Intel Core i7-11700K records blistering single-core performance on Geekbench, 28% over the i9-10900K, but don't toss your AMD Ryzen 9 5950X away just yet

A very impressive Rocket Lake chip in the form of the Intel Core i7-11700K has been spotted recording high scores on Geekbench 5.3. In two separate tests that both utilized the Z490 Aorus Master board and 32 GB RAM, the i7-11700K pulled out single-core scores of 1,807 and 1,810 points and multi-core results of 10,673 and 11,304 points. The Intel Core i7-11700K uses 8 cores and 16 threads and has clock rates that go from 3.60 GHz to 5.0 GHz.

It’s a great performance by the i7-11700K (manufactured on a 14 nm process), which stands up well against the previous-generation Comet Lake chips. The maximum we recorded in a test with the powerful 10-core, 20-thread i9-10900K was 1,449 points and 11,414 points, respectively. While the two extra cores deliver a similar multi-core performance, the single-core result for the Intel Core i7-11700K is +24.9% ahead, and this goes up to +28.8% if using Geekbench’s average score of 1,405 points for the older Comet Lake CPU.

An in-house generational improvement is to be expected, but what about against the competition? Strangely, some have been tolling the death knell for AMD’s Ryzen 7 5800X and Ryzen 9 5950X chips based on these benchmark results for the i7-11700K. Where the scores are certainly competitive, Intel has nearly always been stronger in single-core tests. Using our test results (see below), the Rocket Lake chip is +8.71% over the Ryzen 7 5800X and +7.61% over the Ryzen 9 5950X when it comes to those single-core comparisons. Time to throw the Vermeer chips away and announce defeat for Zen 3 then?

That would be discounting the multi-core scores and the power draw (Intel’s SKUs are going to be power-hungry), among other things. The Ryzen 7 5800X is still slightly better than the i7-11700K with multi-core benchmarks, and it is also an 8-core chip. The Ryzen 9 5950X with its 16 cores is up to +49.42% over the Rocket Lake chip in multi-core processing, as it should be with twice the cores. There is no denying that the Intel Core i7-11700K is a decent part, and its existence might help drive down Zen 3 processor prices, but this is still Intel’s next-generation of chips competing with AMD’s last generation.

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