Retail Version of Intel Alder Lake Core i9-12900K Overclocked to 5.2 GHz on All Cores

[TheLostSwede]

Although we can't confirm it, the screenshot below is said to be of a retail version of the Intel Alder Lake Core i9-12900K that has been overclocked to 5.2 GHz on all P-cores, with the E-cores at stock clocks. It is said to be drawing a massive 330 Watts at these clock speeds, which is rather a lot for a consumer level CPU.

Sadly details such as the motherboard used and RAM clocks are absent. The E-cores are said to be locked at a maximum clock of 3.7 GHz, so there appears to be no overclocking potential in them. Yes, Intel does manage to edge out AMD's Ryzen 9 5950X at these clock speeds in the multithreaded test, which is no mean feat considering we're looking at eight threads less here, but Intel does so at over twice the power draw.



Update: Updated due to a slight misunderstanding, the E-cores were apparently enabled, but running at stock clock.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[ZoneDymo]

Yikez.....I gotta say just about everything about this is unimpressive to me.
A top of 5.2 ghz
E cores had to be disabled
insane power draw

like even has some OC record type of thing....5.2 ghz....idk just seems lame to me.

EDIT: not sure if this makes it more or less impressive but now it says the E-cores are enabled...just running stock, so we have a 16 core 24 thread cpu, with 8 overclocked cores, capable of matching (accourding to cpuz) a 16 core 32 thread part....but needing 330 watts of consumption to do it......

 

[ThaiTaffy]

Looks like it will be a LN only chip if it's drawing that much power I dread to think of the TDP.

 

[ratirt]

The power draw is worrying actually.

 

[Caring1]

That don't impress me much, to quote a famous philosopher

 

[AnarchoPrimitiv]

That don't impress me much, to quote a famous philosopher

Hahaha

 

[Crackong]

8 cores 5.2 GHz 330W ?

Is that 2x the power draw of a 5950x in stock ?

 

[phill]

Well, as always I'll wait for the reviews but damn.....

 

[dgianstefani]

2x the power draw for 2x the per core performance? Seems reasonable.
8 Alder Lake P cores edging out 16 Zen 3 cores is certainly impressive.

It's also worth bearing in mind that there will likely be per core overclocks available, so maybe 5.4/5.5 on one core, with the rest scaling down to 5.0/5.1.

This is also most likely done with shitty early adopter DDR5 timings, and early bios.

 

[The Quim Reaper]

I really don't see the big deal with power draw, TBH.

Unless you are running Blender 12hrs a day, in which case there are FAR better CPU choices for you, why does it matter?

Normal desktop usage, low power state

Gaming...show me a game that maxes out cores to 100% whilst playing 100% of the time.

My 9900K @5Ghz is a thirsty beast in things like Cinebench runs but on average only uses 60-70watts in gaming, only really spiking when doing shader compilations and stays below 60c 90% of the time.

So..'meh.

 

[Erazor6000]

I don't care about i9, as long as i5 and i7 have decent power consumption.

 

[JoniISkandar]

Welcome back Prescott era, when intel need to pump power draw to compete with AMD, intel fanboy will defence this by saying " this is a dekstop cpu, We dont care about power draw or heat unlike laptop"

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

Yikez.....I gotta say just about everything about this is unimpressive to me.
A top of 5.2 ghz
E cores had to be disabled
insane power draw

like even has some OC record type of thing....5.2 ghz....idk just seems lame to me.

And cooling that 300+ watts wasn't on air though they're shtum on how it has to be sub zero because a water block is going to struggle to pull that much heat away quickly enough..

 

[asdkj1740]

8 cores 5.2 GHz 330W ?

Is that 2x the power draw of a 5950x in stock ?

yes, and being able to cool by 360mm aio.

 

[Pilgrim]

8 cores 5.2 GHz 330W ?

Is that 2x the power draw of a 5950x in stock ?

Actually more than 3X

I really don't see the big deal with power draw, TBH.

Unless you are running Blender 12hrs a day, in which case there are FAR better CPU choices for you, why does it matter?

Normal desktop usage, low power state

Gaming...show me a game that maxes out cores to 100% whilst playing 100% of the time.

My 9900K @5Ghz is a thirsty beast in things like Cinebench runs but on average only uses 60-70watts in gaming, only really spiking when doing shader compilations and stays below 60c 90% of the time.

So..'meh.

Seriously why would you assume that "Gamers" are the only PC users that exist in the universe? These power draw numbers are ridiculous. No matter which way you look at it. That's just for 8 cores.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Actually more than 3X

Power draw ≠ TDP.
The Ryzen 9 5960 can draw 136 W quite easily.

AMD Zen 3 Ryzen Deep Dive Review: 5950X, 5900X, 5800X and 5600X Tested

www.anandtech.com

 

[asdkj1740]

The power draw is worrying actually.

because it is trying to beat 5950x.
if you lower the clocks, the power draw is actually awesome.
super high power draw in recent generation is because of clocks too higher(5g or above).
imagine what you aim at is 5800x's performance level on this baby.

 

[JalleR]

I need a new space heater and a new CPU so that must be what i call a 2 in 1 Deal.... but WOW 330watt i hope that is a really bad chip then..

 

[ratirt]

because it is trying to beat 5950x.
if you lower the clocks, the power draw is actually awesome.
super high power draw in recent generation is because of clocks too higher(5g or above).
imagine what you aim at is 5800x's performance level on this baby.

Not because it is trying to beat 5950x cause that is obvious when in competition but because power consumption is really high for an 8c part with slight OC. Yet another justification for high power draw. Winning is not just who gets first with one lap but who will be able to run again in a few sec in this race. With this OC, power draw and TDP you might have a problem running it for an extended time. 330W that's a decent GPU power draw.

 

[JustBenching]

Don't people ever learn?

Was hearing the same stuff about the 10900k. When I bought it I was worried I would have to upgrade my cooler, but I bought it anyways. Turns out it was actually insanely cool, equal to my delided 8700k. Actually, going by the reviews, a Ryzen 5800x is 30 degrees warmer than the 10900k...

Obviously if you overclock it to 5.2 - 5.3ghz and try to run blender, it will get incredibly warm and consume 300+ watts. The question is, why the heck would you actually do that? If you are going for productivity, you don't overclock, and certainly you don't overclock to the maximum limits. I wonder how much would a ryzen CPU consume in blender at 5.2 ghz

I need a new space heater and a new CPU so that must be what i call a 2 in 1 Deal.... but WOW 330watt i hope that is a really bad chip then.

If you want a space heater get a Ryzen and clock it to 5.2 ghz running blender. No need to wait for alderlake

 

[londiste]

850 ST points at 5.2GHz.
Assuming linear scaling (close enough to what CPU-Z bench seems to have), 817 at 5GHz and 650 at 4GHz (both of which have been in leaks/rumors before).
650-ish should also be the range of Ryzen 5950X/5900X ST scores at boost clocks (4.8/4.9GHz). 11700K at 5GHz is just below that.

 

[ZoneDymo]

Don't people ever learn?

Was hearing the same stuff about the 10900k. When I bought it I was worried I would have to upgrade my cooler, but I bought it anyways. Turns out it was actually insanely cool, equal to my delided 8700k. Actually, going by the reviews, a Ryzen 5800x is 30 degrees warmer than the 10900k...

Obviously if you overclock it to 5.2 - 5.3ghz and try to run blender, it will get incredibly warm and consume 300+ watts. The question is, why the heck would you actually do that? If you are going for productivity, you don't overclock, and certainly you don't overclock to the maximum limits. I wonder how much would a ryzen CPU consume in blender at 5.2 ghz


If you want a space heater get a Ryzen and clock it to 5.2 ghz running blender. No need to wait for alderlake

The thing is with that argument is that that Ryzen cpu, in this case, would be the 5950x which would absolutely beat the crap out of the 12900k if it was clocked to 5.2 ghz.

I mean you are correct but also wrong, you are correct that in normal usage etc this cpu will probably be fine, im looking at getting a 12600k myself and maybe a bigger raptorlake one later, but this article is not about a normal usage scenario and we are judging it in that scenario.

Like my original post, 5.2ghz all core does not impress, having to turn off the E-cores makes it even worse and having it consume threehundredandthrity watts in the process is just the cherry on the dissappointment cake.

 

[docnorth]

A stock i9-12900K achieved 827,7 and 11456,5 points, so this overclock didn't do much besides increasing voltage and consumption.

 

[Steevo]

2x the power draw for 2x the per core performance? Seems reasonable.
8 Alder Lake P cores edging out 16 Zen 3 cores is certainly impressive.

It's also worth bearing in mind that there will likely be per core overclocks available, so maybe 5.4/5.5 on one core, with the rest scaling down to 5.0/5.1.

This is also most likely done with shitty early adopter DDR5 timings, and early bios.

Its not impressive when all Intel has done is slapped more power hungry cache on the same core architecture and forced users to buy a new board again.

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

Don't people ever learn?

Was hearing the same stuff about the 10900k. When I bought it I was worried I would have to upgrade my cooler, but I bought it anyways. Turns out it was actually insanely cool, equal to my delided 8700k. Actually, going by the reviews, a Ryzen 5800x is 30 degrees warmer than the 10900k...

Obviously if you overclock it to 5.2 - 5.3ghz and try to run blender, it will get incredibly warm and consume 300+ watts. The question is, why the heck would you actually do that? If you are going for productivity, you don't overclock, and certainly you don't overclock to the maximum limits. I wonder how much would a ryzen CPU consume in blender at 5.2 ghz


If you want a space heater get a Ryzen and clock it to 5.2 ghz running blender. No need to wait for alderlake

Any CPU sat idling, is cool.

Some of us don't Do idle though. .

So you being fine or for that matter me being fine is not everyone is fine with 330W.