AMD has earned praises for its third-generation Ryzen processors, and even it's direct rival Intel commended the company's efforts. But it doesn't mean Intel has conceded defeat, as their positive comments came with a proclamation that its CPUs are still best for gaming.
"A year ago when we introduced the i9-9900K, it was dubbed the fastest gaming CPU in the world. And I can honestly say nothing's changed," Intel's Troy Severson said at Gamescom. "It's still the fastest gaming CPU in the world."
While it's natural for companies to hail its own products as the best there is, what made Intel's statements quite memorable is that it mentioned AMD. Severson said that while AMD has done an excellent job in "closing the gap," Intel still has the "highest performing CPUs in the industry for gaming."
Both the Ryzen 9 3900X and Core i9-9900K cost around $500, so comparing these two against each other is fair. PCGamer conducted a testing and found that Intel's is indeed faster when it comes to gaming, but "it really only matters if you're running at 1080p ultra with an RTX 2080 Ti." If you drop down to a slower GPU or crank up the resolution, that gap actually shrinks.
It's not surprising why Severson made no mention of costs or value or the fact that you have to spend $500 on a CPU. However, it's clear that Intel is on the defensive, and it should be. AMD'S third-gen Ryzen family is indeed remarkable. This extends to the chipset level as well, with X570 motherboards supporting PCI Express 4.0, paving the way for incredibly fast solid-state drives.
Tech spectators know that Intel feels it has to stand its ground as king when it comes to processors. Following AMD's launch of its Ryzen 3000-series, Intel fired back with releasing its own benchmarks that compared Ryzen 9 3900X to the Intel Core i7-9700K.
The company showed the comparisons by way of a slideshow, which featured its chips acing most categories. The benchmarks include WebXPRT, MobileMark, SYSmark, and 16 video game titles.
The event also saw Intel showcase its Intel Performance Maximizer tool, which will automatically overclock unlocked 9th generation Intel Core processors for an easy boost to performance.
It's great Intel gave AMD the kudos it deserves, but not so much to the point of calling it's rival better. Intel has all the bragging rights, but in the end, we all know that AMD is putting pressure on them. But then again, Intel likes it when it is challenged.
