When AMD released its Ryzen 9 processors in 2019, it became quite clear that Intel’s Core i7 and Core i9 chips were in for some serious competition.
Neither the i9 nor the Ryzen 9 are cheap, however both of them are top picks when it comes to powering either gaming or content-creation PCs. However, if we take a look at just the specifications for both products it’s obvious that the Ryzen 9 wins, hands down.
The Ryzen 9 3900X comes with support for 3,200 MHz DDR4 memory, and a 70MB L3 cache on the die. In comparison, the Core i9-9900K boasts only about 2,666 MHz and only 16MB of L3 cache.
Is Ryzen 9 Better than i9 for Gaming?
However, just because the Ryzen 9 3900X comes out on top in the more seminal areas, that doesn’t necessarily always reflect in its real world performances. When we compare the single-core and mutli-core workflows, the results differ.
When using all the threads and cores, the Ryzen 9 obviously outpaces the i9, as the Ryzen 9 has 12 cores or 24 threads compared to the i9s 8 cores or 16 threads. However, when we compare the single-core performance, the AMD chip falls behind its Intel competitor.
For gamers, the most important part of these chips are the integrated graphics within the chips. The Ryzen 9 3900X has no on-chip graphics, meaning that if you decide to game with this chip, you will need to purchase a companion video card, ful stop.
On the other hand, Intel’s i9 incorporates Intel’s light-hitting UHD Graphics integrated silicon, however, most gamers do usually pair this with a video card anyways. With the price of video cards having skyrocketed since 2021, integrated graphics are no small consideration.
Thus, if you just want raw CPU muscle and don’t want to have to purchase a companion video card for gaming, the Intel i9-9900K is your best option.
Read: Causes of high CPU usage?
Which is More Fast AMD Ryzen 9 or Intel i9?
The Core i9-12900K outperforms the Ryzen 9 5950X by 3.9% in the threaded Cinebench test and by 17% in POV-Ray, demonstrating that the hybrid architecture still offers great performance despite having fewer threads.
In contrast, the 5950X outperforms the competition in a few other threaded applications, though with surprisingly small deltas considering how much more expensive it is. Bear in mind that the 12900K is more expensive than the 5900X.
The Ryzen 9 5900X just cannot stand tall enough to compete against the Core i9-12900K in these tasks. In threaded encoding operations like Handbrake x264 and x265, SVT-HEVC, and SVT-AV1, the 12900K also outperforms both Ryzen 9 CPUs.
The 12900K also stands out in highly parallelized high-throughput applications, from the extremely branchy code in the LLVM compilation workload to the massively parallel molecular dynamics simulation code in NAMD.
Whether you run these on Windows 10 or 11, DDR4 or DDR5, the Core i9-12900K is the world’s fastest gaming CPU.
However, AMD is likely to respond with its 3D V-Cache processors, which the company claims will deliver up to 15% higher gaming performance and have up to 192MB of L3 cache per chip.
But the effect on gaming outside of eSports titles when those chips are introduced is still uncertain.
Read: Why we need to Increase the Clock Speed of CPU?
Which is the Gamers Choice AMD Ryzen 9 or Intel i9?
The Ryzen 9 3900X is probably a better option for gamers than the Core i9-9900K based only on core and thread count.
The speed of a chip’s clock or the amount of its cache, as well as other hardware like your visual card, have a significant impact on many other tasks, especially common ones like playing older games or browsing the internet.
In contrast to the Ryzen 9 3900X’s base speed of 3.8GHz and highest boost speed of 4.6GHz, the Core i9-9900K has a base frequency of 3.6GHz and a maximum boost frequency of 5GHz. Both can be timed faster.
Although you can’t properly compare them one to one, the speed variations are slight yet considerable. The Core i9-9900K might provide a minor edge on “bursty” activities like adding a filter to an image in Adobe Photoshop, if you can couple each CPU with a cooling solution that has enough thermal headroom for sustained maximum clock speeds.
However, the minor advantage in clock rates may not matter as much if speed for the same work is already countered by having more cores and threads.
Everything comes down to the characteristics of the specific software, which is where more specific benchmark testing comes into play.
Read: All about Cores and Threads of a CPU
AMD Ryzen 9 vs Intel i9 Benefits
- For Ryzen 9, the biggest benefit is that since it was last released in 2020, the price has lowered, especially if you compare it to Intel’s latest Core i9-12900K, which was just released in 2022.
- The Ryzen 9 also boasts more threads and cores compared to its Intel competitor, making it way faster at multi-core workflows.
- The Ryzen 9 is also most notable for being the first chip to bring 7nm processors into the mainstream spotlight.
- The Core i9’s integrated graphics make it the better choice for people who don’t want to have to purchase a separate video card.
- The Intel Core CPUs have registered higher frame rates when using the same cards and settings as the competing Ryzens.
- Thunderbolt 3 is not a core thing on AMD desktop platforms, however, it is available on Intel desktop platforms.
- Both the Ryzen 9 and the Intel i9 support PCI express 4.0.
Conclusion
Now this only points to how you’d account for the differences depends on if you’d see the prices making up for that. Both options are the highest end processor choices today so it’s comes down to your choice.
