Revised Benchmarks Show AMD In Much Better Light

Principled Technologies Reruns Intel Core i9 9900K vs AMD Ryzen 7 2700X Benchmarks

Earlier in the month, Intel launched their new return to the consumer market. The new lineup of chips included the new Core i9 9900K, the Intel response to AMD’s Ryzen 7 2700X. With 8 cores and 16 threads with HyperThreading, the new chip matches the configuration offered by the 2700X. For the launch, Intel commissioned some third-party benchmark comparisons. Due to the wide-ranging complaints, the firm, Principled Technologies, has rerun the benchmarks after admitting mistakes.

The original benchmarks allowed Intel to boldly claim that the i9 9900K is the fastest gaming CPU. However, a careful analysis of the tests found that the AMD system was unfairly configured. For one, it used the stock heatsink compared to a custom heatsink for Intel, limiting boost clocks.  The firm also did not configure the RAM and CPU for optimal performance on AMD. As a result, the company has rerun the benchmark with more fair settings. As a result, AMD is now only 12% slower instead of up to 40% slower as before.

AMD  Test System Originally Unoptimized

Compared to the i9 9900K, the 2700X is now a much better deal. While it is 12% slower which is about expected, it is significantly cheaper. In fact, the Intel chip is some 66% more expensive. Though Intel is undoubtedly faster still, you are paying a very hefty premium for that last 12% of performance. Principled Technologies also did not fully optimize the AMD build memory settings. With tweaked memory settings, the 2700X will only close the gap even more.

Now that the company has done testing properly, things are better in the world. As expected, the Core i9 9900K is still the best gaming consumer chip. It is also a great workstation CPU in some cases. However, the Ryzen 7 2700X, as expected, is following quite close behind it and much cheaper. It would have been far better if everything had come out this way in the first place. Intel could still have claimed their performance title. Once more, we can confirm the importance of testing methodology.