AMD Ryzen 9 3900X vs Intel Core i7-11700K

Ryzen 9 3900X vs Core i7-11700K comparison

Our benchmark analysis concludes that the Ryzen 9 3900X performs better than the Core i7-11700K. Despite this, the Core i7-11700K has the advantage in our gaming benchmark.

When comparing core counts for these CPUs, we notice that the Ryzen 9 3900X has significantly more cores with 12 cores compared to the Core i7-11700K that has 8 cores. It also has more threads than the Core i7-11700K. These CPUs have different clock speeds. Indeed, the Ryzen 9 3900X has a slightly higher clock speed compared to the Core i7-11700K. Despite this, the Core i7-11700K has a slightly higher turbo speed. A Ryzen 9 3900X CPU outputs less heat than a Core i7-11700K CPU because of its slightly lower TDP. This measures the amount of heat they output and can be used to estimate power consumption. In terms of cache, the Ryzen 9 3900X has significantly more L2 cache when compared to the Core i7-11700K. The Ryzen 9 3900X also has significantly more L3 cache.

Most CPUs have more threads than cores. This technology, colloquially called hyperthreading, improves performance by splitting a core into multiple virtual ones. This provides more efficient utilisation of a core. Indeed, the Ryzen 9 3900X has more threads than cores. Each physical core is split into multiple threads.