Intel’s core i9-7900X, from the Skylake-X series, is Intel’s latest 10-core, 20-thread flagship processor. It's the first to bear the i9 moniker and utilize the new X299 (Basin Falls) chipset/motherboard. The 7900X is the fastest CPU on the market today, however, imminent competition from AMD’s 16-core, 32-thread Ryzen Threadripper CPUs and the forthcoming release of more Intel Core X series mean that its reign will be a short one. The i9-7900X supersedes the 10-core Broadwell-E core i7-6950X that held the crown for little over a year. Both are extremely powerful and pricey high end desktop processors (HEDTs) which excel in multi-threaded tasks such as media encoding. However, despite the same power draw (TDP 140W), the newer i9-7900X betters the i7-6950X in terms of peak overclocked performance by 10% mostly thanks to increased clock speeds from 3.0GHz/4.0GHz to 3.3GHz/4.3GHz for base/turbo. It also betters the i7-6950X on price by around 28%. This all translates to the i9-7900X offering around 20% more value for money, even despite its eye-watering $999 price tag. The more accessible pricing (albeit not accessible for the majority) and hurried release of the i9-7900k to market is widely perceived as a reaction to AMD’s Ryzen Threadripper CPUs, rumoured for release towards the end of July 2017. So if you want to own the fastest consumer CPU in the world, it would be wise to wait for the dust to settle. [Jul '17CPUPro]
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.