Home > CPU Comparison > Core i9 9900K or Ryzen 9 9900X: what's better?

Intel Core i9 9900K vs AMD Ryzen 9 9900X

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

We compared two desktop CPUs: the 3.6 GHz Intel Core i9 9900K with 8-cores against the 4.4 GHz AMD Ryzen 9 9900X with 12-cores. On this page, you'll find out which processor has better performance in benchmarks, games and other useful information.

  1. Review
  2. Differences
  3. Performance
  4. Specs
  5. Comments

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
Integrated Graphics
iGPU capabilities for gaming and 3D-intensive tasks
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
71.1
(Good)

Key Differences

What are the key differences between 9900X and 9900K
Advantages of AMD Ryzen 9 9900X
  • Has 48 MB larger L3 cache size, helping fully utilize a high-end GPU in gaming
  • More modern manufacturing process – 4 versus 14 nanometers
  • Newer - released 5 years and 9 months later
  • Around 48 GB/s (115%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth
  • 2.1x faster in a single-core Geekbench v6 test - 3340 vs 1621 points
  • Newer PCI Express version – 5.0
  • Has 4 more physical cores
  • Supports up to 192 GB DDR5-5600 RAM
  • More powerful Radeon Graphics integrated graphics: 0.6 vs 0.5 TFLOPS
  • 12% higher Turbo Boost frequency (5.6 GHz vs 5 GHz)

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks
CPU:
Core i9 9900K
vs
Ryzen 9 9900X

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
Core i9 9900K
706
Ryzen 9 9900X +156%
1810
Cinebench 2026 (Single) - 763
Cinebench 2026 (Multi) - 7580
Cinebench Scores (#42nd place)
Submit your benchmark results

GeekBench v6

The new version of this benchmark emulates common operations often used in real-world apps
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Core i9 9900K
1621
Ryzen 9 9900X +106%
3340
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Core i9 9900K
8151
Ryzen 9 9900X +140%
19543
File compression 545.7 MB/sec 1510 MB/sec
Clang compilation 67.7 Klines/sec 191.4 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 175.1 pages/sec 361.8 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 275.6 Mpixels/sec 534 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 159 pages/sec 350.5 pages/sec
Background blur 40.4 images/sec 82.7 images/sec
Photo processing 68.6 images/sec 118.4 images/sec
Ray tracing 14.5 Mpixels/sec 45.5 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] – 610 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
Core i9 9900K
2911
Ryzen 9 9900X +60%
4672
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
Core i9 9900K
18059
Ryzen 9 9900X +201%
54325
Integer math 66.1 GOps/sec 180.5 GOps/sec
Floating point math 41 GOps/sec 119.7 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 46M Primes/sec 432M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 36.1M Strings/sec 71.4M Strings/sec
Data encryption 6.3 GBytes/sec 33.3 GBytes/sec
Data compression 282.6 MBytes/sec 678.8 MBytes/sec
Physics 929 Frames/sec 3330 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 19B Matrices/sec 54.8B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] – 17571 & 6489 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU
Core i9 9900K
178.22
Ryzen 9 9900X +155%
454.53

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 7.4 PPW 15.1 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 85.8 PPW 162.9 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 190.1 PPW 452.7 PPW
Blender / Watt 1.88 PPW 3.79 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
Add View all (3)
AMD Ryzen 9 9900X
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-06-20 (Alenaes)Cinebench 2026773 / 7971
πŸ“˜ 2026-06-04 (Alenaes)Cinebench 2024139 / 1841
πŸ“˜ 2026-06-04 (Alenaes)Cinebench 2026763 / 7580
πŸ“˜ 2026-05-01 (PLL)Cinebench 2024137 / 1853
πŸ“˜ 2026-04-03 (freziontechno)Cinebench 2026759 / 7584
Add View all (28)

Specifications

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

General

Vendor Intel Amd
Released October 8, 2018 June 3, 2024
Type Desktop Desktop
Instruction Set x86-64 x86-64
Codename Coffee Lake Zen 5 (Granite Ridge)
Model number i9-9900K -
Integrated GPU UHD Graphics 630 Radeon Graphics
Rival Equivalent - AMD Ryzen 9 3900X - Intel Core i9 14900K
Successor - Intel Core Ultra 9 285K -

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 8 12
P-Threads 16 24
Base Frequency (P) 3.6 GHz 4.4 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) 5 GHz 5.6 GHz
Total
Total Cores 8 12
Total Threads 16 24
Bus Frequency 100 MHz 100 MHz
Multiplier 36x 44x
Bus Bandwidth 8 GT/s -
L1 Cache 64K (per core) 80K (per core)
L2 Cache 256K (per core) 1MB (per core)
L3 Cache 16MB (shared) 64MB (shared)
Unlocked Multiplier Yes Yes

Package

Fabrication Process 14 nm 4 nm
TDP (PL1) 95 W 120 W
Max. Boost TDP (PL2) - 162 W
Socket LGA-1151 AM5
Peak Temperature 100Β°C 95Β°C
Desktop CPU ranking (145th and 15th place)

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Intel UHD Graphics 630 Radeon Graphics
GPU Base Clock 350 MHz 400 MHz
GPU Boost Clock 1200 MHz 2200 MHz
Shading Units 192 128
TMUs 24 8
ROPs 3 4
Execution Units 24 2
TGP 15 W 15 W
iGPU FLOPS
Core i9 9900K
0.5 TFLOPS
Ryzen 9 9900X +20%
0.6 TFLOPS
More info: Radeon Graphics iGPU (Ryzen 7000) compared to UHD Graphics 630

Memory Support

Memory Types - DDR4-2666 - DDR5-5600
Max. Memory Size 128 GB 192 GB
Memory Channels 2 2
Max. Memory Bandwidth 41.6 GB/s 89.6 GB/s
ECC Support No Yes

Misc

Official Site Intel Core i9 9900K official page AMD Ryzen 9 9900X official page
PCI Express Version 3.0 5.0
PCI Express Lanes 16 28

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
0 (0%)
9 (100%)
Total votes: 9

Competitors

1. AMD Ryzen 9 9900X vs Intel Core i7 14700K (1)
2. AMD Ryzen 9 9900X vs AMD Ryzen 9 9950X
3. AMD Ryzen 9 9900X vs AMD Ryzen 9 7900X
4. AMD Ryzen 9 9900X vs AMD Ryzen 9 5900X
5. AMD Ryzen 9 9900X vs Intel Core i9 14900K
6. Intel Core i9 9900K vs AMD Ryzen 9 9950X
7. Intel Core i9 9900K vs Apple M3
8. Intel Core i9 9900K vs Apple M1 (1)
9. Intel Core i9 9900K vs Intel Core i9 14900K
10. Intel Core i9 9900K vs AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D
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Comments

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