LABS TEST / RGB MEMORY KITS
Antony Leather reviews 15 sub-£1,000 CPUs to see whether
AMD or Intel should get your cash
May the cores
be with you
LABS TEST
How we test
T
he CPU landscape includes a huge variety of models, but this
month we’ve focused on sub-£1,000 CPUs that cover three
different CPU sockets. We’re still a way off any major new CPU
launches in 2020, but the current pack have all seen price cuts in recent
months. As a result, now is a great time to work out where your money
should be spent if you’re looking for an upgrade or building a new PC.
Our CPU test systems include an MSI MEG Z390 Ace for Intel
LGA1151 CPUs, an MSI MEG X299 Creation for Intel LGA2066 CPUs
and a Gigabyte X570 Aorus Master for AM4 CPUs. Common test
hardware includes 16GB of Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 3466MHZ
DDR4 memory, a 2TB Samsung 970 Evo SSD and an Nvidia GeForce
RTX 2070 Super graphics card, along with an EKWB Phoenix liquid
cooler and Corsair RM850i PSU.All systems used the latest EFI versions, as well as the latest
version of Windows 10 with security updates installed, as well
as the latest drivers. We record results at both stock speed and
overclocked, and our benchmarks include the CPC RealBench
suite, comprising single-threaded image editing, multi-threaded
video encoding and multi-tasking tests. We also run a timed Adobe
Premiere Pro 4K video project export, as well as Cinebench R20’s
single and multi-threaded tests.
Meanwhile, we test gaming performance using Far Cry New
Dawn and Metro Exodus, recording the 99th percentile minimum
and average frame rates. Finally, we also measure the total system
power consumption while idle and under load, running Prime95’s
smallfft test with AVX disabled to load each CPU.Contents
Intel Core i3-9350KF / p41
Intel Core i5-9400F / p42 AMD Ryzen 5 3600 / p43
Intel Core i5-9600K / p44 AMD Ryzen 5 3600X/ p46
AMD Ryzen 7 3700X / p47AMD Ryzen 7 3800X / p48
Intel Core i7-9700K/ p50
AMD Ryzen 9 3900X / p51
Intel Core i9-9900KF / p52 Intel Core i9-10900X / p53
Intel Core i9-9900KS / p54 AMD Ryzen 9 3950X / p55
Intel Core i9-10920X / p56Intel Core i9-10940X / p57
Results graphs / p58
LABS TEST / PROCESSORS
AntonyLeatherreviews 15 sub-£1,000 CPUs to see whether
AMDorIntelshouldgetyour cash
May the cores
be with you
LABS TEST
Howwe test
T
he CPU landscape includes a huge variety of models, but this
month we’ve focused on sub-£1,000 CPUs that cover three
different CPU sockets. We’re still a way off any major new CPU
launches in 2020, but the current pack have all seen price cuts in recent
months. As a result, now is a great time to work out where your money
should be spent if you’re looking for an upgrade or building a new PC.
Our CPU test systems include an MSI MEG Z390 Ace for Intel
LGA1151 CPUs, an MSI MEG X299 Creation for Intel LGA2066 CPUs
and a Gigabyte X570 Aorus Master for AM4 CPUs. Common test
hardware includes 16GB of Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 3466MHZ
DDR4 memory, a 2TB Samsung 970 Evo SSD and an Nvidia GeForce
RTX 2070 Super graphics card, along with an EKWB Phoenix liquid
cooler and Corsair RM850i PSU.
All systems used the latest EFI versions, as well as the latest
version of Windows 10 with security updates installed, as well
as the latest drivers. We record results at both stock speed and
overclocked, and our benchmarks include the CPC RealBench
suite, comprising single-threaded image editing, multi-threaded
video encoding and multi-tasking tests. We also run a timed Adobe
Premiere Pro 4K video project export, as well as Cinebench R20’s
single and multi-threaded tests.
Meanwhile, we test gaming performance using Far Cry New
Dawn and Metro Exodus, recording the 99th percentile minimum
and average frame rates. Finally, we also measure the total system
power consumption while idle and under load, running Prime95’s
smallfft test with AVX disabled to load each CPU.Contents
Intel Core i3-9350KF / p41
Intel Core i5-9400F / p42
AMD Ryzen 5 3600 / p43
Intel Core i5-9600K / p44
AMD Ryzen 5 3600X/ p46
AMD Ryzen 7 3700X / p47
AMD Ryzen 7 3800X / p48
Intel Core i7-9700K/ p50
AMD Ryzen 9 3900X / p51
Intel Core i9-9900KF / p52 Intel Core i9-10900X / p53
Intel Core i9-9900KS / p54 AMD Ryzen 9 3950X / p55
Intel Core i9-10920X / p56Intel Core i9-10940X / p57
Results graphs / p58
LABS TEST / PROCESSORS