Alleged CPU-Z single-core benchmark scores place Intel Sunny Cove CPUs above more-powerful AMD Matisse processors

A somewhat dubious but still interesting image of CPU-Z single-core benchmarks has made its way online thanks to a user on a Chinese social network. The information it contains will make happy reading for executives at Intel while their AMD counterparts might be taken aback by some of the apparent surprising results, or they might just ignore it as a likely example of online trickery.

Hiding in the mix of Coffee Lake, Skylake, and Kaby Lake-X processors, is an unnamed 8-core Comet Lake ES that is measured at a clock rate of 5.2 GHz, and this mysterious chip manages to score 640 points in the benchmark. However, the comparison between Sunny Cove and Matisse is arguably more interesting. Intel processors with Sunny Cove cores manage to outscore AMD’s Matisse Ryzen CPUs even though the latter run at considerably higher clock rates.

At the top of the Sunny Cove vs. Matisse section of the table is the i7-1065G7, which scores 639 @3.7 GHz. Just underneath that Intel processor is the Ryzen 7 3800X on a tally of 635 points, but that chip operates at a much higher clock rate of 4.7 GHz. Of course, these results need to be taken with a healthy dose of skepticism, but they certainly make Intel’s mobile products look impressive. Another mysterious Intel CPU, an apparent 6-core Sunny Cove ES that can utilize 12 threads, also scores above a Ryzen 3000 opponent with a higher clock. The Intel engineering sample scores 630 @3.6 GHz while the Ryzen 7 3700X pumps out 622 @4.6 GHz.

The overall general picture that can be taken from this rumored CPU-Z single-core benchmark snapshot is that Intel has certainly delivered on the 18% Instructions Per Cycle (IPC) improvement that was claimed during the chip-maker's Sunny Cove/Ice Lake reveal at Computex (if the benchmark scores are genuine). However, looking at the bottom of the leaked table shows an entry for an “AMD Pinncale Ryzen 7 2700X” – which could be taken as a simple CPU-Z user misspelling of “Pinnacle” (Ridge) or evidence of benchmark forgery.