT/s -
L1 Cache 64K (per core) 64K (per core)
L2 Cache 256K (per core) 512K (per core)
L3 Cache 16MB (shared) 64MB (shared)
Unlocked Multiplier Yes Yes

Package

Transistors - 4.15 billions
Fabrication Process 14 nm 7 nm
TDP (PL1) 95 W 105 W
Max. Boost TDP (PL2) - 142 W
Socket LGA-1151 AM4
Peak Temperature 100Β°C 90Β°C
Desktop CPU ranking (145th and 83rd place)

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Intel UHD Graphics 630 -
GPU Base Clock 350 MHz -
GPU Boost Clock 1200 MHz -
Shading Units 192 -
TMUs 24 -
ROPs 3 -
Execution Units 24 -
TGP 15 W -
iGPU FLOPS
0.5 TFLOPS

Memory Support

Memory Types - DDR4-2666 - DDR4-3200
Max. Memory Size 128 GB 128 GB
Memory Channels 2 2
Max. Memory Bandwidth 41.6 GB/s 47.68 GB/s
ECC Support No Yes

Misc

Official Site Intel Core i9 9900K official page AMD Ryzen 9 5900X official page
PCI Express Version 3.0 4.0
PCI Express Lanes 16 20

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
32 (23.9%)
102 (76.1%)
Total votes: 134

Comments

So which CPU will you choose: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X or Intel Core i9 9900K?
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