Core i7-11700K vs Ryzen 9 3900X

Gaming speed, cores and clocks

The Core i7-11700K and the Ryzen 9 3900X are within a few percent of each other for gaming. In a game, you will not see the difference.

The Core i7-11700K has 8 cores and 16 threads, and the Ryzen 9 3900X has 12 cores and 24 threads. The extra cores of the Ryzen 9 3900X help with video editing, streaming while you play and heavy multitasking more than with the game itself. Boost clocks are 5 GHz and 4.6 GHz.

Platform, power and price

The Core i7-11700K uses the LGA1200 socket and the Ryzen 9 3900X uses AM4, so they need different motherboards, and often different memory. When you compare prices, count the board as well as the chip.

Rated power is 125 W for the first and 105 W for the second. That is close enough that cooling needs will be similar.

At launch the Core i7-11700K cost $399 and the Ryzen 9 3900X $499, which gives 14.3 and 11.2 points of gaming performance per $100. Today's prices will differ.

Which graphics cards each one can feed, and which to buy

At 1080p the Core i7-11700K can feed a card up to the GeForce RTX 5070 before it holds the card back by more than 10 percent. The Ryzen 9 3900X reaches the Radeon RX 7900 GRE. Both chips are in the same range for graphics card pairing.

Choose the Core i7-11700K if you want the faster gaming chip. Choose the Ryzen 9 3900X if you would rather spend the difference on a graphics card, which does more for frame rates in most games.