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Different motherboard same result: Intel Core i9-10900K chip's latest Geekbench multi-core score still can't surpass AMD's Ryzen 9 3900X

The Comet Lake-S Intel Core i9-10900K has been seen on various benchmarks lately. (Image source: HardZone)
The Comet Lake-S Intel Core i9-10900K has been seen on various benchmarks lately. (Image source: HardZone)
The upcoming Intel Core i9-10900K processor has been spotted speeding along on Geekbench 5, reaching a maximum frequency of 5.08 GHz. The Comet Lake chip in combination with an MSI Z490-S01 motherboard racked up a very strong single-core score but still stuttered behind the AMD Ryzen 9 3900X in the multi-core test.

Different motherboard same result: The Intel Core i9-10900K processor managed to outperform the AMD Ryzen 9 3900X in the latest Geekbench 5 single-core run unearthed by Tum Apisak but still couldn’t match the Matisse chip when it came to the multi-core benchmark (see table below for scores). This time, the Comet Lake part was used with an MSI Z490-S01 (MS-7C98) motherboard, whereas in our last report on the subject there was an ASRock Z490M Pro4 board being utilized. As the MSI Z390-A Pro had the model code 7B98 and the MSI Z370 Godlike had the model code 7A98, this MSI Z490 board could be a successor to either of those two MSI parts.

Of course, it is worth reiterating that the Ryzen 9 3900X does have a core-count advantage and AMD chips are known for performing at a higher level than Intel parts in multi-core benchmarks. The Intel Core i9-10900K is a 10-core, 20-thread processor whereas the Ryzen 9 3900X has 12 cores and 24 threads. But the Comet Lake desktop processor has a higher TDP, and it has higher clock rates and can boost to 4.8 GHz on all cores. The turbo clock for the AMD chip is 4.6 GHz.

The 5 GHz and above clock rate will certainly be an attractive feature of the top-end parts in Intel’s upcoming series of Comet Lake-S desktop processors, but it will take more than that to wrench customers away from AMD’s tempting series of Matisse CPUs if the performance is too similar (or even less) and the price difference is too great. Newegg is currently selling the Ryzen 9 3900X for US$449.99, whereas the i9-10900K is expected to cost around US$562. Even if Intel ignores that particular detail, there’s still the matter of AMD’s Zen 3 Vermeer processors waiting in the wings to spoil the end of year party for Team Blue.

Intel Core i9-10900K AMD Ryzen 9 3900X
Cores/threads/TDP 10/20/125 W 12/24/105 W
Single-core score 1,408 points 1,278 points
Multi-core score 11,296 points 12,113 points
Intel Core i9-10900K. (Image source: Geekbench)
Intel Core i9-10900K. (Image source: Geekbench)
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> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > News > News Archive > Newsarchive 2020 04 > Different motherboard same result: Intel Core i9-10900K chip's latest Geekbench multi-core score still can't surpass AMD's Ryzen 9 3900X
Daniel R Deakin, 2020-04-10 (Update: 2020-04-10)