Core i7-9700K vs Ryzen 7 5800H

Gaming speed, cores and clocks

The Core i7-9700K and the Ryzen 7 5800H are within a few percent of each other for gaming. In a game, you will not see the difference.

The Core i7-9700K has 8 cores and 8 threads, and the Ryzen 7 5800H has 8 cores and 16 threads. Core counts are the same, so cache size and clock speed decide the difference. Boost clocks are 4.9 GHz and 4.4 GHz.

Platform, power and price

The Core i7-9700K uses the LGA1151 socket and the Ryzen 7 5800H uses BGA, so they need different motherboards, and often different memory. When you compare prices, count the board as well as the chip.

Rated power is 95 W for the first and 45 W for the second. That difference changes the cooler you need, and it shows up in heat and noise.

We do not have launch prices for both chips, so we cannot compare value.

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

At 1080p the Core i7-9700K can feed a card up to the Radeon RX 9060 XT 8GB before it holds the card back by more than 10 percent. The Ryzen 7 5800H reaches the Radeon RX 9060 XT 8GB. Both chips are in the same range for graphics card pairing.

Choose the Core i7-9700K if you want the faster gaming chip and the same or more cores. Choose the Ryzen 7 5800H if you would rather spend the difference on a graphics card, which does more for frame rates in most games.