Home > CPU Comparison > Core i9 10900K or Ryzen 9 5900X: what's better?

Intel Core i9 10900K vs AMD Ryzen 9 5900X

43 out of 100
Intel Core i9 10900K
VS
59 out of 100
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X
Intel Core i9 10900K
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X

We compared two desktop CPUs: the 3.7 GHz Intel Core i9 10900K with 10-cores against the 3.7 GHz AMD Ryzen 9 5900X with 12-cores. On this page, you'll find out which processor has better performance in benchmarks, games and other useful information.

  1. Review
  2. Differences
  3. Performance
  4. Specs
  5. Comments

Review

General overview and comparison of the processors
Single-Core Performance
Performance in single-threaded apps and benchmarks
Multi-Core Performance
Measure performance when all cores are involved
Power Efficiency
The efficiency score of power consumption
The "iGPU" and "Power Efficiency" have a minor impact on the NanoReview Score for desktop CPU.
NanoReview Final Score
Choose your main usage scenario to recalculate the Final Score and see which CPU suits your needs.
๐Ÿ”Œ Usage Scenario:

Value for money (Beta)

Global average CPU prices are used by default! For better accuracy, enter your current prices and click โ€œCalculate".
Currency
VS
8.1
(Bad)
Value Index
54.4
(Average)

Key Differences

What are the key differences between 5900X and 10900K
Advantages of Intel Core i9 10900K
  • Includes an integrated GPU Intel UHD Graphics 630
  • More than 10ยฐ C higher critical temperature
  • 10% higher Turbo Boost frequency (5.3 GHz vs 4.8 GHz)
Advantages of AMD Ryzen 9 5900X
  • Has 44 MB larger L3 cache size, helping fully utilize a high-end GPU in gaming
  • More modern manufacturing process โ€“ 7 versus 14 nanometers
  • Newer PCI Express version โ€“ 4.0
  • 33% faster in a single-core Geekbench v6 test - 2263 vs 1704 points
  • Has 2 more physical cores
  • Newer - released 5 months later
  • Around 1.88 GB/s (4%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks
CPU:
Core i9 10900K
vs
Ryzen 9 5900X

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
Cinebench Scores (#112th place)
Submit your benchmark results

GeekBench v6

The new version of this benchmark emulates common operations often used in real-world apps
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Core i9 10900K
1704
Ryzen 9 5900X +33%
2263
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Core i9 10900K
9362
Ryzen 9 5900X +36%
12701
File compression 653.7 MB/sec 1170 MB/sec
Clang compilation 85.1 Klines/sec 126 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 187.3 pages/sec 217.8 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 311.4 Mpixels/sec 362 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 169 pages/sec 232 pages/sec
Background blur 44.5 images/sec 38.7 images/sec
Photo processing 71.6 images/sec 85.1 images/sec
Ray tracing 19.2 Mpixels/sec 31.5 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] โ€“ 901 & 441 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
Core i9 10900K
3106
Ryzen 9 5900X +12%
3465
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
Core i9 10900K
22233
Ryzen 9 5900X +75%
38888
Integer math 85.3 GOps/sec 139.7 GOps/sec
Floating point math 53.1 GOps/sec 77.6 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 62M Primes/sec 257M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 46.2M Strings/sec 51.5M Strings/sec
Data encryption 7.6 GBytes/sec 31 GBytes/sec
Data compression 374.1 MBytes/sec 498.8 MBytes/sec
Physics 1020 Frames/sec 1984 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 24.6B Matrices/sec 33.1B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] โ€“ 4675 & 27058 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU
Core i9 10900K
233.21
Ryzen 9 5900X +36%
316.84

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 5.7 PPW 11.4 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 74.9 PPW 121 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 177.9 PPW 370.4 PPW
Blender / Watt 1.87 PPW 3.02 PPW
These are rough calculations, as most CPUs surpass PL1 TDP wattage even in multicore workloads.

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
Intel Core i9 10900K
DateBenchmarkResult
๐Ÿ“˜ 2025-11-05 (e)Cinebench 202461 / 714
Add View all (1)
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X
DateBenchmarkResult
๐Ÿ“˜ 2026-03-19 (D)Cinebench 202467 / 893
๐Ÿ“˜ 2025-11-02 (Zoli)Cinebench 202493 / 1254
๐Ÿ“˜ 2025-10-12 (Otamatone)Cinebench 202492 / 981
๐Ÿ“˜ 2025-10-08 (aref)Cinebench 202494 / 1015
๐Ÿ“˜ 2025-08-15 (SnakeyB)Cinebench 2024120 / 380
Add View all (12)

Specifications

Full technical specification of Intel Core i9 10900K and AMD Ryzen 9 5900X

General

Vendor Intel Amd
Released May 1, 2020 October 8, 2020
Type Desktop Desktop
Instruction Set x86-64 x86-64
Codename Comet Lake Zen 3 (Vermeer)
Model number i9-10900K -
Integrated GPU UHD Graphics 630 No
Rival Equivalent - AMD Ryzen 9 5900X - Intel Core i9 11900K
Successor - Intel Core Ultra 9 285K - AMD Ryzen 9 9900X
AMD Ryzen CPU ranking (#70th place)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 10 12
P-Threads 20 24
Base Frequency (P) 3.7 GHz 3.7 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) 5.3 GHz 4.8 GHz
Total
Total Cores 10 12
Total Threads 20 24
Bus Frequency 100 MHz 100 MHz
Multiplier 37x 37x
Bus Bandwidth 8 GT/s -
L1 Cache 64K (per core) 64K (per core)
L2 Cache 256K (per core) 512K (per core)
L3 Cache 20MB (shared) 64MB (shared)
Unlocked Multiplier Yes Yes

Package

Transistors - 4.15 billions
Fabrication Process 14 nm 7 nm
TDP (PL1) 125 W 105 W
Max. Boost TDP (PL2) - 142 W
Socket LGA-1200 AM4
Peak Temperature 100ยฐC 90ยฐC
Desktop CPU ranking (137th and 83rd place)

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Intel UHD Graphics 630 -
GPU Base Clock 350 MHz -
GPU Boost Clock 1200 MHz -
Shading Units 192 -
TMUs 24 -
ROPs 3 -
Execution Units 24 -
TGP 15 W -
iGPU FLOPS
Core i9 10900K
0.5 TFLOPS
Ryzen 9 5900X
n/a
See: Intel UHD Graphics 630 benchmarks

Memory Support

Memory Types - DDR4-2933 - DDR4-3200
Max. Memory Size 128 GB 128 GB
Memory Channels 2 2
Max. Memory Bandwidth 45.8 GB/s 47.68 GB/s
ECC Support No Yes

Misc

Official Site Intel Core i9 10900K official page AMD Ryzen 9 5900X official page
PCI Express Version 3.0 4.0
PCI Express Lanes 16 20

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
83 (12.5%)
583 (87.5%)
Total votes: 666

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7. AMD Ryzen 9 5900X vs AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D
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Comments

So which CPU will you choose: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X or Intel Core i9 10900K?
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