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]
This CPU is incredibly well-placed for a refresh.
The i9 14900k(640 euros) offers similar performance to the i9 13900KS(800 Euros) while being available for much less money. The new gen motherboards are also much better.
So if you were thinking about getting the 13th gen i9 then the 14th gen is a no-brainer since it offers flawless performance for both gaming and productivity tasks.
This is especially true since AMD's "equivalent" 7950x3d is haunted by software bugs and "features" such as needing to have Xbox game bar open 24/7 and having their motherboards overvolt and kill the CPUs. [Oct '23MrNukes]
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.