AMD Ryzen 9 3900XT vs. Intel Core i9 10900K Linux Gaming Performance

Following the 130+ benchmarks of the AMD Ryzen 3000XT series earlier in the week looking at the CPU/system performance on Ubuntu Linux, here is our first look at the Linux gaming performance with putting the Ryzen 9 3900XT up head-to-head against the Intel Core i9 10900K.

This Linux gaming bout is looking at the Core i9 10900K vs. Ryzen 9 3900XT for Linux gaming while also looking at the CPU power consumption and performance-per-Watt.

Given the popularity of Radeon graphics on Linux due to the open-source drivers and the latest NVIDIA binary driver build not working with Linux 5.8 Git yet, the Radeon RX 5700 XT was used for benchmarking in this CPU comparison. The Linux 5.8 Git kernel was used for the bleeding-edge support and also having the new AMD Energy driver for being able to read the CPU package power consumption under Linux.

Besides swapping out the CPU/motherboard, all other components obviously remained the same. Ubuntu 20.04 LTS was the OS paired with Linux 5.8 Git and also upgrading to Mesa 20.2-devel for the latest OpenGL/Vulkan driver support. Both processors were being cooled by a Noctua NH-U9S heatsink.

Via the Phoronix Test Suite a wide assortment of OpenGL and Vulkan Linux gaming tests were carried out principally at 1080p for looking at the CPU performance impact while still being at least relevant or semi relevant to real-world gamers depending upon your settings preferences.