AMD faces pressure as Ryzen 9 7950X's price and efficiency narrow its lead

PassMark shows the Ryzen 9 7950X at about 62,260 versus the Core Ultra 7 265KF at roughly 58,734, while retail prices cited are about $501 for the Ryzen and $270 for the Intel chip.

AMD's high-end desktop position is under growing pressure as price and power efficiency affect perceived value. A comparison between the Ryzen 9 7950X and Intel's Core Ultra 7 265KF illustrates the shift. On paper the Ryzen has 16 cores and 32 threads, while Intel's part reaches 20 threads using a mix of performance and efficiency cores. Benchmarks, single-thread results, retail pricing and power draw together complicate the traditional core-count argument. Key details: - PassMark CPU Mark: the Ryzen 9 7950X is reported at about 62,260 and the Core Ultra 7 265KF at roughly 58,734. - Single-thread scores: the article reports the Intel chip at about 4,926 and the Ryzen at roughly 4,876. - Retail pricing cited: the Ryzen 9 7950X is noted at about $501 (B&H) and the Core Ultra 7 265KF at about $270 (Amazon). - Power ratings and estimated energy costs: AMD's chip is listed at 170W versus Intel's 125W, with estimated yearly energy costs of about $31 for the Ryzen and $23 for the Intel part. - Workload note: the Ryzen 9 7950X retains an advantage in heavily threaded tasks such as rendering, simulation and large-scale code compilation, while that advantage narrows for general desktop workloads. - Context: the article also references an earlier trend where Intel improved low-end competitiveness by offering more performance at lower price points. Summary: The comparison shows that efficiency, single-thread performance and street pricing are narrowing the practical gap between the two parts, which makes the Ryzen 9 7950X's premium harder to justify outside heavily threaded use cases. Undetermined at this time.