Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus vs Ryzen 9 9900X
Short answer: which is best?
Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus is 36.7 % stronger than Ryzen 9 9900X. Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus ranks #2 of 55 measured processors at WhatFPS (15,558 CPU score over 3 verified runs). Ryzen 9 9900X ranks #11 of 55 measured processors at WhatFPS (11,384 CPU score over 3 verified runs). The numbers are measured in 6 verified WhatFPS runs — not estimated, not self-reported.
Measured comparison
| Metric | Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus | Ryzen 9 9900X |
|---|---|---|
| CPU score (the processor's own performance) | 15,558 | 11,384 |
| Best rig (GAMING — whole PC) | 10,179 | 15,624 |
| Integer (MT) | 14.6 Gop/s | 8.1 Gop/s |
| Single-thread (1T) | 0.94 Gop/s | 0.88 Gop/s |
| Draw calls/s (DX11) | 11,343,956 | 15,067,612 |
| Cores / threads | 24 / 24 | 6 / 12 |
| L3 cache | 36 MB | 64 MB |
What the numbers mean
The CPU score is the processor's own performance — that is what we rank on. GAMING is the whole rig's score in the best PC we measured the processor in, and leans heavily on the graphics card. A strong processor in a weak PC gets a low GAMING score without being worse. We show both and never mix them.
All numbers come from our benchmark suite: four hand-built 3D scenes written directly against the graphics APIs in Rust, the same load on every PC. The methodology is open at https://whatfps.com/metodik
All measurements for Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus · All measurements for Ryzen 9 9900X