CPU Benchmarks and Hierarchy 2021: Intel and AMD Processors Ranked

Our CPU benchmarks performance hierarchy ranks all the current and previous generation Intel and AMD processors, including all of the Best CPUs for Gaming, based on performance. Your CPU has a huge effect on overall performance and, to many, is a computer's most important component. CPU benchmarks help us sort out the differences, but when it comes time to buy a CPU for your desktop, you'll find a dizzying collection of model numbers and specs from both Intel and AMD

We've listed the best CPUs for gaming and best processors for workstations in other articles, but if you want to know how each chip stacks up against all the others and how we come to our decisions, this CPU benchmarks hierarchy is for you. If you're looking for a broader view of the current state of the market, head to our AMD vs Intel feature. We also have an article covering CPU performance in Cyberpunk 2077.

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If you're looking for the fastest gaming chip on the market, Intel's Alder Lake chips have taken the crown from AMD in convincing fashion. The Intel Core i9-12900K and Core i5-12600K are quite the combo, with the 12900K taking the absolute performance crown while the 12600K slots in as the new mainstream gaming champion. Meanwhile, the Core i7-12700K slots in the middle of those two bookends, providing stellar performance for its price point. In fact, this chip delivers the same gaming performance as the flagship 12900K, making it the high-performance value chip to beat.  

AMD has been quiet lately as we wait for its 3D V-Cache-equipped chips to land early next year with a claimed 15% gain in gaming performance. AMD will need it to fend off the Alder Lake challengers. In the meantime, AMD has bulked up its Ryzen 50009 lineup with the Ryzen 5000G 'Cezanne' APUs, with the Ryzen 7 5700G and Ryzen 5 5600G leading the charge. These chips' strong integrated graphics could be a godsend to gamers looking to sit out the GPU shortage, provided they keep their expectations in check. We also recently reviewed the Ryzen 3 5300G that isn't available at retail yet, so you can see how it stacks up in our rankings below. We're not sure if AMD will bring this chip to market in the near future, but there is a chance that we could see it on store shelves. We've added a new integrated graphics CPU benchmark ranking so you can see how they stack up relative to prior-gen AMD chips and Intel's lineup. These new chips build on AMD's resounding success with its Zen 3 architecture. We have the full Ryzen 5000 lineup in our CPU benchmarks, including the Ryzen 5 5600X, Ryzen 9 5950X, 5900X, and Ryzen 7 5800X, along with all of the previous-gen Zen 3, Zen+, and Zen 1 versions of those chips. If you want to see Intel and AMD's most important models square off head-to-head in our CPU benchmarks, check out these articles:

• Intel Core i9-12900K vs Ryzen 9 5900X and 5950X: Alder Lake and Ryzen 5000 Face Off
• Intel Core i5-12600K vs AMD Ryzen 5 5600X and 5800X Face Off: Ryzen Has Fallen
• AMD Ryzen 9 5900X vs Intel Core i9-11900K
• AMD Ryzen 7 5800X vs Intel Core i7-11700K
• AMD Ryzen 5 5600X vs Intel Core i5-11600K
• Intel Core i5-11400 vs AMD Ryzen 5 3600

We'll explain how we ranked the processors under each table. The game testing ranking is first. We also include an application performance metric in our application score tables, which we've split up into single- and multi-threaded measurements (below gaming table). The most powerful chip gets a 100, and all others are scored relative to it. If you want our recommendations for specific price bands, please check out our Best CPUs for Gaming.

Intel Alder Lake vs Ryzen 5000 CPU Benchmarks - Windows 11

Here are the current rankings for the Alder Lake chips compared to the Ryzen 5000 lineup in Windows 11, along with DDR4 vs DDR5 benchmarks. We have also incorporated these results into our broader selection of tests below for Windows 10, so refer to those charts for a greater historical perspective. However, Intel's Alder Lake processors are the fastest in all metrics, be it gaming, single- or multi-threaded work, in Windows 11. The chips are still ultra-competitive in Windows 10, but do lose some of the larger advantages in a few key apps, which impacts its ranking in Windows 10. 

CPU Benchmarks and Performance Hierarchy Charts - Windows 10

We conducted these tests in Windows 10, which penalizes the 12th-Gen Intel scores. This is because Windows 10 doesn't target threads at the correct cores with the precision that we see in Windows 11. You can see the Windows 11 results in the album in the first album in the article.

We rank all the Intel and AMD processors in the tables below, but we don't include overclocked performance or 99th percentile fps rankings. You can see all of those numbers in the charts above. We've also added separate charts for integrated graphics testing.

Bear in mind that the charts above use the raw performance numbers, whereas our CPU benchmarks rankings below use a score to rank the chips relative to one another. Admittedly, the charts are getting a bit packed as we expand our rankings pool, but we'll work to separate this out into different classes as our CPU benchmarks database grows.

Intel and AMD Gaming CPU Benchmarks Hierarchy 

*indicates an APU tested with a discrete GPU. Note: These types of processors are geared for performance with integrated graphics - please see individual reviews or our section below for those performance rankings.

We've ranked all the consumer Intel 12th, 11th, 10th, 9th, 8th, and 7th Gen processors, along with AMD's Ryzen and Threadripper chips from all four generations. We have two rankings for each chip, based on 1080p and 1440p CPU gaming benchmarks. We conducted these tests in Windows 10 for compatibility purposes. You can see how the Windows 11 hierarchy looks in the slide show further above.

The chart is aligned sequentially based on the 1080p game results, but the 1440p listings aren't listed in sequential order due to the unfortunate limitations with our tables. Pay attention to the 1440p rankings: Some faster chips at 1440p CPU benchmarks may be listed below slower chips simply because of the 1080p results. You'll also notice that the 12th-Gen Intel processors, like the 12900K, 12700K and 12600K, have two measurements for each entry — that's to quantify performance with both DDR4 and DDR5 setups, with the former almost always offering better performance in Windows 10.

We measured performance for the 1080p CPU gaming benchmarks with a geometric mean of Borderlands 3, Hitman 2, Far Cry 5, Project CARS 3, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider. We measured performance for the 1440p CPU gaming benchmarks with a geometric mean of Borderlands 3, Project CARS 3, Far Cry 5, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider.

Intel and AMD Integrated Graphics Gaming CPU Benchmarks Hierarchy 

Here's our list of gaming performance with integrated graphics on several of the leading APUs available. We've split this into two different price ranges, so be sure to flip through all of the performance charts. For a bit of commentary and analysis of these results, head to our recent Ryzen 7 5700G, Ryzen 5 5600G and Ryzen 3 5300G reviews. 

Intel and AMD Single-Threaded CPU Benchmarks Performance Hierarchy

We calculate the above single-threaded CPU benchmarks rankings based on a geometric mean of Cinebench, POV-Ray, and LAME. The latter consists of two tests: One short duration test and one extended-duration test to measure performance once Intel's boost duration limits have been exceeded.

We conducted these tests in Windows 10, which penalizes the 12th-Gen Intel scores. This is because Windows 10 doesn't target threads at the correct cores with the precision that we see in Windows 11. You can see the Windows 11 results in the album in the first album in the article, but suffice it to say that Alder Lake chips, like the Core i7-12900K, 12700K and 12600K, lead by large margins in Windows 11.

Single-threaded performance is often tied directly to the responsiveness and snappiness of your PC in any number of daily applications, like loading an operating system or surfing the web. This metric largely depends upon a mixture of instruction per cycle (IPC) throughput (the number of operations the chip can execute in one clock cycle) and frequency, which is the speed at which the transistors switch between on and off states.

However, a whole host of other considerations, such as cache, architecture, and interconnects (like rings, meshes, and infinity fabric) impact this measure of per-core performance, so these results do not align perfectly based upon clock frequency. Instead, performance varies with each application and how well it is tuned for the respective architectures.

Intel and AMD Multi-Threaded CPU Benchmarks Performance

The multi-threaded workload column is based on CPU benchmarks performance in Cinebench, POV-ray, vray, Blender (four tests - Koro, Barcellona, Classroom, bmw27), y-cruncher, and Handbrake x264 and x265 workloads. These CPU benchmarks represent performance in productivity-focused applications that tend to require more compute horsepower.

We conducted these tests in Windows 10, which penalizes the 12th-Gen Intel scores. This is because Windows 10 doesn't target threads at the correct cores with the precision that we see in Windows 11. You can see the Windows 11 results in the album in the first album in the article, but suffice it to say that Alder Lake chips, like the Core i7-12900K, 12700K and 12600K, perform much better in Windows 11.

Like we see with single-threaded performance metrics, multi-threaded performance, which is a measure of a chip's performance in applications that utilize multiple software threads, varies based upon a whole host of architectural factors. It also depends heavily upon how well the software scales with additional compute cores. As such, these results do not align perfectly based upon core/thread count, though it does serve as a decent litmus of multi-threaded performance. 

Be aware that architectures, caches, and interconnects profoundly impact these results, as all of these factors impact how well performance scales with additional threads. Performance rarely scales perfectly with the addition of more cores/threads, so the scaling factor of each processor architecture weighs in heavily on the value proposition of going with a higher core count processor.

CPU Benchmarks Test System and Configuration

Legacy Desktop CPU Benchmarks Hierarchy

Recognizing that a lot of older platforms are going to be paired with graphics subsystems multiple generations old, we wanted to define the top of our range to encourage balance between host processing and complementary GPUs. At this point, anyone with a Sandy Bridge-based Core i7 would realize a gain from stepping up to Coffee Lake or Kaby Lake, for example. And putting AMD's top FX CPUs next to a handful of Core i7s and those older Core i5s represents an upgrade to their status.

Currently, our hierarchy consists of 13 total tiers. The bottom half of the chart is largely outdated; you'll notice those CPUs dragging down performance in the latest games, whether you have one of the best graphics cards or not. If you own a CPU in that range, an upgrade could really take your experience to another level.

Really, it's the top five tiers or so that remain viable. And in that top half of the chart, an upgrade is typically worthwhile if it's a least a couple of tiers higher. Otherwise, there's just not enough improvement to warrant the expense of a fresh CPU, motherboard and RAM (not to mention the graphics card and storage solution you'd be considering as well). 

Finding Deals on the Best CPUs

Whether you're shopping for a processor that's on our list of best CPUS or one that didn't quite make the cut, you may find savings by checking our list of coupon codes, especially our lists of Newegg promo codes and Micro Center coupons.

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