Home > CPU Comparison > Core i9 9900K or Ryzen 9 3900X: what's better?

Intel Core i9 9900K vs AMD Ryzen 9 3900X

41 out of 100
Intel Core i9 9900K
VS
48 out of 100
AMD Ryzen 9 3900X
Intel Core i9 9900K
AMD Ryzen 9 3900X

We compared two desktop CPUs: the 3.6 GHz Intel Core i9 9900K with 8-cores against the 3.8 GHz AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 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.
πŸ”Œ Usage Scenario:

Value for money (Beta)

Global average CPU prices are used by default! For better accuracy, enter your current prices and click β€œCalculate".
Currency
VS
11.7
(Bad)
Value Index
23.6
(Mediocre)

Key Differences

What are the key differences between 3900X and 9900K
Advantages of Intel Core i9 9900K
  • Includes an integrated GPU Intel UHD Graphics 630
  • 9% higher Turbo Boost frequency (5 GHz vs 4.6 GHz)
Advantages of AMD Ryzen 9 3900X
  • Has 48 MB larger L3 cache size, helping fully utilize a high-end GPU in gaming
  • More modern manufacturing process – 7 versus 14 nanometers
  • Has 4 more physical cores
  • Newer PCI Express version – 4.0
  • Newer - released 9 months later
  • Around 6.08 GB/s (15%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks
CPU:
Core i9 9900K
vs
Ryzen 9 3900X

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
Cinebench Scores (#159th 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)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Core i9 9900K
8151
Ryzen 9 3900X +28%
10470
File compression 545.7 MB/sec 872.1 MB/sec
Clang compilation 67.7 Klines/sec 104.4 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 175.1 pages/sec 209.4 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 275.6 Mpixels/sec 299.9 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 159 pages/sec 144.4 pages/sec
Background blur 40.4 images/sec 41.1 images/sec
Photo processing 68.6 images/sec 75.2 images/sec
Ray tracing 14.5 Mpixels/sec 24.4 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] – 610 & 801 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
Core i9 9900K
18059
Ryzen 9 3900X +80%
32492
Integer math 66.1 GOps/sec 99.4 GOps/sec
Floating point math 41 GOps/sec 58.4 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 46M Primes/sec 213M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 36.1M Strings/sec 48.2M Strings/sec
Data encryption 6.3 GBytes/sec 28.6 GBytes/sec
Data compression 282.6 MBytes/sec 448.8 MBytes/sec
Physics 929 Frames/sec 1782 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 19B Matrices/sec 29.2B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] – 17571 & 17216 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU
Core i9 9900K
178.22
Ryzen 9 3900X +57%
278.98

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 7.4 PPW 9.4 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 85.8 PPW 99.7 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 190.1 PPW 309.4 PPW
Blender / Watt 1.88 PPW 2.66 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 9900K
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-01-01 (Mr Scare)Cinebench 202479 / 662
πŸ“˜ 2025-08-09 (EndOfTheWorld77)Cinebench 202478 / 591
πŸ“˜ 2024-03-28 (Gribbstar)Cinebench 202479 / 706
Add View all (3)
AMD Ryzen 9 3900X
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-03-08 (Heliosgt)Cinebench 202476 / 1081
πŸ“˜ 2026-02-11 (Ethan)Cinebench 202469 / 778
πŸ“˜ 2026-01-30 (Amara)Cinebench 202475 / 986
πŸ“˜ 2025-11-16 (LegendryDrifter)GeekBench1821 / 11106
πŸ“˜ 2025-11-16 (LegendryDrifter)Cinebench 202479 / 1054
Add View all (9)

Specifications

Full technical specification of Intel Core i9 9900K and AMD Ryzen 9 3900X

General

Vendor Intel Amd
Released October 8, 2018 July 7, 2019
Type Desktop Desktop
Instruction Set x86-64 x86-64
Codename Coffee Lake -
Model number i9-9900K -
Integrated GPU UHD Graphics 630 No
Rival Equivalent - AMD Ryzen 9 3900X - Intel Core i9 9900K
Successor - Intel Core Ultra 9 285K - AMD Ryzen 9 9900X
AMD Ryzen CPU ranking (#126th place)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 8 12
P-Threads 16 24
Base Frequency (P) 3.6 GHz 3.8 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) 5 GHz 4.6 GHz
Total
Total Cores 8 12
Total Threads 16 24
Bus Frequency 100 MHz 100 MHz
Multiplier 36x 38x
Bus Bandwidth 8 GT/s -
L1 Cache 64K (per core) 64K (per core)
L2 Cache 256K (per core) 512K (per core)
L3 Cache 16MB (shared) 64MB (shared)
Unlocked Multiplier Yes Yes

Package

Transistors - 3.8 billions
Fabrication Process 14 nm 7 nm
TDP (PL1) 95 W 105 W
Socket LGA-1151 AM4
Peak Temperature 100Β°C 95Β°C
Desktop CPU ranking (145th and 121st 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 9900K
0.5 TFLOPS
Ryzen 9 3900X
n/a
See: Intel UHD Graphics 630 benchmarks

Memory Support

Memory Types - DDR4-2666 - DDR4-3200
Max. Memory Size 128 GB 128 GB
Memory Channels 2 2
Max. Memory Bandwidth 41.6 GB/s 47.68 GB/s
ECC Support No Yes

Misc

Official Site Intel Core i9 9900K official page AMD Ryzen 9 3900X official page
PCI Express Version 3.0 4.0
PCI Express Lanes 16 16

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
27 (18%)
123 (82%)
Total votes: 150

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7. Intel Core i9 9900K vs Apple M1 (1)
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Comments

So which CPU will you choose: AMD Ryzen 9 3900X or Intel Core i9 9900K?
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