Today, Intel revealed speeds and benchmarks for its leaked desktop-class Rocket Lake-S CPU family, led by the Core i9-11900K processor. The chip recorded speeds of up to 5.3 GHz in the Intel Thermal Velocity Boost, and the company touts its victory over both AMD and the previous generation of the 10th generation with a series of new scores.

Intel's new Cypress Cove architecture allows for up to 19% more instructions per cycle on high-frequency cores. If you haven't been able to afford a high-end GPU, integrated graphics performance should also increase by up to 50%. Nevertheless, this does not assuage concerns about the leaked Core i7 Cinemark R20 score for Rocket Lake not outperforming the Ryzen 7 5800X score.

Intel touts improved performance in many games, including Valorant, Hitman III, Gears 5, and Destiny 2.

Intel also promises a better HD streaming experience with Quick Sync Video and enhanced media processing (using 10-bit AV1/12-bit HEVC decoding and E2E compression).

Intel's announcement focused primarily on the new Rocket Lake-S Core i9-11900K chip, which has a base clock speed of 3.5 GHz and can reach 5.3 GHz (single core) and 4.8 GHz (all cores) with Intel Thermal Velocity Boost.

This 8-core processor has 16 threads, 16 MB of Intel Smart Cache, and supports faster memory with DDR4-3200 RAM.

Of course, Intel is showing off where it believes it can beat AMD. That is primarily with the Core i9-11000K chip, compared to the Ryzen 9 5900X.

Gaming tests provided by Intel (at 1080p and high graphics settings) showed slight to good improvement. The best performance was an 11% improvement in Microsoft Flight Simulator, which is not a huge win. Still, it is a good sign for those waiting for Intel to equalize, which some say is being left behind (although Intel's 3% advantage in Gears 5 is not enormous either).

Productivity comparisons show more substantial wins. Again, against the Ryzen 9 5900X, the 11900K beats the Ryzen 9 5900X by 35% in video creation workflows and by 14% in Photoshop-based image creation; in Office, the 11900K beats AMD by 8%, and in the MLPerf machine learning benchmark, Intel has the largest margin with a 38% advantage Intel had the largest margin of error in the MLPerf machine learning benchmark with a 38% difference.

Intel also showed scores comparing the i9-11900K chip to the 10th generation i9-10900K. Here, it did even better than AMD, improving by 9% on Gears 5, 14% on MS Flight Sim, and 13% on Total War: Three Kingdoms.

Again, the biggest difference was seen in the productivity suite, with an 88% improvement in video creation. Intel also noted a 12% improvement in productivity in Office and an 8% improvement in photo creation in Nero.

To show results outside of the high end, Intel also provided charts for the 11th generation Core i5-11600K. in both Total War and Gears 5, the 11th generation Rocket Lake-S shows a 16% improvement. Grid 2019 and MS Flight Sim" each show a 7% improvement.

Again, the bigger win is seen in productivity, where the i5-11600K outperforms the 10th generation by 61% in video creation, 18% in photo creation, and 12% in Office workflow.

Indeed, the i9-11900K and Core i5-11900K are just two of the 30 chip families Intel is launching. Whether Intel is moving forward remains to be seen in tests and reviews.

Soon benchmarks will be released from sources other than Intel. If Intel's chip family can't match up to AMD's best, it may not be the day that Intel, and its fans and shareholders, hope for.