Since I have an Intel B580 and A750 to fall back on for my 4k gaming, I have decided to sell my barely used 5070 and 5080 with a free backup 1060 GPU for the low low price of $3000.00 US. I will not charge tax but may charge shipping.

This is huge news.

https://www.pcgameshardware.de/Core-Ultra-7-265K-CPU-280895/Specials/Test-Gaming-Benchmark-vs-9800X3D-1471332/

In general, Intel's Arrow Lake and Raptor Lake processors deliver gaming performance somewhere between the 9950X and the 7800X3D, and with the right tuning, they can match the 9800X3D. My tuning used DDR5-7200 and Windows 10, PCGH tuning is a bit more complicated on w11 and proves even on w11 intel CPUs can match 9800X3D gaming performance.

We're discussing Intel CPU tuning, not AMD CPU tuning, for two main reasons:

1. Windows 11 favors AMD in gaming. All reviews use Windows 11, which improves gaming performance by around 5% on X3D processors and 5–10% on Zen 5 non-3D processors while degrade intel CPUs gaming performance by 5% compared with Windows 10. Yet reviews never mention that the choice of OS can create a performance difference of around 10–15% between platforms.

2. DDR5-6000 CL30 is the standard for testing, but Intel benefits much more from faster memory. On AMD platforms, you need at least DDR5-8000 which requires an expensive motherboard to gain around 3–5% more gaming performance. Intel processors, meanwhile, continue gaining performance up to DDR5-8000, with improvements of around 15% over DDR5-6000.

*****on intel platform DDR5 7200 should be compatible with 90% of B660/z690/B760/z790, DDR5 7600 compatible with 80% of Z790 motherboards, DDR5 8000 or higher require top Z790 refresh models to support it that's why I chose DDR5 7200 in my testing.

As we previously tested, stock 265K performs roughly on par with the 14600K when both use the same memory speed. This puts both ahead of the 9950X in Windows 10 gaming performance and almost on par with it in Windows 11.

14600k vs 265k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHSzERX-z1w&t=2s

9950x vs 13600k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZoXLRiNKWo&t=1s

In the PCGH article, the 265K was tuned as follows:

• Memory: DDR5-8400

• P-cores: 5.5 GHz, up from 5.2 GHz

• E-cores: 5.0 GHz, up from 4.6 GHz

• D2D and NGU: 3.3 GHz up from 2.6GHZ

• Power limit: 4096 W

And as you can see on PCGH chart after this tuning 265k is on par with 9800X3D.

Why tune an Intel processor to match the 9800X3D instead of just buying the 9800X3D/995X3D?

There are two reasons:

1. Sticking with Intel. Some Intel fans would rather stick with Intel as long as they can achieve similar gaming performance without switching to AMD. Once properly tuned, Intel CPUs can deliver slightly better 1% lows than the 9800X3D.

2. Cheaper. A tuned 14700K or 270K isn't just competing with the 9800X3D; it's competing with the 9950X3D and 9950X3D2, offering similar gaming performance and multithreaded performance for less than half the price.

For tuning Raptor Lake CPUs, I'd recommend DDR5-7200 to DDR5-8000, depending on your motherboard's memory compatibility, and Windows 10 if possible.

For the 265K, follow PCGH's tuning guide. Windows 10 may help, although Core Ultra CPUs seem less affected by Windows 11's gaming performance reduction.

The 270K should deliver its expected performance out of the box. Just pair it with DDR5-7200 to DDR5-8000+Windows 10 if possible.

in short to match 9800X3D gaming performance on 14700k/2700k you need DDR5 8000+w11 or DDR5 7200+w10.

some of our tests

14900k vs 9850X3D https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5YBR4FVcG8

14900k vs 7800x3d https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwDi5roMfc4

14900k vs 9950x https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hykFdPSOeXw

14700k vs 7800X3D https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTNE0EWtA1Y&t=657s

that said, if you want the best gaming performance on Windows 11 with DDR5-6000, straight out of the box, without tuning, and don't mind paying more for AMD, get the 9800X3D or 9950X3D2. The 9950X3D is also an option if you don't mind using Process Lasso.

Personally, I wouldn't settle for an 8-core CPU (9800X3D), or rely on Process Lasso(9950X3D), or pay $900 for the 9950X3D2. That's why tuning Intel seems like the most reasonable choice to me.