This article compares AMD's Ryzen 9 7900 with Intel's Core i9 10900F desktop CPUs, exploring which is better for the use cases listed below. We compare each CPU's attributes rather than benchmarks to help you determine which features are most important when selecting a CPU.
- Gaming
- the latest graphics-intense games - General Apps - web browsing, streaming, and office applications
- Professional Tools - 2D and 3D graphics tools, video editors, compilers, and engineering tools
Gaming on the Ryzen 9 7900 vs. Core i9 10900F
Ryzen 9 7900 for Gaming
When using AMD's Ryzen 9 7900 CPU for gaming, you can expect excellent game performance with either a high-performance CPU cooler or a stock CPU cooler.
Core i9 10900F for Gaming
When using Intel's Core i9-10900F CPU for gaming, you can expect good game performance with a high-performance CPU cooler or mediocre game performance with a basic or stock CPU cooler.
Gaming Considerations
While a good GPU is critical for gaming performance, your CPU will also have a significant impact. If the CPU is too slow, it can be a bottleneck for your GPU, which can reduce your framerate or cause stuttering. The most important CPU capabilities for gaming are single-core max boost frequency and the number of cores. A high base frequency is also critical for inadequately cooled CPUs.
Depending on the game, the CPU will often handle tasks including scene management, gameplay logic, physics calculations, and asset loading.
Having multiple CPU cores can improve performance with games that utilize them. However, developers cannot split up every task to take advantage of a growing number of cores. Most modern games don't benefit from having more than 6–8 cores. Game performance will experience diminishing returns as you add more CPU cores.
Cores
7900: The 7900's 12 cores allow for excellent performance with the latest graphics-intense games.
10900F: The 10900F's 10 cores allow for excellent performance with the latest graphics-intense games.
Learn more about Core Counts below.
Base Frequency
7900: The 7900 has a 3.7 GHz base frequency, which is the speed before boosting. You can reach these base frequencies even without a high-end cooler.
10900F: The 10900F has a 2.80 GHz base frequency, which is the speed before boosting. You can reach these base frequencies even without a high-end cooler.
Learn more about CPU Clock Speeds below.
Single-Core Boost
7900: With a high-end cooler, the 7900's 5.4 GHz single-core max boost frequency is excellent for performance with the latest graphics-intense games. You can maintain these frequencies with a high-end cooler.
10900F: With a high-end cooler, the 10900F's 5.20 GHz single-core max turbo boost frequency is excellent for performance with the latest graphics-intense games. You can maintain these frequencies with a high-end cooler.
Learn more about CPU Clock Speeds below.
P-Core Boost
7900: The 7900 does not have Performance cores.
10900F: The 10900F does not have Performance cores.
Learn more about CPU Clock Speeds below.
Overclocking Support
7900: When using a high-end cooler, the 7900 CPU's support for overclocking can be excellent for performance with the latest graphics-intense games.
10900F: The 10900F CPU's lack of support for overclocking cannot benefit performance with the latest graphics-intense games.
Learn more about Overclocking below.
DDR Support
7900: The 7900 CPU's support for DDR5 with a max stock speed of 5200 MHz can be excellent for performance with the latest graphics-intense games.
10900F: The 10900F CPU's support for DDR4 with a max stock speed of 2933 MHz can be mediocre for performance with the latest graphics-intense games.
Learn more about DDR Support below.
PCIe
7900: The 7900 CPU's support for PCIe 5.0 can be excellent for performance with the latest graphics-intense games, when using the fastest SSDs and graphics cards.
10900F: The 10900F CPU's support for PCIe 3.0 can be poor for performance with the latest graphics-intense games, as it will limit the potential of the latest SSDs and graphics cards.
L3 Cache
7900: The 7900's impressive 64 MB of L3 cache is excellent for performance with the latest graphics-intense games.
10900F: The 10900F's 20 MB of L3 cache is good for performance with the latest graphics-intense games.
Learn more about Cache Sizes below.
General Apps on the Ryzen 9 7900 vs. Core i9 10900F
Ryzen 9 7900 for General Apps
When using AMD's Ryzen 9 7900 CPU for general apps, you can expect excellent app performance with either a high-performance CPU cooler or a stock CPU cooler.
Core i9 10900F for General Apps
When using Intel's Core i9-10900F CPU for general apps, you can expect good app performance with either a high-performance CPU cooler or a stock CPU cooler.
General App Considerations
If you're only planning to stream shows, use office apps, or browse the internet, you won't need a top-end CPU to get good performance. The most important CPU capability for general app usage is the single-core max boost frequency. A high base frequency is also helpful for inadequately cooled CPUs.
Browsers depend on your CPU to quickly load pages and video content and manage multiple browser tabs. Higher single-core boost frequencies can speed up page load times.
Office and web applications are typically single-threaded, so running a single application won't take advantage of a many-core CPU.
The more cores a CPU has, the more applications you can run simultaneously without noticing a performance impact.
Office and web applications rarely max out the CPU for long periods. These applications can use boost speeds when a burst of processing power is needed, returning to the more efficient base frequencies afterward.
Cores
7900: The 7900's 12 cores allow for excellent performance with modern apps.
10900F: The 10900F's 10 cores allow for excellent performance with modern apps.
Learn more about Core Counts below.
Single-Core Boost
7900: With a high-end cooler, the 7900's 5.4 GHz single-core max boost frequency is excellent for performance with modern apps. You can maintain these frequencies with a high-end cooler.
10900F: With a high-end cooler, the 10900F's 5.20 GHz single-core max turbo boost frequency is excellent for performance with modern apps. You can maintain these frequencies with a high-end cooler.
Learn more about CPU Clock Speeds below.
P-Core Boost
7900: The 7900 does not have Performance cores.
10900F: The 10900F does not have Performance cores.
Learn more about CPU Clock Speeds below.
DDR Support
7900: The 7900 CPU's support for DDR5 with a max stock speed of 5200 MHz can be excellent for performance with modern apps.
10900F: The 10900F CPU's support for DDR4 with a max stock speed of 2933 MHz can be mediocre for performance with modern apps.
Learn more about DDR Support below.
Professional Tools on the Ryzen 9 7900 vs. Core i9 10900F
Ryzen 9 7900 for Professional Tools
When using AMD's Ryzen 9 7900 CPU for professional tools, you can expect excellent tool performance with either a high-performance CPU cooler or a stock CPU cooler.
Core i9 10900F for Professional Tools
When using Intel's Core i9-10900F CPU for professional tools, you can expect good tool performance with a high-performance CPU cooler or mediocre tool performance with a basic or stock CPU cooler.
Professional Tool Considerations
Video editors, 2D and 3D graphics tools, software compilers, and engineering tools require high-performing CPUs.
Professional tools are often well optimized to use many cores. CPU cores allow tools to parallelize processing tasks. Increasing the number of cores can divide the time required to process a task if the tool has good multi-threading support.
To maximize performance with professional tools, you'll want to use a CPU with a high boost frequency and many CPU cores. Good heat dissipation is needed to maintain boost frequencies for extended periods.
While graphics applications use your GPU for some rendering tasks, most calculations and data operations are still dependent on your CPU.
Cores
7900: The 7900's 12 cores allow for excellent performance with professional tools.
10900F: The 10900F's 10 cores allow for excellent performance with professional tools.
Learn more about Core Counts below.
Base Frequency
7900: The 7900 has a 3.7 GHz base frequency, which is the speed before boosting. You can reach these base frequencies even without a high-end cooler.
10900F: The 10900F has a 2.80 GHz base frequency, which is the speed before boosting. You can reach these base frequencies even without a high-end cooler.
Learn more about CPU Clock Speeds below.
Single-Core Boost
7900: With a high-end cooler, the 7900's 5.4 GHz single-core max boost frequency is excellent for performance with professional tools. You can maintain these frequencies with a high-end cooler.
10900F: With a high-end cooler, the 10900F's 5.20 GHz single-core max turbo boost frequency is excellent for performance with professional tools. You can maintain these frequencies with a high-end cooler.
Learn more about CPU Clock Speeds below.
P-Core Boost
7900: The 7900 does not have Performance cores.
10900F: The 10900F does not have Performance cores.
Learn more about CPU Clock Speeds below.
Overclocking Support
7900: When using a high-end cooler, the 7900 CPU's support for overclocking can be excellent for performance with professional tools.
10900F: The 10900F CPU's lack of support for overclocking cannot benefit performance with professional tools.
Learn more about Overclocking below.
DDR Support
7900: The 7900 CPU's support for DDR5 with a max stock speed of 5200 MHz can be excellent for performance with professional tools.
10900F: The 10900F CPU's support for DDR4 with a max stock speed of 2933 MHz can be mediocre for performance with professional tools.
Learn more about DDR Support below.
PCIe
7900: The 7900 CPU's support for PCIe 5.0 can be excellent for performance with professional tools, when using the fastest SSDs and graphics cards.
10900F: The 10900F CPU's support for PCIe 3.0 can be poor for performance with professional tools, as it will limit the potential of the latest SSDs and graphics cards.
L3 Cache
7900: The 7900's impressive 64 MB of L3 cache is excellent for performance with professional tools.
10900F: The 10900F's 20 MB of L3 cache is good for performance with professional tools.
Learn more about Cache Sizes below.
Considerations When Choosing a CPU
Core Count
AMD's Ryzen 9 7900 CPUs have 12 cores.
Intel's Core i9-10900F CPUs have 10 cores.
Increased core counts can improve the performance of games and professional tools that use them. Most modern games don't benefit from having more than 6–8 cores. Even general apps can benefit from many cores when numerous applications are open simultaneously. Web browsers don't significantly take advantage of multiple cores when loading a single page. However, more CPU cores can improve performance when running demanding web apps in multiple windows.
Intel's 12th generation and newer CPUs have performance (P) cores and efficiency (E) cores. The P cores are comparable to previous generation cores. E cores are focused on adding additional threads in an energy-efficient manner. They take up much less room on the CPU and generate less heat. However, their smaller cache and minimal interconnect capabilities make them more appropriate for offloading background tasks.
CPU Clock Speeds
The AMD Ryzen 9 7900 has a 3.7 GHz base frequency and supports a 5.4 GHz single-core max boost frequency.
The Intel Core i9-10900F has a 2.80 GHz base frequency and supports a 5.20 GHz single-core max turbo boost frequency.
Single-core performance is essential for some games, as many don't take full advantage of multiple cores. Professional tools depend on high single and multi-core boost frequencies to maximize their processing speed.
Boost frequencies are only achieved under ideal circumstances. The safest strategy for consistent gaming performance with a basic cooler is to get a processor with a higher base clock speed. However, with adequate cooling, you may be able to maintain speeds near the max boost frequency.
Check out my article, Choosing the Best CPU Cooler for AMD's Ryzen 9 7900, for recommended coolers that can maintain these boost frequencies on the 7900.
Check out my article, Choosing the Best CPU Cooler for Intel's Core i9-10900F, for recommended coolers that can maintain these boost frequencies on the 10900F.
DDR Support
The 7900 CPU's fastest supported DDR memory type is DDR5, with a max stock speed of 5200 MHz.
The 10900F CPU's fastest supported DDR memory type is DDR4, with a max stock speed of 2933 MHz.
You can exceed these stock speeds officially supported by CPUs when overclocking memory, such as with an XMP profile. Motherboard specifications will indicate their supported overclocked-memory speeds. To be able to overclock DDR memory, your motherboard chipset needs to support memory overclocking.
Faster PC memory can improve game and professional tool performance by reducing the time it takes to perform calculations and data operations.
Using the quickest RAM may not have as much of an impact as upgrading your CPU and graphics card or adding more RAM.
Learn more about DDR in DDR4 vs. DDR5? Which You Should Buy.
Learn about our recommended RAM for the 7900 in Best RAM for the AMD Ryzen 9 7900 CPU.
Learn about our recommended RAM for the 10900F in Choosing the Best RAM for Intel's Core i9-10900F CPU.
Cache Size
The AMD Ryzen 9 7900 has an L3 cache capacity of 64 MB.
The Intel Core i9-10900F has an L3 cache capacity of 20 MB.
A CPU's cache is a small amount of memory, close to the CPU cores, containing recently used data. An L3 cache capacity of at least 20 MB is ideal for games and professional tool performance.
Games and professional tool performance can improve as cache size increases, as it can reduce delays when retrieving commonly used assets from memory. While nearly any task will use a CPU's cache, a large cache becomes less impactful for general PC usage, such as browsing webpages.
Remember that cache sizes often increase with core counts, so if you want to increase your L3 cache, you may need to get a CPU with more cores.
Overclocking
The 7900 supports overclocking.
The 10900F does not support overclocking.
Overclocking is mainly relevant for PC gamers who want to maximize their game framerates. CPU overclocking increases frequencies past their default limits. Excellent heat dissipation via fans or another solution is required to maintain system stability while overclocking.
Professional tools can benefit from overclocked frequencies. However, overclocking may introduce some possibility of system instability, which may be less acceptable in business scenarios.
Recommended Motherboards for the Ryzen 9 7900
Best Feature Motherboard
- Our recommended feature-rich motherboard to pair with the Ryzen 9 7900:
ASUS ROG Strix X670E-E Gaming Check Price on Amazon Amazon Affiliate Link
- PCIe 5.0 support
- X670E chipset
- One 2.5 Gb Ethernet port
- Four NVMe M.2 slots and Four SATA 6 Gb/s ports
- Wi-Fi 6E provides fast connections to a Wi-Fi router.
- Bluetooth 5.2 support
- USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 offers 20 Gbps USB speeds and 12 USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports
- Check the latest price of the ASUS ROG Strix X670E-E Gaming Motherboard on Amazon (affiliate link).
Runner-Up Motherboard
- Our recommended runner-up motherboard to pair with the Ryzen 9 7900:
GIGABYTE X670E AORUS Master Motherboard Check Price on Amazon Amazon Affiliate Link
- PCIe 5.0 support
- X670E chipset
- One 2.5 Gb Ethernet port
- Four NVMe M.2 slots and Six SATA 6 Gb/s ports
- Bluetooth 5.3 support
- USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 offers 20 Gbps USB speeds
- Check the latest price of the GIGABYTE X670E AORUS Master Motherboard on Amazon (affiliate link).
Best Value Motherboard
- Our recommended value motherboard to pair with the Ryzen 9 7900:
GIGABYTE X670 AORUS Elite AX Motherboard Check Price on Amazon Amazon Affiliate Link
- PCIe 4.0 for graphics
- X670 chipset
- One 2.5 Gb Ethernet port
- Four NVMe M.2 slots and Four SATA 6 Gb/s ports. PCIe 5.0 speeds for one of the M.2 slots
- Bluetooth 5.2 support
- USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 offers 20 Gbps USB speeds
- Check the latest price of the GIGABYTE X670 AORUS Elite AX Motherboard on Amazon (affiliate link).
Recommended Motherboards for the Core i9-10900F
Best Feature Motherboard: MSI MPG Z490 Gaming Carbon WiFi
- Our recommended feature-rich motherboard to pair with the Core i9-10900F is MSI's MPG Z490 Gaming Carbon WiFi motherboard:
MSI MPG Z490 Gaming Carbon WiFi Check Price on Amazon Amazon Affiliate Link
- Two NVMe M.2 slots at PCIe 3.0 speeds.
- Wi-Fi 6 support provides fast Wi-Fi connectivity to your desktop.
- Bluetooth 5.0 is great for streaming music to Bluetooth headphones.
- One 2.5 Gb Ethernet port are faster than most Internet speeds with room to spare for file transfers.
- USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 offers 20 Gbps USB speeds!
- Check the latest price of the MSI MPG Z490 Gaming Carbon WiFi on Amazon (affiliate link).
- Two NVMe M.2
Best Value Motherboard: ASUS Prime B560M-A
- Our recommended value motherboard to pair with the Core i9-10900F is ASUS's Prime B560M-A motherboard:
ASUS Prime B560M-A micro ATX motherboard Check Price on Amazon Amazon Affiliate Link
- One NVMe M.2 slot at PCIe 3.0 speeds; the second M.2 slot will be disabled for 10th generation CPUs).
- The smaller microATX form factor is backward compatible with any full-size ATX case.
- One 1 Gb Ethernet port is faster than most Internet speeds.
- Check the latest price of the ASUS Prime B560M-A on Amazon (affiliate link).
- One NVMe M.2
Learn More About the AMD Ryzen 9 7900
- Which Chipsets Work With AMD's Ryzen 9 7900 CPU?
- Choosing the Best Power Supply for AMD's Ryzen 9 7900 CPU
- Choosing the Best Motherboard for AMD's Ryzen 9 7900
- Is the Ryzen 9 7900 CPU Good for Gaming?
- Best RAM for the AMD Ryzen 9 7900 CPU
- Choosing the Best CPU Cooler for AMD's Ryzen 9 7900
- What Is the TDP of the Ryzen 9 7900 CPU?
- How Many Cores Do AMD Ryzen 9 7900 CPUs Have?
Learn More About the Intel Core i9 10900F
- Which Chipsets Work With Intel's Core i9-10900F CPU?
- Choosing the Best CPU Cooler for Intel's Core i9-10900F
- Choosing the Best Power Supply for Intel's Core i9-10900F
- Is the Core i9-10900F CPU Good for Gaming?
- Choosing the Best RAM for Intel's Core i9-10900F CPU
- Choosing the Best Motherboard for Intel's Core i9-10900F
- How Many Cores Do Intel Core i9-10900F CPUs Have?
- What Is the TDP of the Core i9-10900F CPU?
You can find detailed 10900F specifications on Intel's site.