Home > CPU Comparison > Core i9 9900K or Ryzen 9 3950X: what's better?

Intel Core i9 9900K vs AMD Ryzen 9 3950X

41 out of 100
Intel Core i9 9900K
VS
53 out of 100
AMD Ryzen 9 3950X
Intel Core i9 9900K
AMD Ryzen 9 3950X

We compared two desktop CPUs: the 3.6 GHz Intel Core i9 9900K with 8-cores against the 3.5 GHz AMD Ryzen 9 3950X with 16-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 (1)

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
11.7
(Bad)
Value Index
11.4
(Bad)

Key Differences

What are the key differences between 3950X and 9900K
Advantages of Intel Core i9 9900K
  • Includes an integrated GPU Intel UHD Graphics 630
  • 6% higher Turbo Boost frequency (5 GHz vs 4.7 GHz)
Advantages of AMD Ryzen 9 3950X
  • Has 48 MB larger L3 cache size, helping fully utilize a high-end GPU in gaming
  • More modern manufacturing process โ€“ 7 versus 14 nanometers
  • Has 8 more physical cores
  • Newer PCI Express version โ€“ 4.0
  • Newer - released 1 year and 2 months later
  • Around 6.08 GB/s (15%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth
  • 10% faster in a single-core Geekbench v6 test - 1782 vs 1621 points

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks
CPU:
Core i9 9900K
vs
Ryzen 9 3950X

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
Cinebench Scores (#84th 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 9900K
1621
Ryzen 9 3950X +10%
1782
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Core i9 9900K
8151
Ryzen 9 3950X +39%
11367
File compression 545.7 MB/sec 869 MB/sec
Clang compilation 67.7 Klines/sec 137.6 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 175.1 pages/sec 204.1 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 275.6 Mpixels/sec 335.9 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 159 pages/sec 145.8 pages/sec
Background blur 40.4 images/sec 41.9 images/sec
Photo processing 68.6 images/sec 73.3 images/sec
Ray tracing 14.5 Mpixels/sec 30.4 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] โ€“ 610 & 615 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 3950X +113%
38436
Integer math 66.1 GOps/sec 132.8 GOps/sec
Floating point math 41 GOps/sec 77.8 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 46M Primes/sec 173M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 36.1M Strings/sec 63.1M Strings/sec
Data encryption 6.3 GBytes/sec 37.8 GBytes/sec
Data compression 282.6 MBytes/sec 587.6 MBytes/sec
Physics 929 Frames/sec 1602 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 19B Matrices/sec 36.6B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] โ€“ 17571 & 4053 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 3950X +111%
376.65

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 7.4 PPW 13 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 85.8 PPW 108.3 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 190.1 PPW 366.1 PPW
Blender / Watt 1.88 PPW 3.59 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
๐Ÿ“˜ 2026-01-01 (Mr Scare)Cinebench 202479 / 662
๐Ÿ“˜ 2025-08-09 (EndOfTheWorld77)Cinebench 202478 / 591
๐Ÿ“˜ 2024-03-28 (Gribbstar)Cinebench 202479 / 706
Add View all (3)
AMD Ryzen 9 3950X
DateBenchmarkResult
๐Ÿ“˜ 2025-11-27 (Elizabeth)Cinebench 202476 / 1398
๐Ÿ“˜ 2025-07-18 (Maki)Cinebench 202480 / 1370
Add View all (2)

Specifications

Full technical specification of Intel Core i9 9900K and AMD Ryzen 9 3950X

General

Vendor Intel Amd
Released October 8, 2018 November 25, 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 CPU ranking (#96th place)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 8 16
P-Threads 16 32
Base Frequency (P) 3.6 GHz 3.5 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) 5 GHz 4.7 GHz
Total
Total Cores 8 16
Total Threads 16 32
Bus Frequency 100 MHz 100 MHz
Multiplier 36x 35x
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 100ยฐC -
Desktop CPU ranking (145th and 99th 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 3950X
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 3950X official page
PCI Express Version 3.0 4.0
PCI Express Lanes 16 16

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
10 (19.6%)
41 (80.4%)
Total votes: 51

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5. Intel Core i9 9900K vs Intel Core i9 14900K
6. Intel Core i9 9900K vs AMD Ryzen 9 9950X
7. Intel Core i9 9900K vs Apple M3
8. Intel Core i9 9900K vs AMD Ryzen 5 9600X
9. AMD Ryzen 9 3950X vs AMD Ryzen 9 7950X
10. AMD Ryzen 9 3950X vs AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D
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Comments

So which CPU will you choose: AMD Ryzen 9 3950X or Intel Core i9 9900K?
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Avatar
Darrel Cranston October 15, 2021 at 01:23 AM
I lost interest in AMD after that joke of a FX 8350, good to keep your food warm on top of the case, however other then that, un, yah, my positive side. Then i went to i9-9900k, with a MEG Z390 ACE, a Z63 NZXT AIO, i don't have the best gpu, but it's a rtx 2070, and i have some trident F4-4000C18-32TZR (64Gb), and 3 nvme (mobo deals with it fine), 750W Seasonic, and have been happy gaming with it since. So to switch to an AMD system, at this point in time, that would mean new mobo, prob new memory, since i'm not sure if that memory is compatible with, it, oh yah, and a compatible GPU. I can play any game at reasonable levels, (turn on the DLSS-and i can play cod cold war at 4k on a acer KG271C, not the best, but very playable, the CPU isn't doing the 100% while gaming so, no bottle necks there. temps under 70c full load. Fully understand AMD has changed with their new management, got it. If it had of happened 2 years earlier, i would prob have went AMD. However. If you have a i9-9900k, it's a good gaming system. However, gaming isn't the only thing computers can do. My comments are meant towards, if that is the current setup you have. and it works. unless you really need to have the fastest. Whatever. The i9-9900k is a true workhorse. I run consistently at 5.1 ghz, and mem o/c to 4133 (4277 i find unstable) Silicon lottery though. Just a comment, from my own personal experience. Not a salesman, just personal experience.
+2 Reply
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