PC World - USA (2020-12)

DECEMBER 2020 PCWorld 45

performance, it’s still been able to say
truthfully: “Core i9 is better for gaming.”
There’s obviously a lot of nuance to that
statement, but we’ve generally agreed that
when paired with the fastest GPU and a
high-refresh rate panel—Core i9 is indeed the
better gaming CPU.
Until today. Although the wins aren’t as
disruptive everywhere else, we do think
there is a clear case for AMD’s claims that the
Zen 3-based Ryzen chips are the “best
gaming CPUs.”
For our gaming section we tested at
1920x1080 resolution, with both PC’s

outfitted with Nvidia Founders Edition

GeForce RTX 2080 Ti cards using the same

drivers. Unlike the previous tests, where we

sorted the results by winner, we kept all of our

gaming charts ordered by: Ryzen 9 3900XT,

Ryzen 9 5900X, Ryzen 9 5900X, and Core

i9-10900K. We exclude previous results,

because graphics drivers and game updates

make it unfair to compare.

First we’ll kick it off with Deus Ex: Mankind

Divided set to High. If you look at the chart

and pretend not to see the newest AMD

CPUs, you’ll see the familiar lead that Intel has

long had in gaming. With this game set to

High rather than Ultra, the test becomes less

GPU-bound, and you see that typical

20-percent performance advantage that Intel

CPUs have long enjoyed over AMD CPUs.

Now there’s Ryzen 5000, where we see

both Zen 3 chips essentially within the margin

of error. While we’re really “only” talking

about a 2- to 3-percent performance

difference between the Ryzen 9 and Core i9,

it’s far better than the usual 10- to 20-percent

Far Cry New Dawn

RTX 2080 Ti 19x10 Nomal; frames per second

Ryzen 9 5900X Vermeer 16/32

Ryzen 9 5950X Vermeer 16/32

Core i9-10900K Comet Lake S10/20

Ryzen 9 3900XT Matisse 12/24

LONGER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE

152

14 4

150

126

Red Dead Redemption II

RTX 2080 Ti 19x10 Ultra; frames per second

Ryzen 9 3900XT Matisse 12/24

Ryzen 9 5950X Vermeer 16/32

Ryzen 9 5900X Vermeer 12/24

Core i9-10900K Comet Lake S10/20

LONGER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE

100.5

10 0.1

100.5

89.3

Counter Strike: GO

RTX 2080 Ti 19x10 Workshop; frames per sec

Ryzen 9 5900X Vermeer 12/24

Ryzen 9 5950X Vermeer 16/32

Core i9-10900K Comet Lake S10/20

Ryzen 9 3900XT Matisse 12/24

LONGER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE

585

569

581.4

520.9