A new set of benchmarks for the Intel Core i9-10900K has surfaced on Twitter running the 3DMark Firestrike and Time Spy tests. The Core i9-10900K scored 28462 on the Firestrike physics test and 13142 on the Time Spy CPU test. Posted alongside these scores are the scores for the AMD Ryzen R9 3900X, showing a Firestrike test score of 27137 and a Time Spy score of 12624. The obvious conclusion is that the as yet unreleased Intel flagship is a shade faster on these tests than the already released AMD CPU, which might well be its direct competitor.
The source for this increase in speed appears to be, as mentioned before, the work that Intel has done in the field of cramming quite immense amounts of power through their 14nm CPUs. On the one hand you have to applaud Intel for getting this sort of performance out of hardware that is demonstrably not as efficient as the AMD line up, but on the other hand you have to wonder if maybe there is a case for easing down a shade. Ideally before the reference cooler has to be a jug of liquid nitrogen.
With the Ryzen 4000 CPUs looming large this year it is understandable that Intel are throwing caution to the winds, but unless they can change the laws of physics there’s not much further they can go.