Despite the controversy surrounding Intel's testing of the 9900K CPU with its external testing house, Principled Technologies, there's no denying that it does provide serious competition for AMD's 2700X and will likely be a better gaming CPU when it becomes available. Where it can't compete though, is on price, with Intel debuting its new flagship gaming chip at $530, while the AMD counterpart is far less. Far less again, in fact, since AMD slashed the price ahead of the 9900K's launch.
When Principled Technologies recently retested its gaming benchmarks with the various CPUs, including the 9900K and the 2700X, its results showed far from the 50 percent claims made early on. Instead, it revealed a performance difference of only around 16 percent when averaged across different titles. That becomes truly problematic for Intel, when you consider that the Ryzen 2700X can now be picked up for as little as $295.
That makes the Intel chip around 70 percent more expensive, but offers less than a 20 percent performance improvement for it. On top of that, the motherboard you have to buy with it will also cost you several hundred dollars and won't be compatible with Intel's 10nm Cannon Lake chips that are slated to launch in 2019. In comparison, AMD's AM4 socket boards like the B350, X370, B450, and X470 boards will not only be compatible with AMD's Ryzen 2 CPUs, slated to arrive next year, but the chips that come after that too.
That makes the AMD platform much more upgradeable and affordable in the long term, as well as being roughly comparable on performance.
While you're still likely better off paying for the Intel system if you want the top gaming performance, that may not be the case when Ryzen 2 arrives, so purchase Intel's new chips with caution if that's the route you want to go down.
