Testing company says benchmarks that favored Intel over AMD were a mistake | Computing

Benchmarking company Principle Technologies admitted to a mistake in its testing between AMD and Intel‘s latest ninth-generation chipsets. The firm will be re-testing the processors and will address earlier issues which skewed certain technical testing results towards Intel.

Though the original benchmarks report in question was paid for by Intel, Hardware Unboxed was the first to point out that the original hardware testing was leaning toward one chipmaker over the other. In testing 19 games, Principle Technologies reportedly used a less powerful CPU cooler when testing the AMD’s Ryzen 7 2700X, only overclocked the RAM on Intel’s chipset, and didn’t leverage all the cores onboard the AMD Ryzen.

Intel stood by testing results, issuing the following statement: “Principled Technologies conducted this initial testing using systems running in spec, configured to show CPU performance and has published the configurations used. The data is consistent with what we have seen in our labs, and we look forward to seeing the results from additional third-party testing in the coming weeks.”

Principle Technologies said the entire issue was due to Game Mode on the AMD Chips, which disables some of the cores onboard the Ryzen 7 2700X. It also said that the choice of a less powerful Wraith Prism Cooler CPU cooler was due to AMD recommending it. Finally, Principle Technologies said that the difference in overclocked RAM was due to “parity.”

This was partially echoed in the benchmarking firm’s official public statement: “For almost 16 years, we have tested products for our clients because they trust our integrity. We have worked not just for any one company but for dozens of the leading technology firms, including rivals such as Intel and AMD, Microsoft and Google, Dell and HP, and many others. Before going further, we thus must categorically deny any dishonesty in our work on this project for Intel or in any of our other projects.”

Benchmark testing is inherently controversial, so it makes sense to see Principled Technologies come out and explain itself. That is especially important when Intel is claiming that the Intel Core i9-9900K is the “best gaming processor yet.”

Intel has yet to respond after Principle Technologies issued its separate statement on Wednesday, October 10. More is likely to develop so best keep tuned for more.