Intel Core i9-11900K vs. AMD Ryzen 9 5900X. Who’s the winner?

Test setup

Have you already created a perfect picture of the current generation of desktop processors or are you still willing to reconsider some things? For the start of HWC processor tests, we’ve picked the hottest hardware from Intel’s mainstream offer – the Core i9-11900K, which is going to compete against the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X in 40 chapters full of information. The older Core i9-10900K has also successfully been re-tested by the new methodology.

Test setup

*Following motherboard BIOS versions are used: v1.14 on MSI MEG Z590 Ace, v1E on MSI MEG X570 and v17 on MSI MEG Z490.

Note.: Graphics drivers used: Nvidia GeForce 466.77 and OS Windows 10 build 19043 at the time of testing.

• Contents
• 2× Core i9 (11900K + 10900K) and Ryzen 9 5900X
• Methodology: performance tests
• Methodology: how we measure power draw
• Methodology: temperature and clock speed tests
• Test setup
• 3DMark
• Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla
• Borderlands 3
• Counter-Strike: GO
• Cyberpunk 2077
• DOOM Eternal
• F1 2020
• Metro Exodus
• Microsoft Flight Simulator
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider
• Total War Saga: Troy
• Overall gaming performance
• Gaming performance per euro
• PCMark and Geekbench
• Web performance
• 3D rendering: Cinebench, Blender, …
• Video 1/2: Adobe Premiere Pro
• Video 2/2: DaVinci Resolve Studio
• Graphics effects: Adobe After Effects
• Video encoding
• Audio encoding
• Broadcasting (OBS and Xsplit)
• Fotky 1/2: Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom
• Fotky 2/2: Affinity Photo, Topaz Labs AI apps, ZPS X, …
• (De)compression
• (De)cryption
• Numerical computing
• Simulations
• Memory and cache tests
• Processor power draw trend
• Average processor power draw
• Performance per watt
• Achieved CPU clock speed
• CPU temperature
• Conclusion