WINNER The AMD Ryzen 9 3900X

BEST DESKTOP CPU The AMD Ryzen 9 3900X delivers in all the key areas, serving up excellent multithreaded performance and very respectable gaming numbers. In games, the AMD chip still lags behind at 1080p, but that difference soon becomes inconsequential as you ramp up the resolution to 1440p and 4K. Single-threaded performance isn't that far behind the Intel Core i9-9900KS either, while it remains miles ahead in terms of heavily threaded workloads. Granted, we're comparing a 12-core chip against an 8-core one, but these are both high-end chips from their respective brands, and the Core i9-9900KS is currently Intel's top mainstream offering. They’re both technically mainstream chips, and AMD simply offers more in terms of multi-threaded performance for this market segment.

Whichever way you cut it, the Ryzen 9 3900X is the more compelling option. And when you take into consideration its price, which sits at US$499 to Intel's US$599, the choice becomes pretty clear. What's more, the Core i9-9900KS is really just a top-binned Core i9-9900K, so it doesn't bring anything particularly new to the table.