Intel Core i9 10900K beats Ryzen 9 3900X thanks to higher frequency

When Intel is being pushed into a corner, the company has the tendency to ramp up the frequency of its processors as high as possible, even if that results in massive power consumption. That's what Intel seems to be doing with its upcoming Core i9 10900K. Leaked benchmark results show this 10-core chip is able to beat AMD's 12-core Ryzen 9 3900X in a number of 3DMark benchmarks.

The 14nm chip from Intel is about 4 to 5 percent faster than AMD's 7nm Zen 2 design, which is actually quite impressive. This makes the 10900K about 15-16 percent faster than the current-gen 9900K.

With the 10-core and 12-core chips going head-to-head it’s clear from the 3DMark benchmarks dug up by perennial leaker, TUM_APISAK, that the higher clock speed of the Intel processor is more than able to make up for the difference in core counts. At least that’s the way it looks like it’s going in rendering and gaming tasks.

Intel isn't in an ideal spot, but the company is still able to squeeze some more performance out of its aging 14nm designs. The downside is that the 10900K has a 125W TDP, whereas AMD's 3900X has a 105W TDP.

i9-10900K (3.7/5.1)

FS - Physics Score 28462
TS - CPU Score 13142

R9 3900X
FS - Physics Score 27137
TS - CPU Score 12624

For Comparison ??https://t.co/se2Hn2KcRq pic.twitter.com/C7nySfbMtD

— APISAK (@TUM_APISAK) February 4, 2020