Specialists from the German portal PC Games Hardware (PCGH) tested 28 models of popular desktop processors from AMD and Intel. This time the goal was to identify not the most productive, but rather the most energy-efficient chips for use in games.
Testing was carried out in the following games: Anno 1800, Atlas Fallen, Baldur’s Gate 3, Cyberpunk 2077, F1 2023, Hogwarts Legacy, Lords of the Fallen, Microsoft Flight Simulator, Ratchet & Clank, Starfield, Stellaris and X4 Foundations. Processors were evaluated based on frame rate per 1 watt of energy consumption.
First place by a large margin from the rest was taken by the eight-core AMD Ryzen 7800X3D with an average of 2,195 fps per 1 W. Second place went to the Ryzen 5700X3D with a score of 1,852 fps per 1 W, and third place went to the Ryzen 7500F with a score of 1,832 fps per 1 W.
The best energy efficiency among Intel processors was the six-core Intel Core i5-12400F, which took only 11th place in the ranking with 1,188 fps per 1 W. But the top-end Core i9 14900KS was in 25th place, delivering 0.739 fps per 1 W. The worst of the tested chips was the Core i9 11900K – 0.645 fps per 1 W.