For what feels like ages at this point, we've been waiting for Intel 10th-generation Comet Lake processors for desktop to make their appearance. And, while we have heard plenty of rumors about when we'll see them, we're starting to see info suggesting what they'll be capable of.
The latest of these is a Geekbench 5 benchmark result spotted by renowned hardware leaker TUM_APISAK, and the results are pretty interesting. Notably, it lists the maximum frequency as 5.08GHz, which is lower than the 5.3GHz that previous leaks have suggested. This leads to a multi-core score of 11,296 which isn't quite as powerful as AMD's current-generation flagship.
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MSI Z490-S01i9-10900Kexternal/t.co/wpnJTZocoZApril 9, 2020
We actually just retested the AMD Ryzen 9 3900X the night before this leak appeared, where the 12-core processor managed a score of 12,060, which makes it still around 7% faster than the alleged Intel chip's result – keep in mind that the 3900X launched way back in July 2019, too.
However, the AMD Ryzen 9 3900X does fall behind this leaked benchmark in single-core performance, scoring 1,268 points in last night's testing compared to the 1,408 in this leak. That is a pretty substantial 10% lead that Intel is potentially claiming here, which would maintain its position as the manufacturer behind the best processors for gaming.
Obviously, we can't wait to get this little chunk of silicon in for our own in-house testing to see exactly how it stacks up against AMD, but we still have no idea when that will actually happen. Intel will launch its next-gen processors when it decides is the best time, and until then we're just going to have to wait and see.
A temporary fix?
Intel's 10th-generation Comet Lake-S processors may narrow the massive gap that exists between AMD and Intel in the desktop world right now, but it may not last for long. Keep in mind that AMD CEO Lisa Su has said that Ryzen 4000 processors for desktop will be coming this year.
If the Intel Core i9-10900K only manages to come 7% short of beating the 3900X and only beating it in single-core by around 10%, that doesn't bode well for Intel whenever Team Red manages to launch its next desktop platform. Word on the street, according to an AdoredTV leak, is that the Zen 3-based Ryzen 4000 lineup is going to see a 15% boost in IPC performance. If that's paired with higher clockspeeds on AMD's next platform, Intel's single-core lead could vanish.
And now that we've seen AMD bring the Zen 2 improvements over to mobile, there's a lot of pressure on Intel to come up with something truly exciting. We said it in another piece touching on our brief testing of the AMD Ryzen 9 4900HS (more on that coming very soon), but we'd love to see Intel come up with its own Ryzen moment.
Intel Comet Lake-H has just arrived and Comet Lake-S is likely right around the corner, so we're incredibly interested to see whether or not it can shake up AMD's stranglehold on the processor world.
And if it does, you can bet we'll be diving into that when the time comes.
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