New Intel Rocket Lake PassMark single-thread results present mixed fortunes against AMD Ryzen 5000 leaving a heavy burden for Alder Lake

A few more Rocket Lake processors have been peppering the CPU Mark single-thread performance chart from PassMark, which is still headed by the Intel Core i9-11900K (just). The i9-11900KF (no iGPU) has come up with a decent mark to place in third on 3,570 points, but it is tucked in behind the Apple M1 8-core silicon that has been providing Intel and AMD with such a headache on this particular benchmark lately.

Looking further down the table reveals the i7-11700KF, which joins the now practically veteran i7-11700K to take up seventh and eighth positions, respectively. However, these upper-end Rocket Lake parts are below the Ryzen 9 5900X and 5950X processors and the Ryzen 7 5800X, although there is only 18 points separating the five CPUs. With more samples being tested, the scores should settle, showing whether Intel has cemented its usual single-thread performance superiority or if AMD's Zen 3 really has shaken things up in this sphere.

Cheaper Rocket Lake SKUs, the Intel Core i5-11600K, i5-11500, and i5-11400F, languish further down the chart. While they have so far failed to overtake the lower-specced Vermeer contenders Ryzen 7 5800 (OEM-only part) and Ryzen 5 5600X, the first two chips mentioned above are at least ahead of Comet Lake’s best. Both the i5-11600K and more impressively the i5-11500 with its modest 2.7 GHz base clock have managed to outscore the i9-10900K here.

It’s a so-so Rocket Lake result though. Apple’s M1 is even threatening for first place while AMD breaks the rules by producing Ryzen 5000 processors that outperform rivals in single-core and multi-core workloads. This is creating quite a burden for the upcoming Alder Lake hybrid processors, which are being manufactured on a 10nm process and feature new Golden Cove and Gracemont core architectures. With PCIe 5.0 support, DDR5 support, and a big socket change with LGA 1700, Alder Lake has a lot of promise and could keep AMD’s Warhol series at bay – until Zen 4 comes along and likely ruins Team Blue’s party again.

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