AMD Ryzen 9 9950X vs Intel Core i9-14900K Comparison

When AMD announced the world’s fastest consumer processor in June 2024, it received a lot of excitement The new Ryzen 9000 series of processor not only feature their latest Zen 5 and 4nm achitecture, true 16-Cores/32-Threads, 64 MB L3 cache, but also runs a lot cooler. Furthermore, these new processors works straight up on existing X670E , X670 , B650E , B650 motherboards with a simple BIOS update. No need to change your motherboard!

But of course, to take full advantage of these new technologies offered by the Ryzen 9000 series of processors, AMD’s board partners will be releasing their new X870E and X870 motherboards from 30th September). These new X870E and X870 motherboards will also offer new features such as support USB4, WiFi 7, 5GB LAN, higher memory speeds as well as XMP and EXPO memory support.

It is truly an exciting time for a lot of consumers including gamers, streamers and content creators.

With some many new and exciting announcements, AMD seems to be on the up-and-up, while Intel on the other hand are in trouble (organizationally). With disappointing sales, lack of new products and losing market share to Nvidia and AMD, their shares have dropped more than 30% in 2nd quarter of 2024 alone. but who knows … Intel may come back with a new product that could be a game changer.

Anyway, let’s get back to our comparison between the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X versus Intel Core i9-14900K. We’re going to do a quick comparison of the performance of these processors. So let’s begin …

Quick Comparison

	Core i9-14900K	Ryzen 9 9950X
Generation (Code Name)	14th Gen (Raptor Lake-S)	Zen 5 – Granite Ridge
Cores	24 (8 Performance-cores/16 Efficient-cores)	16
Threads	32	32
Default Base clock rate	4.4 GHz	4.3 GHz
Max Turbo Boost	5.8 GHz	5.7 GHz
Fabrication Process	10 nm	4nm
Cache L2	36 MB	16MB
Integrated Video	Intel® UHD Graphics 770	Radeon Graphics
TDP	125W Turbo: 253W	170W
Socket Type	LGA1700	LGA1718 (AM5)
PCIe/DDR support	PCIe 5.0 / DDR5	PCIe 5.0 / DDR5
Current Price from Amazon (Oct 2022)	USD $577	USD $625

Network Diagram

Test Rig

We prepared 3 test rigs with the configuration as per below.

Installation and BIOS

All BIOS settings were at default, with XMP profiles enabled (only for Intel based systems). Graphics resolution set to 1920×1080 (HD 1080p). High or Ultra settings enabled.

CPU-Z Info

Load Temps

Surprisingly, the Rzyen 9 9950X ran at much lower temperature than we expected, even though its official TDP was 170W compared to Intel’s TPD of 125W.

Benchmarks (Part 1)

I’ll let the numbers do all the talking … 1st column shows the Intel Core i9-14900K on a Z790 motherboard, while the 2nd column shows the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X on a X870E motherboard.

AIDA64 Memory Test

This benchmark measures the bandwidth and latency of the CPU caches and the system memory. By double-clicking any rectangle, column or row in the window, we can launch benchmarks or benchmark types individually. For example, if we double-click “Memory”, only system memory read, write, copy and latency benchmarks will be run, that is, only the operations in the given row are executed. Similarly, if we double-click “Read”, only read benchmarks will be run on all memory types, that is, only the operations in the given column are executed. If we double-click any rectangle, only the selected single benchmark will be run.

PassMark 11

Fast, easy to use, PC speed testing and benchmarking. PassMark PerformanceTest allows you to objectively benchmark a PC using a variety of different speed tests and compare the results to other computers.

HyperPi  

A simple-to-configure and portable software program that helps you calculate the pi value for a given number of digits and perform overclocking operations on multi-core machines.

PCMark 10

PCMark 10 is the latest in our series of industry standard PC benchmarks. Updated for Windows 10 with new and improved workloads, PCMark 10 is also faster and easier to use. PCMark 10 features a comprehensive set of tests that cover the wide variety of tasks performed in the modern workplace. With express, extended, and custom run options to suit your needs, PCMark 10 is the complete PC benchmark for the modern office and an ideal choice for organizations that buy PCs in high volumes.

Steel Nomad (High-end Gaming Benchmark)

3DMark Steel Nomad is a cross-platform, non-raytraced benchmark for high-end gaming PCs. It uses the DirectX 12 API by default on Windows. In Explorer mode, you can freely explore the scene and change rendering settings.

Your device must have at least 6GB of video memory to run this test. Systems with Integrated GPUs need 16 GB total system RAM.

3DMark Speed Way

3DMark Speed Way is a graphics card benchmark for testing DirectX 12 Ultimate performance. To run this test, you must have a graphics card that supports DirectX 12 Ultimate and has 6GB or more of video memory.

3DMark – Port Royal (DXR – Ray Tracing)

Port Royal is a graphics card benchmark for testing real-time ray tracing performance. To run this test, you must have a graphics card and drivers that support Microsoft DirectX Raytracing.

Time Spy

3DMark Time Spy is a new DirectX 12 benchmark test for Windows 10 gaming PCs. Time Spy is one of the first DirectX 12 apps to be built “the right way” from the ground up to fully realize the performance gains that the new API offers. With its pure DirectX 12 engine, which supports new API features like asynchronous compute, explicit multi-adapter, and multi-threading, Time Spy is the ideal test for benchmarking the latest graphics cards.

UL Procyon Video Editing Benchmark

The UL Procyon Video Editing Benchmark uses Adobe Premiere Pro in a typical video editing workflow. Using relevant apps ensures that the benchmark score reflects the real-world performance of the whole system.

The benchmark starts by importing two video project files. The project timelines include various edits, adjustments and effects. The second project uses several GPU-accelerated effects.

Each video project is exported in Full HD encoded with H.264 and again in 4K UHD encoded with HEVC (H.265). The benchmark score is based on the time taken to export all four videos.

UL Procyon AI Computer Vision Benchmark

Windows Machine Learning (Windows ML) is an API developed by Microsoft enabling high-performance AI inferences on Windows devices. Windows ML lets app developers write standard code that guarantees highly optimized AI inference performance across different hardware such as CPUs, GPUs and AI Accelerators by handling hardware abstraction.

Microsoft Windows ML hardware acceleration is built on top of DirectML, a low-level DirectX 12 library suitable for high-performance, low-latency applications such as frameworks, games, or machine learning inferencing workloads.

 

Cinebench 2024

Cinebench 2024 utilizes the power of Redshift, Cinema 4D’s default rendering engine, to evaluate your computer’s CPU and GPU capabilities. Cinebench 2024 is designed to accommodate a broad range of hardware configurations – while it seamlessly supports x86/64 architecture (Intel/AMD) on Windows and macOS, it also extends its reach to Apple Silicon on macOS and Arm64 CPUs on Windows, ensuring compatibility with the latest advancements in hardware technology. Additionally, Cinebench 2024 streamlines the benchmarking process by utilizing a consistent scene file for both CPU and GPU testing.

Geekbench 6 CPU 

Geekbench 6 is a cross-platform benchmark that measures your system’s performance with the press of a button. In Geekbench 6, new tests measure performance in popular application areas, including Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality, and Machine Learning, so you’ll know how close your device is to the cutting edge.

Verdict and Conclusion

So is it true? Is the Ryzen 9 9950X the world’s fastest consumer processor in 2024? Well, looking at the results from the benchmarks … I have to say yes. Now I’m no technical expert, but I do see an improvement over the Intel Core i9-14900K, which is now about a year old (officially launched Oct, 2023). Having said that, the Intel Core i9-14900K is still a very good processor and no slouch either. In fact, I have one in my current  PC to do all my video and rendering work.

Both systems performed amazingly well in all of our benchmarks, and to be honest, I wouldn’t mind owning either one of these systems. Yes, the numbers from the result do show that the Ryzen 9 9950X beats the Intel Core i9-14900K, but the difference was only marginal. And if you ask me if there were any “seeable” differences between the two … then the answer is no.

One thing to note, is that Intel seem to have a slight advantage over AMD with its memory speeds. Thanks to Intel’s highly efficient integrated memory controller, it is still king, when it comes to memory read/write/copy performance. That said, AMD isn’t far off, with the added support for both XMP and EXPO memory, ram compatibilty issues are slowly being addressed on AMD platforms.

There is one thing which I found quite odd. Looking at the CPUZ screenshot, Intel ‘s 14th Gen processors (still using 10nm architecture) does not have AVX-512, but the Ryzen 9000 series (which uses the latest 4nm architecture) does have AVX-512. According to Intel, they said it wasn’t enabled due to the inclusion of two different architectures (E-cores + P-cores). However, some motherboard manufacturers allow users to enable AVX-512 after disabling the E cores in the BIOS.

When it comes to thermals … The Ryzen 9 9950X wins, even with a high TDP of 170W. At full load, temperatures reach a high of only 93 degrees Celsius, with an average of only 88-91 degrees Celsius. For the Intel Core i9-14900K however, with a TDP of 125W (323W Turbo Boost), load temperatures constantly reach a high of 100 degrees Celsius. Which ever processor you decide to go with, we highly recommend you install a 360 AIO cooler.

So it is a WIN for Team RED (AMD)?  Well, for most high-end users and gaming enthusiasts, the Ryzen 9 9950X is currently the world’s fastest consumer processor from AMD. It comes with true 16-Cores/32-Threads, uses Zen 5 and 4nm achitecture and costs only USD $625. It works on all existing X670E , X670 , B650E , B650, and of course the latest X870/X870E motherboards, plus it supports both XMP and EXPO memory profiles.

Unless Intel comes up with something soon (Q4, 2024), the crown belongs to AMD right now … for the world’s fastest consumer processor.

So here’s my final thoughts … Whether you’re a gamer, streamer or content creator, both processors offer great performance, so no complaints here. Just choose one based on your budget and needs. Here’s my quick breakdown below.

Quick Breakdown

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