Gaming Benchmarks
Now we come to the meat and potatoes of the Core i9-10900K. This is a follow up to the world’s fastest gaming processor. Intel claims it is the new king of that arena. Frankly, it has to be as it gets pummeled pretty badly by the Ryzen 9 3900X which has been around for the better part of a year now.
Generally, we are usually more GPU bound than CPU bound, but as you’ll see the CPU still matters even in GPU bound conditions. Also, many people still game at 1080P, which highlights stronger CPU’s as this is a somewhat CPU bound resolution.
3DMark 10
In this test, the results are so close the results almost don’t matter.
Destiny 2
Oddly, at 1920×1080 the MSI MPG Z490 shows a slightly faster average FPS than the GIGABYTE Z490 Aorus Master once again. However, the latter achieved a much higher maximum result.
On average, the MSI MPG Z490 is slightly faster than the GIGABYTE Z490 Aorus Master. However, again the latter has greater maximum FPS results.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
In this test, the GIGABYTE Z490 Aorus Master and MSI MPG Z490 switch places. The former has higher averages and the latter higher maximum FPS numbers.
Across the board in the 4K SoTTR test, the MSI MPG Z490 is the faster of the two Z490 boards we’ve tested.
Hitman 2
Again, the MSI board takes the top spot for the highest minimum FPS and highest average FPS. However, the GIGABYTE Z490 Aorus Master achieves the highest max FPS value.
Hitman is always an interesting test. It seems to like more CPU cores, but only if the clocks are high enough. All of the Intel systems are relatively close, but overclocking is not a help here. The 5.1GHz all core clock hurts more than it helps.
Ghost Recon Breakpoint
In this test we can see virtually no different for minimum frame rates across each system. Averages do run the gamut, with the GIGABYTE Z490 Aorus Master falling behind the others at stock speeds. Overclocked, it still doesn’t match the MSI. Having said that, those results are reasonably close.
There is an odd dip on the low side for the Z490 Aorus Master in the minimum FPS and maximum FPS departments. Averages are the same though.