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AMD Ryzen 9 7900X vs Intel Core i9-12900KF vs Intel Core i9-13900K Comparison

A lot of people have been asking me … What’s the real difference in performance between AMD’s newest Ryzen 7000 series vesus Intel’s latest 13th Gen Core processors? Well, we’re about to find out in today’s processor comparison. We’ll be comparing the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X against last year’s Intel Core i9-12900KF and this year’s newest Intel Core i9-13900K processor.

Over the past few years, AMD have made great stride in closing the gap against Intel. They were the first to release ground-breaking 7nm processors a few year ago, and this year in 2022 they’ve just announced and launched their new Ryzen 7000 series, which are all 5nm chips. In fact they’ve overtaken Intel at one point in terms of market share for desktop processors.

However, things are about to change. There have been reports that Intel albeit slow, are pushing their fabrication process to 4nm (from their current 10nm) by the end of 2023, and up to 3nm by the end of 2024. We will have to wait and see who will come out on top!

 

So here’s what we’re going to do. We will provide a 3-way comparison of the performance of these processors. Let’s begin with a quick comparison table …

 

Quick Comparison

Ryzen 9 7900X Core i9-12900KF Core i9-13900K
Generation (Code Name) Zen 4 – Raphael 12th Gen (Alder Lake) 13th Gen (Raptor Lake)
Cores 12 16
(8 Performance-cores/8 Efficient-cores)
24
(8 Performance-cores/16 Efficient-cores)
Threads 24 24 32
Default Base clock rate 4.7 GHz 3.2 GHz 4.30 GHz
Max Turbo Boost 5.6 GHz 5.2 GHz 5.80 GHz
Fabrication Process 5nm 10nm 10nm
Cache L2 12MB 30 MB
32 MB
Integrated Video Radeon Graphics N/A Intel® UHD Graphics 770
TDP 170W 125W
Turbo: 241W
125W
Turbo: 253W
Socket Type LGA1718 (AM5) LGA1700 LGA1700
PCIe/DDR support PCIe 5.0 / DDR5 PCIe 5.0 / DDR4 / DDR5 PCIe 5.0 / DDR5
Current Price from Amazon (Oct 2022) USD $539 USD $699 USD $720

 

Network Diagram

AMD X670E chipset for Ryzen 7000 seriesIntel Z690 Chipet for 12th Gen CPUsIntel Z790 Chipet for 13th Gen CPUs

 

Test Rig

We prepared 3 test rigs with the configuration as per below.

 

Column 1

Column 2

Column 3

Processor Ryzen 9 7900X Core i9-12900KF Core i9-13900K
Motherboard ASRock X670E Taichi ASRock Z690 Taichi RAZER Edition ASRock Z790 Taichi
Socket Type LGA1718 LGA1700 LGA1700
Ram 32GB Thermaltake ToughRam XG RGB DDR5-6000 32GB Thermaltake ToughRam XG RGB DDR5-6000 32GB Patriot Viper RGB DDR5-6200
XMP Profiles N/A Yes Yes
SSD NVMe M.2  Adata Legend Gen4 1TB SSD Adata Legend Gen4 1TB SSD Adata Legend Gen4 1TB SSD
Graphics Card EVGA GeForce RTX 3090 EVGA GeForce RTX 3090 EVGA GeForce RTX 3090
PSU Thermaltake ToughPower PF 1 ARGB 1050W PSU Thermaltake ToughPower PF 1 ARGB 1050W PSU Thermaltake ToughPower PF 1 ARGB 1050W PSU
Cooler Thermaltake ToughLiquid Ultra 360 AIO Thermaltake ToughLiquid Ultra 360 AIO Cooler Master MasterLiquid PL240 AIO
Drivers Latest Game Ready Drivers from Nvidia Latest Game Ready Drivers from Nvidia Latest Game Ready Drivers from Nvidia
OS Windows 11 Windows 11 Windows 11

 

Installation and BIOS

All BIOS settings were at default, with XMP profiles enabled (only for Intel based systems). Graphics resolution set to 1920×1080 (HD 1080p). High or Ultra settings enabled.

ASRock X670E TaichiASRock Z690 TaichiASRock Z790 Taichi

 

CPU-Z Info

AMD Ryzen 9 7900XIntel Core i9-12900KFIntel Core i9-13900K

 

Load Temps

AMD Ryzen 9 7900XIntel Core i9-12900FKIntel Core i9-13900K

 

Benchmarks (Part 1)

I’ll let the numbers do all the talking … 1st column is AMD Ryzen 9 7900X/X670E, 2nd column is Core i9-12900KF/Z690, while the 3rd column is the Core i9-13900/Z790

 

PCMark 10

PCMark 10 is the latest in our series of industry standard PC benchmarks. Updated for Windows 10 with new and improved workloads, PCMark 10 is also faster and easier to use. PCMark 10 features a comprehensive set of tests that cover the wide variety of tasks performed in the modern workplace. With express, extended, and custom run options to suit your needs, PCMark 10 is the complete PC benchmark for the modern office and an ideal choice for organizations that buy PCs in high volumes.

AMD Ryzen 9 7900XIntel Core i9-12900KFIntel Core i9-13900K

 

PassMark 9

Fast, easy to use, PC speed testing and benchmarking. PassMark PerformanceTest allows you to objectively benchmark a PC using a variety of different speed tests and compare the results to other computers.

AMD Ryzen 9 7900XIntel Core i9-12900KFIntel Core i9-13900K

 

3DMark Speed Way

3DMark Speed Way is a graphics card benchmark for testing DirectX 12 Ultimate performance. To run this test, you must have a graphics card that supports DirectX 12 Ultimate and has 6GB or more of video memory.

AMD Ryzen 9 7900XIntel Core i9-12900KFIntel Core i9-13900K

 

 

3DMark – Port Royal (DXR – Ray Tracing)

Port Royal is a graphics card benchmark for testing real-time ray tracing performance. To run this test, you must have a graphics card and drivers that support Microsoft DirectX Raytracing.

AM Ryzen 9 7900XIntel Core i9-12900KFIntel Core i9-13900K

 

Time Spy

3DMark Time Spy is a new DirectX 12 benchmark test for Windows 10 gaming PCs. Time Spy is one of the first DirectX 12 apps to be built “the right way” from the ground up to fully realize the performance gains that the new API offers. With its pure DirectX 12 engine, which supports new API features like asynchronous compute, explicit multi-adapter, and multi-threading, Time Spy is the ideal test for benchmarking the latest graphics cards.

AMD Ryzen 9 7900XIntel Core i9-12900KFIntel Core i9-13900K

 

UL Procyon Photo Editing Benchmark

The UL Procyon Photo Editing Benchmark uses Adobe® Lightroom® Classic and Adobe® Photoshop® in a typical photo editing workflow that includes batch processing and image retouching. Using relevant apps ensures that the benchmark score reflects the real-world performance of the whole system.

AMD Ryzen 9 7900XIntel Core i9-12900KFIntel Core i9-13900K

 

UL Procyon Video Editing Benchmark

The UL Procyon Video Editing Benchmark uses Adobe Premiere Pro in a typical video editing workflow. Using relevant apps ensures that the benchmark score reflects the real-world performance of the whole system.

The benchmark starts by importing two video project files. The project timelines include various edits, adjustments and effects. The second project uses several GPU-accelerated effects.

Each video project is exported in Full HD encoded with H.264 and again in 4K UHD encoded with HEVC (H.265). The benchmark score is based on the time taken to export all four videos.

AMD Ryzen 9 7900XIntel Core i9-12900KFIntel Core i9-13900K

 

AIDA64 Memory Test

This benchmark measures the bandwidth and latency of the CPU caches and the system memory. By double-clicking any rectangle, column or row in the window, we can launch benchmarks or benchmark types individually. For example, if we double-click “Memory”, only system memory read, write, copy and latency benchmarks will be run, that is, only the operations in the given row are executed. Similarly, if we double-click “Read”, only read benchmarks will be run on all memory types, that is, only the operations in the given column are executed. If we double-click any rectangle, only the selected single benchmark will be run.

AMD Ryzen 9 7900XIntel Core i9-12900KFIntel Core i9-13900K

 

Cinebench 

CINEBENCH is a real-world cross platform test suite that evaluates your computer’s performance capabilities. CINEBENCH is based on MAXON’s award-winning animation software Cinema 4D, which is used extensively by studios and production houses worldwide for 3D content creation. MAXON software has been used in blockbuster movies such as Iron Man 3, Oblivion, Life of Pi or Prometheus and many more. CINEBENCH is the perfect tool to compare CPU and graphics performance across various systems and platforms (Windows and OS X).

AMD Ryzen 9 7900XIntel Core i9-12900FKIntel Core i9-13900K

 

HyperPi  

A simple-to-configure and portable software program that helps you calculate the pi value for a given number of digits and perform overclocking operations on multi-core machines.

AMD Ryzen 9 7900XIntel Core i9-12900KFIntel Core i9-13900K

 


 

Verdict and Conclusion

So, what can we say? Well, take a look at the benchmarks above … all 3 systems performed amazingly well, and to be honest, I’ll be happy to have any one of them at any time! The overall performance difference is really marginal. It all basically boils down to whether you want to overclock your CPU and memory (or not) … if so, then go for the Intel, but you’ll need a sufficient and adequate CPU cooler. These Intel processors tend to run quite hot.

When it comes to compatibility and stability … of course, there’s no question Intel is king. They are the standard by which most software developers and hardware manufacturers go by. Mind you, AMD are not far behind. Over the past few years, a lot manufacturers have worked with AMD tirelessly to ensure compatibility and stability.

The other thing which Intel seem to have an advantage over AMD is the superb integrated memory controller. Memory speeds are astounding on the Intel Z690 and Z790 platforms when paired with XMP 3,0 compatible ram. Ram compatibilty is still an issue for AMD platforms.

Oddly, Intel 13th Gen processors does not have AVX-512, but the Ryzen 7000 series will have AVX-512 … this is something I really don’t understand. According to Intel, they said it wasn’t enabled due to the inclusion of two different architectures (E-cores + P-cores). However, some motherboard manufacturers allow users to enable AVX-512 after disabling the E cores in the BIOS.

For gamers and AMD fans (Team RED), the Ryzen 9 7900X offer the best bang for your buck. Costing a mere USD $539, it offers 12 cores/24 threads, not E-cores or P-cores (like Intel). 12 real cores! The new AM5 platform now supports DDR5 ram, PCIE 5.0 for next-gen graphics cards and EXPO memory profiles. What’s more, all of AMD’s new Ryzen 7000 series processors are made from 5nm fabrication process, something Intel is still lacking behind.

In the end, I think all 3 processors offer great performance, so no complaints here. Just choose one based on your budget and needs. Here’s my quick breakdown below.

 

Final Thoughts

Buy the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X if you want …

  • Latest technology (5nm processor)
  • Affordability and Great value for money
  • Speed and performance
  • Gaming
  • Use DDR5 ram + PCIE 5.0

Buy the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X for USD $539 – X670/X670E motherboard recommended (AM5 – LGA1718) – https://amzn.to/3SRdBIp

Buy the Intel Core i9-12900KF, if you want …

  • Use existing DDR4 ram (with compatible motherboard)
  • If you already have an Intel Z690 motherboard
  • Compatibility and stability
  • Speed and performance
  • PCIE 5.0

Buy the Intel Core i9-12900KF for USD $699 – Z690 motherboard or higher recommended (LGA1700) – https://amzn.to/3EqHd9f

Buy the Intel Core i9-13900K, if you want …

  • The latest and the greatest
  • Enthusiast performance
  • Overclocking but no AVX-512
  • Compatibility and stability
  • Use DDR5 ram
  • PCIE 5.0

Buy the Intel Core i9-13900K for USD $720 – Z790 motherboard recommended (LGA1700) – https://amzn.to/3gUmnYV

 

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