The Rocket Lake i5-11400F paired with a B560 motherboard and 3200 RAM ($365 USD) offers unprecedented value for money to gamers. It completely prices AMD's 5000 series out of the market. Rocket Lake brings higher IPC (early samples indicate +19%) which translates to around a 10% faster Effective Speed than both Intel's 10th Gen and AMD’s 5000 series. Despite Intel’s performance lead, AMD continues to outsell Intel. Given the scale of Intel's operation, it’s inexplicable that their marketing remains so neglected. Little effort is made to counter widespread disinformation such as: “it uses too much electricity” or the classic: “it needs more cores”. Intel’s marketing samples are routinely distributed to reviewers that appear better incentivized to bury Intel's products rather than review them. Not enabling XMP or only testing with BIOS power limits enabled is akin to leaving the handbrake on during a race. Mind-numbing “scientific” and rendering benchmarks are presented as gospel. Different games, mostly unplayed by real users, are cherry picked for each “review”. When it's convenient, canned game benchmarks are chosen such as Ulletical’s CSGO which runs at nearly double the in-game fps. Credible benchmark data, which necessarily includes replicable video footage from popular games, is the exception rather than the rule. At every release, AMD’s marketers coordinate narratives to ensure another feast of blue blubber. Nonetheless, towards the end of 2021, Intel’s Golden Cove is due to offer an additional 20-30% performance increase. At that time, with a net 30-40% performance lead, Intel will probably regain significant market share despite AMD's class-leading marketing. In the meantime, most PC gamers need look no further than the 11400F.[Mar '21CPUPro]
The AMD 7000X3D CPUs have the same core architecture as the rest of the 7000 series but they have one group of eight "3D" cores with extra cache. The “3D” cores are priced higher but run at 10% lower clocks. For most real-world tasks performance is comparable to the 7000X variant. Cache sensitive scenarios such as low res. canned game benchmarks with an RTX 4090 ($2,000) benefit at the cost of everything else. Be wary of sponsored reviews with cherry picked games that showcase the wins, ignore frame drops and gloss over the losses. Also watch out for AMD’s army of Neanderthal social media accounts on reddit, forums and youtube, they will be singing their own praises as usual. AMD continue to develop “Advanced Marketing” relationships with select youtubers with the obvious aim of compensating for second tier products with first tier marketing. PC gamers considering a 7000X3D CPU need to work on their critical thinking skills: Influencers are paid handsomely to promote overpriced niche products (X3D, EPYC, Threadripper etc.). Rational gamers have little reason to look further than the $300 13600K which offers comparable real-world gaming and better desktop performance at a fraction of the price. Workstation users (and RTX 4080+ gamers) may find value in higher core CPUs such as the 16-core $400 13700K. Despite offering better performance at lower prices, as long as Intel continues to sample and sponsor marketers that are mostly funded by AMD, they will struggle to win market share. [Mar '23CPUPro]
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.