Intel Core i9 10920X Processor Review

Synthetic Benchmarks

Since we’re pretty fresh out the gates with our new testing methods, we don’t have a huge amount to compare to right now. However, it’s not hard to see that the 10920X is performing right as we would expect it to. It trades blows with its higher and lower counterparts, the Intel i9 10940X and the 10900X. However, there’s one thing that is abundantly clear, the AMD Ryzen 9 3950X has got all of them beaten quite thoroughly. The new i9 is no slouch though, but I guess that’ll all come down to the price to performance ratio.

• 3DMark FireStrike – 22309
• 3DMark TimeSpy – 11524
• Unigine Superposition – 7123
• PCMark 10 Express – 7180
• GeekBench – 1214/12913
• WPrime – 2.715/62.823
• Super Pi Mod – 07:11

Online Benchmarks

Google Octane 2.0 – 53720

Mozilla Kraken 1.1 – 804.2

WebXPRT 3 v2.93 – 225

The scores were actually pretty close here too. The 10920X differs from the 10900X and 10940X in core counts, and the results are pretty predictable, with it sitting right between the two. That’s no bad thing though, it’s doing exactly what the model number and price suggested it would. It actually did pull ahead of the 3950X in Octane though, but AMD had the lead for Kraken and WebXPRT.

Compression & Rendering

Again a close race between most of the new Intel CPUs, with the 10920 scoring in the middle throughout these tests. Intel’s latest does have the edge in the single-core performance-focused testing, but AMD does pull ahead again in the multi-core test of CineBench, but with more cores, that’s hardly surprising. Overall though, these are pretty solid figures from the 10920X.

• 7zip 19 Compression/Decompression – 97939/113884
• Corona 1.3 – 01:10/6907440
• Blender – 03:00.69 Minutes
• CineBench R15 – 200/2824
• CineBench R20 – 468/6637
• Handbrake 4K – 42.8FPS
• V-Ray – 20993

Memory

Intel often has the performance edge when it comes to memory testing. This CPU scored very strong, hitting 65.85 GB/s in SiSoft. We also saw much lower latency vs the AMD chipset, which we expected. Plus, the read, write and copy performance was right on the money too.

• SiSoft Sandra 2020 – 65.85
• Aida 64 read/write/copy – 87782/72495/75537
• Aida 64 Latency – 74ns

Gaming Performance

Intel often pulls ahead when it comes to gaming performance. The higher per-core clock speeds are a huge advantage here, giving us our highest score yet for Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and World of Tanks. Plus, Metro Exodus and Far Cry were our highest score, with only the 10900X pulling ahead thanks to its higher clock speeds, but fewer cores.

• Shadow of the Tomb Raider – 142
• Far Cry: New Dawn – 83/113
• Metro Exodus – 50.84/95.99
• World of Tanks – 44039/34431

Temperatures and Power

Not unsurprisingly, this CPU does use quite a lot of power. However, that’s simply to be expected given that it has a massive core count and high clock speeds. That being said, it still used less power than the older 9980XE. That means bigger performance and lower power usage, which I’ll admit is impressive. The temperatures are OK too, I guess, hitting 78c is hot, but nothing like what we saw on the 9900K and similar, which were hitting 100c and above.

How Much Does it Cost?

Right now, the Intel Core i9 10920 isn’t exactly available at all the big name retailers. It’s a fairly specialist CPU, either that or there’s just no stock of them in the wild. I couldn’t find it at our prefered retailers, but I do know you can find one for around £699.99 with a bit of Google-Fu. That places it somewhere between the AMD Ryzen 9 3900X (£450) and the Ryzen 9 3950X (£810). Honestly, that’s a fair price really. The 3950X may beat it, but Intel is cheaper here, and the performance difference is about what you would expect given the core count difference and clock speeds.

Overview

While it’s not the most dynamic or exciting CPU launch ever, there’s really nothing I can say against this CPU at this time. Sure, there are some extremely competitive options from AMD right now. However, that doesn’t make this any less of a solid CPU and seeing Intel basically slash their prices in half does mean they’re still very competitive in the market for 2019 and 2020. There are great options from both brands, but for the Intel loyalists out there, the 10920X is a strong competitor.

Cores

The single-core performance is strong here, but that’s pretty much always been the thing we expect from Intel. AMD has closed the gap though, so it’s not quite the advantage it once was. However, offering up 12 cores and 24 threads does mean this CPU is pretty versatile when it comes to both great gaming performance and robust rendering performance.

Should I Buy One?

Honestly, it’s all down to budget. Right now, the performance sits right between the 16 Core 10940X and the 10900X, and so does the price. It runs cooler, more efficient, and typically faster than the last-gen. The big selling point here is that Intel’s workstation CPUs are now more affordable than perhaps they’ve ever been. Picking between AMD and Intel for your next workstation build is a much more difficult choice right now. Which would you pick and why?