Processors/Comparison
15 specifications
Intel Core i7-11700K vs AMD Ryzen 7 3800X
On paper, the Intel Core i7-11700K boosts higher, and the AMD Ryzen 7 3800X carries more L3 cache. Specifications describe what each chip is designed to do; how much of that either one holds under continuous load is a separate question.
Intel Core i7-11700K
Intel · Rocket Lake (11th gen) · Desktop
AMD Ryzen 7 3800X
AMD · Ryzen 3000 · Desktop
Cores and clocks
Cache and power
Platform
A check marks the higher figure only on rows where higher is unambiguously better. Rows without one are not ties; they are specifications where “better” has no meaning.
Reading the table
What the difference means.
2 years apart
The Core i7-11700K (Rocket Lake (11th gen), 2021) is 2 years newer than the Ryzen 7 3800X (Ryzen 3000, 2019). That matters more than any single row in the table, because a newer design usually does more work in each clock cycle. Clock speeds are only a fair comparison between chips of the same generation; across generations, a lower number on the newer chip can still be the faster core.
Boost clock
The Core i7-11700K boosts to 5 GHz against 4.5 GHz, 11 percent higher. Across generations it is not a guide to speed on its own, for the reason above. Boost is also a peak: it is held for seconds to minutes, on one or two cores, while the cooling and the power limit allow. What either chip settles at under a long load is lower, and it depends on the cooler and the motherboard as much as the chip.
Cache
The Ryzen 7 3800X carries 32 MB of L3 cache against 16 MB. Cache is fast memory on the chip, and a larger one means the cores wait on main memory less often. Games, large spreadsheets and compiling respond to it; rendering and video export, which stream through data in order, respond much less.
Power and cooling
The Core i7-11700K is rated at 125 W against 105 W. The rating is the heat the cooler has to move for the chip to hold its speed, and modern chips draw well above it in short bursts. A tower cooler or a liquid loop suits the Core i7-11700K; the Ryzen 7 3800X is easier to keep quiet and fits smaller cases. A chip whose cooling falls short does not fail. It slows down, and it does so after the first minute, which is why short benchmarks miss it.
Platform
They use different sockets, FCLGA1200 and AM4, so moving from one to the other means a new motherboard. For an upgrade, that cost belongs in the comparison; for a new build, the newer platform is the one with later chips still to come.
Manufacturing process
The Ryzen 7 3800X is built on a 7 nm process against 14 nm. A finer process generally does the same work for less power. The names are marketing labels rather than measurements, though, and they are not comparable between manufacturers, so treat the row as a sign of how recent the design is and no more.
Which to pick, on paper
- A quiet or compact build
- Ryzen 7 3800X
- 105 W against 125 W: less heat to move, so a smaller cooler and slower fans.
What no table says
How much of its speed a processor keeps after the first minute depends on the cooling and the power limit of the machine it is in. If you own one of these, measure it: the test is free and runs in this browser.
Questions
- Is the Core i7-11700K better than the Ryzen 7 3800X?
- The Core i7-11700K is the newer design by 2 years, which usually means faster cores. By need, on the specifications: a quiet or compact build: the Ryzen 7 3800X. No specification says how much speed either one keeps under a long load; that depends on the cooling and the power limit of the machine it is in, and it is what a sustained test measures.
- Do the Core i7-11700K and the Ryzen 7 3800X use the same socket?
- No. The Core i7-11700K uses FCLGA1200 and the Ryzen 7 3800X uses AM4, so switching means a new motherboard.
- Which runs hotter, the Core i7-11700K or the Ryzen 7 3800X?
- The Core i7-11700K is rated at 125 W against 105 W, so it produces more heat under load and needs the larger cooler. How hot either one actually runs depends on the cooler and the case more than on the chip.
More comparisons
- Intel Core i7-11700K vs Intel Core i9-9900K
- Intel Core i7-11700K vs AMD Ryzen 5 9600X
- Intel Core i7-11700K vs AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
- Intel Core i7-11700K vs AMD Ryzen 7 5700X
- Intel Core i7-11700K vs AMD Ryzen 7 8700G
- AMD Ryzen 7 3800X vs Intel Core i9-9900K
- AMD Ryzen 7 3800X vs AMD Ryzen 5 9600X
- AMD Ryzen 7 3800X vs AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
- AMD Ryzen 7 3800X vs AMD Ryzen 7 5700X
- AMD Ryzen 7 3800X vs AMD Ryzen 7 8700G
Every figure on this table is a design target. None of it is a measurement.
Nothing above describes how a processor behaves twenty minutes into a sustained workload, which is where two chips with nearly identical specifications routinely diverge. A boost clock is a ceiling the vendor permits, not a rate the chip sustains, and whether it holds depends on the cooling, the case, the power profile and the room. None of those appear on a specification sheet.
We deliberately do not reduce these figures to a single score. A composite invented from specifications would look authoritative and measure nothing, and choosing the weights would be choosing the winner.