Intel criticizes Core i9-9900K test that puts AMD processors at a disadvantage – update

Intel has been criticized on the internet for paid testing with performance claims about the new Core i9-9900K. The tests used settings that cause AMD’s processors to perform worse. Intel stands behind the test.

Intel turned to Principled Technologies for benchmarks of the Core i9-9900K, and PCGamesN, among others, took the results for an article titled “Intel’s Core i9 9900K is up to 50% faster than AMD’s Ryzen 7 2700X in games.” Hardware Unboxed took a closer look at the way it was tested and found that the test method was very much against AMD. The YouTube publication calls the claims “misleading.”

Principled Technologies did not enable an XMP memory profile on the AMD systems, which negatively affects the performance of the Ryzen chips. On the Intel systems, XMP was enabled and the memory settings were adjusted manually. Additionally, Hardware Unboxed complains that it only tested at 1080p and that Game Mode seems enabled on both the Ryzen and Threadripper systems, while Ryzen suffers from poorer performance as it disables half of the cores.

In the paid test, the Intel Core i7-8700K scored 29 percent higher than the Ryzen 7 2700X in the Ashes of the Singularity test. With Hardware Unboxed, the difference was only 4 percent and 9 percent with higher memory speeds. Also in other games, the performance differences between the Intel and AMD processors were much smaller than in the Principled Technologies tests. Independent reviews of the Core i9 9900K are awaited, but it seems very unlikely that the performance difference compared to the much cheaper Ryzen 7 2700X will be in the direction of 50 percent.

PCGamesN has since amended its article to state that the results are in doubt. Intel remains behind the results despite the criticism, according to the company’s response to Tom’s Hardware: “The data is consistent with what we’ve seen in our lab and we look forward to seeing third-party results in the coming weeks. “

Update, 11.55: Comment Intel added and approach adjusted accordingly.

Benchmark results at Ashes of the Singularity from Principled Technologies and Hardware Unboxed.