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 suss 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. We also have an article covering CPU performance in Cyberpunk 2077.

AMD has its Ryzen 5000G APUs coming to market in August, but we jumped the gun and reviewed the Ryzen 7 5700G. This chip's strong integrated graphics could be a godsend to gamers looking to sit out the GPU shortage, provided they keep their expectations in check. We've included the chip in both our standard rankings below and also added a new integrated graphics CPU benchmark ranking so you can see how the chips stack up relative to prior-gen AMD chips and Intel's lineup. We'll add the Ryzen 5 5600G after we post our review.

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.

Intel's 11th-generation Rocket Lake-S CPUs are in the other corner, led by the Intel Core i9-11900K and Core i5-11600K that have improved Intel's competitive standing. As a result of its solid performance and AMD's continued chip shortages, the Core i5-11600K is now our Best CPU for gaming. The Core i5-11400 is the hidden star of Intel's new lineup. AMD has no response for this chip on the lower-end of its price range – in fact, the Core i5-11400 grapples with the two-year-old Ryzen 5 3600. 

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:

• 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

AMD is plagued by chip shortages, but it isn't sitting still — At Computex 2020, the company announced that it will bring new Zen 3-powered Ryzen models to market that will come armed with its new 3D V-Cache tech. This technique stacks L3 cache on top of the compute die, thus enabling up a mind-boggling 192MB of cache per chip to provide up to 15% more performance in gaming. The first chips enter production at the end of the year.

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 page.

We are busily retesting our full arsenal of processors with a newer version of Windows 10 to measure performance for our CPU benchmarks. As such, chips without a score are ranked according to their previous rankings with our older CPU benchmarks test suite. We'll add specific measurements for those chips as our CPU benchmarks testing continues. 

CPU Benchmarks and Performance Hierarchy Charts

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.

This group of results also only include the chips that have passed through our newest test suite. The pricing represents MSRPs, but given the chip shortage, you likely won't find many of these chips at these prices at retail.

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 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, but the chart is aligned sequentially based on the 1080p game results. 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.

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.

As you can see, AMD's Ryzen 9 5950X and Ryzen 9 5900X take the slimmest of leads over Intel's flagship Core i9-11900K in 1080p, but the Core i9-11900K takes the lead at 11440p, meaning these chips are very closely matched. Also, check out those CPU benchmarks performance deltas between the previous-gen Ryzen processors and the 5000 series, and between the 10th-Gen Comet Lake and 11th-Gen Rocket Lake. That's impressive and comes as the byproduct of a heated competition for gaming supremacy. Enthusiasts are surely benefiting.

Most folks overlook the incredible power efficiency of the Zen 3 processors, but that equates to a faster, cooler, and quieter system that doesn't require super-expensive cooling solutions. Take note of the TDP divide in our charts - it's surprising. Check out our review for more in-depth power testing.     

Intel and AMD Integrated Graphics Gaming CPU Benchmarks Hierarchy 

Here's our preliminary list of performance with integrated graphics on several of the leading APUs available. We're going to build this list out over the coming months, so stay tuned for more. For a bit of commentary and analysis of these results, head to our recent Ryzen 7 5700G review. 

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.

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.

With all that said, the CPU benchmarks delta between Intel's flagship Core i9-10900K and the Ryzen 5000 processors was incredible - at worst, Ryzen 5000 was 10% faster in single-threaded performance. The paradigm has changed, though, as the Core i9-11900K takes a convincing 5% lead over AMD's Ryzen 9 5950X to take the lead in our single-threaded hierarchy. Rocket Lake's Cypress Cove architecture has proven to be beastly in single-threaded work, but we don't see those same gains translate over to gaming performance.

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.

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.

It's noteworthy that both Ryzen 5000 chips beat out Intel's 18-core 32-thread Core i9-10980XE, and the Ryzen 9 5900X only comes with 12 cores. Again, pay attention to TDP - the Ryzen chips have a 105W ranking while Intel is specced at 165W. 

Intel's Rocket Lake chips weigh in with a slight generational gain with the Core i9-11900K over the previous-gen Core i9-10900K, but we're looking at a ~3% gain. That is impressive given that the 11900K comes with two fewer cores, but it doesn't do much to change the CPU benchmark pecking order relative to AMD's Ryzen 5000 chips. The Core i5-11600K is a solid chip, though: It boosts multi-threaded performance by 6% over its predecessor, the Core i5-10600K.

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, regardless of the graphics card installed in your PC. 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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