Reality Capture: AMD Ryzen 9000 Series vs Intel Core 14th Gen

Introduction

AMD recently rolled out the Ryzen 9000 Series processors, presenting a slight upgrade to the Ryzen 7000 series. The new chips retain the AM5 socket and are compatible with X670 motherboards, but they bring the benefits of AMD’s Zen 5 CPU architecture, including better IPC (Instructions Per Clock), improved efficiency, and enhanced memory handling.

In this article, we will examine how these new processors perform specifically in Reality Capture. This is a newer benchmark for us that we have been developing for the past few months, and we would classify it as an alpha version that is still a work in progress. For now, we will look at 4 tasks within Reality Capture, specifically aligning images, reconstructing in preview mode, reconstructing in normal/high detail, and texturing. These tasks are some of the most time-consuming and most common, and they go through phases of using all cores or only a few cores multiple times through a run. Because of this, the best CPU isn’t always just the one with the most cores. It is important to find the right balance for your workflow.

Because we will be examining so many CPUs, we will divide our analysis into Intel vs. AMD and performance versus the previous generation.

If you want to read more about the new AMD Ryzen 9000 CPUs and what separates them from the previous generation, we recommend checking out our main AMD Ryzen 9000 Series Content Creation Review article. That post includes more detailed information on the CPU specifications, MSRP, and an overview of testing results for a range of other applications, including Photoshop, Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, After Effects, Unreal Engine, and CPU rendering.

Raw Benchmark Data

We design our benchmarks to cover many workflows and tasks to provide a balanced look at the application and its hardware interactions. However, many users have more specialized workflows. Recognizing this, we like to provide individual results for benchmarks as well. If a specific area comprises most of your work, examining those results will give a more accurate understanding of the performance disparities between components.

AMD Ryzen 9000 vs Intel Core 14th Gen for Reality Capture

Comparing Intel and AMD CPU models directly is a bit tough since they do not carry equivalent MSRPs. However, the closest matches are:

• AMD Ryzen 9 9950X ($650) vs. Intel Core i9 14900K ($590)
• AMD Ryzen 9 9900X ($500) vs. Intel Core i9 14900K ($590)
• AMD Ryzen 7 9700X ($360) vs. Intel Core i7 14700K ($410)
• AMD Ryzen 5 9600X ($280) vs. Intel Core i5 14600K ($320)

It’s worth noting that in these comparisons, AMD generally comes in at a lower price point than Intel (except for the 9950X vs. 14900K). Additionally, AMD processors tend to have lower power consumption, resulting in less heat and noise. Because of this, when performance is similar, AMD has a clear edge.

Starting at the bottom of the stack, the AMD Ryzen 5 9600X lags behind the Intel Core i5 14600K by 20% on average, with Reconstruction in High Detail in the Habitat 67 Sample (see the Raw Data section above) being 30% slower. However, in the much smaller Object Reconstruction, the Ryzen was actually faster. If you only work on smaller objects, then the Ryzen might be a good choice. The Ryzen 7 9700X has similar results, coming in at 25% slower than the Intel Core i7 14700K. 

Moving up to the Ryzen 9 models, the 9900X performed only slightly behind the  Intel Core i9 14900K giving AMD the overall lead here due to its lower price and TDP. 

At the top end, the Ryzen 9 9950X leads the pack by 30% on average, with some tasks, specifically “reconstructing in normal detail” of the smaller projects, being twice as fast as the 14900K. 

AMD Ryzen 9000 vs AMD Ryzen 7000 for CPU Reality Capture

When comparing the new AMD Ryzen 9000 Series to the previous Ryzen 7000 Series, you need to be aware that AMD technically introduced a small price drop with the new CPUs. However, since AMD CPUs are often on sale, in most cases, the new models will actually be a bit more expensive. That will likely even out over time, but for now, Ryzen 9000 will likely have a small price premium over the older 7000 models.

In most cases, AMD doesn’t show much gen-over-gen improvements, with the Ryzen 5 9600X, Ryzen 7 9700X and Ryzen 9 9900X all seeing improvements of only 1-2%. Likely, any IPC improvements are being negated by the lower power levels. The Ryzen 9 9950X, on the other hand, posts an impressive 26% improvement over the previous Ryzen 9 7950X

How Well Do the AMD Ryzen 9000 CPUs Perform in CPU Rendering?

Reality Capture is an application where multiple-hour processing times are not uncommon. Luckily for end users, the last few updates have added better support for CPUs with high core counts. Because of this, the new Ryzen 9 9950X outperforms all other CPUs in this class, completing our test suite 30% faster than the 14900K. Moving down the stack, AMD and Intel trade blows with the 9900X is only a few percent behind the 14900K but at a lower price and power consumption, so the AMD is a better choice. However, the 9700X and 9600X just can’t keep up with Intel’s offerings. For the budget side, Intel still holds strong with the Core i5 14600K and i7 14700K.

Every application uniquely utilizes hardware, so our results here don’t necessarily translate to any other application. Our focus in this article centers specifically on AMD Ryzen 9000 Series performance in Reality Capture. However, we recommend checking out our AMD Ryzen 9000 Series Content Creation Review article, which includes a broad overview of results for several different applications. If you use other software packages, it also has links to our in-depth testing articles for content creation: Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, After Effects, Unreal Engine, and CPU rendering.

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