Intel’s Comet Lake flagship, the i9-10900K, is the fastest gaming and desktop CPU currently available. This ten-core hyperthreaded processor can easily be overclocked so that all twenty threads run at an eye-watering 5.2 GHz. Whilst its stellar performance is second to none, it comes with a premium price tag of $488 USD. The 10900K also requires a new (Z490) LGA1200 motherboard, which Intel has indicated will remain compatible with Rocket Lake CPUs which are due later this year. Whilst AMD’s competing $420 USD Ryzen 3900X and $675 USD Ryzen 3950X do have a greater number of cores, their lower clock speeds and higher memory latency handicap them in non-rendering use cases. Overall, the 10900K has a 16% effective speed advantage over both the 3900X and 3950X. Users that do a lot of rendering should investigate dedicated hardware encoders such as NVENC and Quick Sync as these are far more efficient than CPU based rendering. Comparing the 10900K and 10700K shows that, when paired with a 2060S, the 10700K offers comparable gaming performance for 20% less money.[Jun '20CPUPro]
The Ryzen 9000 CPUs have the same integrated graphics, PCIe lanes, USB support and DRAM controller as the Ryzen 7000 series. The only difference is improved cores which have moved from TSMC's 5 nm process to 4 nm. The new cores offer 15% more performance under cherry-picked conditions but for latency-sensitive workloads, like gaming, they are just few percent faster. The 9600X, 9700X, 9900X, and 9950X are priced at $280, $360, $500, and $650, respectively, making them $80-$200 USD more expensive than the 7000 series. Since the 7000 series flopped (7800X3D somewhat excluded) due to unrealistic pricing, slow boot times, high platform costs and windows gamebar requirements etc., the 9000 series is more or less DOA. When the 9000X3D variants launch (expected in early 2025) gamers who play cache sensitive games such as SoTTR or Factorio with a 4090 and don’t mind frame drops, may find value in the 9800X3D. Meanwhile, Intel’s 12th and 13th gen CPUs continue to offer the best value for money in today’s market. Furthermore, Intel is scheduled to launch Arrow-Lake (est. +10% performance vs 14th gen) and Lunar-Lake (snapdragon competitive x86 battery life) this year, but they face serious challenges due to reliance on marketers who are mostly funded by AMD. Even if Arrow and Lunar Lake deliver stellar performance, without significant improvements in social media marketing: forums, reddit, youtube etc., Intel now face the very real risk of bankruptcy (third worst-performing S&P500 stock from Jan to Aug 2024). [Aug '24CPUPro]
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.