Intel Seriously gaining on AMD?

For 20 years I was very centric to Intel CPUs. Until 2018, the axiom was that if you wanted the best performance you went with Intel and suffered the heat they generate with significant power requirements in addition to the higher prices per unit of performance.  If you wanted a more budget minded solution that was much more power efficient, you went with AMD.  That era changed dramatically when AMD created the Ryzen 7 2700 CPU that outperformed my Intel Core i7 8700K.  In 2018 I built and tested the Ryzen 7 2700 against the Intel Core i7 8700K six core CPU and found the AMD Ryzen 7 2700 superior in every way including price and price to performance. I used a stock cooler on the AMD Ryzen 7 2700, and a Corsair H115i Pro AIO on the 8700K and tuned both systems quite extensively.    The AMD CPU was the hands down winner in performance, price, stability and power consumption at the time.  I still use the AMD Ryzen 7 2700 CPU as a web site host.  The Intel Core i7 8700K system is still operational as a storage server host now.

Intel released a new revision of a processor on March 26, 2026.  The Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus is the first Intel processor to have picqued my interest since 2023.  Those of you who adopted it early on, beat me to the conclusion.  I had seen the relases of most of the Intel processors be mundane and not very competitive in most cases, I built a system using an Intel i7 14700K in November of 2023.  The 14700K was somewhat problematic.  High temps even with an Artic Freezer 280 II AIO.   Always pushing the 90 C threshold.  Intel had to make changes to the specs for the 14700K and 14900K.  Thanks for the ten year warranty Intel.

Back to AMD again. Built systems based on 9900x and 9950x without any issues and they performed better than the 14700K system.

I am not a “Fanboi” of either Intel nor AMD.  I go where the price to performance ratio is.

The performance of the Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus is amazing. The price is  ~$300, it uses a motherboard that is end of life.  The moniker is a bit of a mouth full. Price to performance wise this new Intel CPU outclasses everything in the consumer desktop segment.  Will it best an AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D in games, not quite but close enough to make it a race worth watching. It performs within 5% of  the 9950x3d in application performance, at a reduction in price of 50%.  That’s $300 less. Significant.