If you’re looking for the top processors on the market today, look no further than AMD’s Ryzen 9 9950X3D and Intel’s Core Ultra 9 285K. If you’re looking to choose the one that’s right for you, that question gets a little more complicated.
Either of these heavy hitters can make a compelling case based on its merits. That’s why we’ve tested these two titans, racking up hard data and details about each model to help you make an informed choice. We won’t keep you in suspense: Our tests point to AMD’s Ryzen 9 9950X3D as the best high-end processor for most people. Read on to see if you fall into that group, or if you’d do better with Intel’s Core Ultra 9 285K.
Cores, Caches, and Architectures
The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D and the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K are unquestionably the best consumer-oriented processors each company sells today. These processors differ from each other in more ways than we typically see in the average processor generation. AMD designed its Ryzen 9 9950X3D with 16 simultaneous multithreading-enabled (SMT) CPU cores capable of operating 32 threads collectively while reaching a peak clock speed of 5.7GHz at max turbo. This processor also contains AMD’s second-generation 3D V-Cache technology, significantly improving the older design. This iteration adds a 64MB cache portion onto the processor, increasing its total L3 cache pool to 128MB, and the processor also has 16MB of L2 cache.
Intel’s Core Ultra 9 285K lacks Hyper-Threading or SMT support, but it has eight Performance cores (P-cores) that can turbo up to 5.7GHz and an additional 16 Efficient cores (E-cores) that can turbo up to 4.6GHz. This arrangement gives it 24 total cores, less than the total available processing threads on AMD’s top processor. But Intel’s are all real CPU cores, which makes a big difference.
Intel, though, doesn’t possess game-boosting 3D V-Cache technology, an AMD exclusive. Instead, the Ultra 9 285K comes with 36MB of L3 cache and a larger 40MB of L2 cache. It is noteworthy that L2 cache is typically much faster than L3 cache, and the sheer size of Intel’s L2 cache should help give it a slight edge in some areas, but this likely isn’t sufficient to overcome the capacity advantage the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D holds with its far larger L3 cache.
I’ve gathered the most notable test results from my recent retesting of the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D and the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K to demonstrate each brand’s strengths and weaknesses. For more test results, check out the individual review for each processor.
Winner: Draw (Each serves different sets of user needs)
CPU Benchmarks
Cinebench 2024, an image-rendering test, gave a decent idea of what to expect going forward. The Intel Core Ultra 9 285 K’s single-threaded performance was negligibly higher, while the 285K’s multithreaded performance was about 5% ahead of the Ryzen 9 9950X3D’s. This difference shows the advantage of having more physical CPU cores versus SMT-based logical threads.
Blender, a hugely popular 3D rendering app that works with an associated Blender Benchmark utility, told a far different story. The scores from the Classroom test scene were nearly identical, but the Ryzen 9 9950X3D was almost 17% faster in the Junkshop test scene. If you’re wondering why this is, it’s simply that some processor architectures perform better at some workloads than others. Unraveling specifically why is difficult; it could be related to the added cache on the AMD processor, or the AMD processor may simply run these particular instructions faster. As you’ll see later, Intel’s gaming performance is also lacking; Blender calls on the graphics card in addition to the CPU, so a related issue could also be to blame for Intel not being quite as competitive in this test.
In our HandBrake video transcoding test, the two CPUs were close enough to call it a tie, while the benchmark for the ray-tracing 3D image generator POV-Ray showed the Core Ultra 9 285K to be non-trivially faster. It completed both POV-Ray 3.7 tests about 12% faster than the Ryzen 9 9950X3D.
Explaining why Intel is faster in this particular test is just as hard to nail down as AMD’s performance advantage above. It could be due to a wide range of potential reasons, from software optimization to the processor just running these particular instructions faster, to differences in cache speed. (The graphics card is not called into action for this test, so that, at least, shouldn’t have an impact.)
While AMD’s Ryzen 9 9950X3D performed well, the Core Ultra 9 285K was generally faster in workloads focused on CPU performance.
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Winner: Intel
Gaming Benchmarks
Overall, the CPU test results were in favor of the Intel chip. Both processors were competitive, and neither gained a drastic upper hand, save for some specific tasks. The gaming benchmarks, however, tell a much different story…
…and it doesn’t end happily for Intel. It isn’t that you can’t play games with an Ultra 9 285K, but the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D has a clear advantage at sub-4K resolutions. You won’t see much difference with either processor while gaming at 4K with maxed settings, but the Ryzen 9 9950X3D was way ahead at 1440p and 1080p in F1 2024, and it had a substantial lead at 1080p in Cyberpunk 2077.
Turning the graphics settings down unleashes the 9950X3D’s true strength…
In this case, AMD’s chip was significantly faster at nearly all resolutions across our game tests. The exceptions were Cyberpunk 2077 at 4K and Black Myth Wukong at 1080p, where the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K was still behind, but not quite as much. If you aren’t running games at higher refresh rates and are sticking to 60 frames per second or less, you aren’t likely to notice the Ryzen 9 9950X3D’s performance advantage over the Core Ultra 9 285K. But gamers who emphasize the highest possible high refresh rates will want to steer clear of Intel Arrow Lake processors like the Ultra 9 285K. All told, the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D can deliver faster frame rates and a better gaming experience.
Winner: AMD
Pricing
AMD’s Ryzen 9 9950X3D runs $699, while the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K costs $589. The lower price—and quite potent CPU performance—make the Intel worth considering for a high-end home office computer, a prosumer content workstation, or something similar. It has a slight edge in non-gaming CPU-intensive workloads and is still serviceable for gaming; it could be used in a gaming PC as a more affordable alternative to the Ryzen 9 9950X3D. This is especially true if you don’t intend to game at high refresh rates.
As a plus, the price difference could also be meaningful for your overall build. That $110 you save by opting for the Core Ultra 9 285K over the Ryzen 9 9950X3D could go a long way toward a GPU upgrade. For example, it’s almost enough to cover the additional cost of going from an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 (at $299) to a much faster Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB (at $429). In most cases, a faster GPU like this will have a far larger impact on your gaming performance than a change in CPU.
Winner: Intel
And The Winner Is…
If you tally up the scores so far, we’ve had two wins for Intel and one win for AMD. From that, you’d think Intel has won this round, but AMD is in a generally stronger position with its AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D.
The Ultra 9 285K may deliver somewhat faster general CPU performance and a more appealing price, but it’s the tasks you’ll subject the chip to that are arguably far more important. The Core Ultra 9 285K’s CPU-performance advantage can be meaningful over time (say, if you’re rendering a scene that takes hours to complete). Those who run applications that place a heavy load on the CPU would likely be better served by Intel.
Not everyone needs that extra CPU performance, though, and AMD’s Ryzen 9 9950X3D isn’t that far behind Intel in such workloads, anyway. You may run a CPU-intensive application occasionally, but you likely don’t do so that frequently. (If you do, the Intel chip may be a stronger pick.) But it’s more likely you’re a gamer or are shopping for someone you know who is a gamer. And those folks likely will notice the difference in performance that AMD’s Ryzen 9 9950X3D makes when it comes to gaming.
The Ryzen 9 9950X3D isn’t likely to make it into many office PCs; it costs a premium, and it doesn’t provide anything to lure business customers over the Core Ultra 9 285K. Most owners of high-end desktops, however, are gamers and will likely be better served by AMD’s Ryzen 9 9950X3D.
