12 core Intel Core i9-10920X edges the AMD Ryzen 9 3900X in Geekbench; scores 22% more than the Threadripper 2920X in multicore workloads too but at likely 3x the price

Another week, another Cascade Lake-X (CL-X) related leak. We have already reported on the Core i9-10980XE and Core i9-10900X appearing on Geekbench in a Dell Precision 5820 Tower X-Series desktop, and now the Core i9-10920X has done the same. The 12 core and Hyper-Threaded processor identifies as a GenuineIntel Family 6 Model 85 Stepping 7, the same identifier used for all previous CL-X SKUs that have appeared online.

Geekbench reports that the Core i9-10920X has a Skylake-X 07 northbridge and an X299 southbridge, the same chipset reported in previous CL-X leaks. The CPU clocked between 2.77 and 3.8 GHz, which is rather low for an Intel High-End Desktop (HEDT) processor. By contrast, the Core i9-9920X has a 3.5 GHz base clock and can boost up to 4.4 GHz, suggesting that we are looking at a Core i9-10920X engineering sample. Hence, we expect retail units to have higher clock speeds than the Core i9-10920X on show here. A recent tip by @momomo_US corroborates this, with it stating that Core i9-10920X retail units will have a 3.5 GHz base clock like the Core i9-9920X.

While the performance of this engineering sample probably does not reflect what retail versions will achieve, it already outperforms both the AMD Ryzen 9 3900X and Threadripper 2920X in the multi-core benchmark. The latter falls around 22% short of the Core i9-10920X according to our database, although we expect its Zen 2 successor to make strikes in multicore performance.

However, Intel HEDT processors are significantly more expensive than their AMD counterparts. Intel prices the Core i9-9920X at between US$1,189 and US$1,199 for bulk orderers, for example, so we expect the company to price the Core i9-10920X similarly. By contrast, the Threadripper 2920X currently sells for US$373.48 on Amazon.com, with a US$649 list price. So, while the Threadripper 2920X and Core i9-10920X are both 12 core HEDT chips, the latter will likely cost almost three times as much as the former. By current estimates then, the Core i9-10920X will offer better performance, but comparable Threadripper processors will be leagues better value for money.