Intel’s tenth gen, six-core i5-10600K is one of the fastest consumer CPUs currently available. Out of the box, its maximum all core frequency is 4.5 GHz, but a simple overclock allows all 12 threads to hit 5.0 GHz. Although a new Z490 (LGA1200) motherboard is required, Intel have indicated that LGA1200 will remain compatible with Rocket Lake CPUs which are due later this year. The eight-core Ryzen 3700X currently competes in the 10600K’s price bracket. CPU based encoding is akin to using hair clippers on a lawn but If dedicated hardware such as NVENC or QuickSync is not an option, the 3700X can outperform the 10600K in encoding workloads such as UserBenchmark 64-core, Cinebench, Blender-CPU and Handbrake-CPU. Meanwhile, the 10600K is better for almost everything else. Currently, the real problem with the 10600K, and much of the Comet Lake line up, is availability. Whilst there was a paper launch in Q2 2020, at the time of writing, the 10600K is still largely unavailable for purchase. In order to achieve better value for money, without compromising on gaming performance, it is necessary to consider the older generation 9600K which is 26% cheaper and offers similar gaming performance.[Jun '20CPUPro]
Intel’s 13th gen. Raptor Lake CPUs offer around 10% faster gaming and 45% faster multi-core performance than their predecessors. The new CPUs are compatible with DDR4 memory and Z690/B660 ($150) motherboards. New high-end gaming builders need look no further than the 13600K. The 13600K beats AMD’s flagship 7950X in gaming and almost matches the 7900X in multi-core performance. Extreme workstation users may find value in the 13700K or 13900K. Gamers on a tight budget can save $40 USD with a 13600KF which is a 13600K without integrated graphics. Although Ryzen 7000 has weaker multi-core, weaker single-core, higher platform costs and higher unit prices AMD have a 3D joker up their sleeve (7800X3D est. 2023). Via “Advanced Marketing” on youtube, forums, reddit, and twitter AMD will demonstrate that their upcoming CPU is the “best in the world” and offer “proof” by way of a small handful of obscure workloads. Games that few people play e.g. (Factorio, SotTR) will be cherry picked, video footage of the gameplay/settings won’t be provided and frame drops will be conveniently ignored. This playbook has easily outsold Intel in recent years but with every overhyped release, consumers lose trust in AMD. Based on social media/press coverage, you would never guess that the combined market share for all of AMD’s Radeon 5000 and 6000 GPUs amongst PC gamers is just 2.12% (Steam stats). Meanwhile Nvidia’s RTX 2060 alone accounts for a whopping 5.03%. Largely thanks to marketing incompetence, Intel is existentially motivated to deliver material annual performance improvements. Consumers can look forward to Meteor Lake (14th gen) in less than a years time. [Oct '22CPUPro]
We calculate effective speed which measures real world performance for typical users. Effective speed is adjusted by current prices to yield a value for money rating. Our calculated values are checked against thousands of individual user ratings. The customizable table below combines these factors to bring you the definitive list of top CPUs. [CPUPro]
Welcome to our PC speed test tool. UserBenchmark will test your PC and compare the results to other users with the same components. You can quickly size up your PC, identify hardware problems and explore the best value for money upgrades.