In PC Gamer’s five-game 1080p comparison, the Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus and AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D trade leads by title. That makes the games you play—and the exact CPUs being compared—more useful guides than the brand names alone. PC Gamer’s review tested both processors with a GeForce RTX 4070 and 32 GB of DDR5-6000 CL32 memory.
Compare the results game by game
Average frames per second (FPS) show overall performance during a test. The 1% low is a separate measure of the slowest moments, which can help reveal whether frame rates stay consistent. PC Gamer reported these results at 1080p:
| Game and settings | Core Ultra 7 270K Plus average FPS | Core Ultra 7 270K Plus 1% low FPS | Ryzen 7 9800X3D average FPS | Ryzen 7 9800X3D 1% low FPS |
| Cyberpunk 2077, RT Ultra + DLSS Balanced | 119 | 98 | 112 | 76 |
| Baldur’s Gate 3, Ultra | 113 | 66 | 146 | 76 |
| Homeworld 3, Epic | 101 | 57 | 117 | 55 |
| Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition, High | 143 | 79 | 148 | 91 |
| Total War: Warhammer 3, High | 173 | 139 | 152 | 79 |
The Intel CPU leads in average FPS in Cyberpunk 2077 and Total War: Warhammer 3. The Ryzen leads in Baldur’s Gate 3, Homeworld 3 and Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition. The 1% lows tell a different story in some games: Intel leads in three of the five, while Ryzen leads in two. Neither metric points to the same winner every time.
PC Gamer used an MSI MEG Z890 Ace motherboard in its test system and says it did not use Intel Binary Optimization Tool or APO for the reported results. The numbers belong to that review’s hardware, game settings and test method; they are not a promise of the same frame rates with another graphics card or configuration.
What those 1080p results mean at 1440p or 4K
A 1080p CPU test does not tell you exactly how large the gap will be at 1440p or 4K. At higher resolutions or graphics settings, the graphics card can become the limiting component and make CPU differences less visible. The effect depends on the GPU, game, settings and frame-rate target, as TechSpot’s explanation of CPU benchmarking and XDA Developers’ discussion of CPU and GPU bottlenecks describe.
For your own build, focus on results for games you actually play and a test setup close to yours. A CPU ranking measured at 1080p with an RTX 4070 is useful for comparing these two processors under those conditions; it is not a direct forecast for every 1440p or 4K system.
Gaming, power and demanding applications
In PC Gamer’s Baldur’s Gate 3 test, the Core Ultra 7 270K Plus averaged 111 W of CPU package power and 67°C. The Ryzen 7 9800X3D averaged 67 W and 51°C in the same test. Those readings describe the processors under that review’s conditions, not whole-system electricity use or guaranteed results in another PC.
The review also found the Intel processor ahead in two named multi-threaded workloads. In Cinebench 2024 multicore, the Core Ultra 7 270K Plus scored 2,435 against 1,307 for the Ryzen 7 9800X3D. In Blender 4.2.0, it produced 179 samples per minute against 101. That gives gaming-and-creation buyers another point of comparison, while keeping the conclusion tied to those particular applications and tests.
PC Gamer’s overall assessment favors the Ryzen 7 9800X3D for outright gaming performance, even though its own results show Intel leading in some games. If gaming is your main priority, that assessment makes the Ryzen a strong candidate; if you also run the tested multi-threaded workloads, the Intel results deserve a close look. AVPasión separately recommends AMD when comparable gaming processors cost the same, an editorial recommendation rather than a benchmark result. AVPasión’s recommendation
For the US, PC Gamer lists a $299 recommended customer price for the Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus.
