Intel Core i9-12900K

[W1zzard]

The Intel Core i9-12900K is Intel's flagship processor for the Alder Lake architecture. In our testing, we saw fantastic gaming performance from this new processor. Not only low-threaded tests have improved, the 12900K can even beat AMD at highly threaded workloads.

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[Crackong]

Good article as usual.




Intel PR marketing Leaks:

8XX CPU-Z score
Best XXX CPU
Total dominance


Reality:
Win some, Lose some
Double the power consumption
Double the heat
Double the platform cost
Windows 11

 

[Chaitanya]

Those power consumption figures aren't confidence inspiring(for their enterprise products that are to come).
Edit: waiting to see comparison between DDR4 and DDR5.

 

[W1zzard]

waiting to see comparison between DDR4 and DDR5.

Next week Intel CPUs arrived yesterday. I've been rebenching everything else since the W11 AMD L3 cache fix came out. Will rebench Zen 2 and 9th gen too and add them to the reviews.

 

[Rhein7]

Eww that power consumption

 

[GerKNG]

some games are even worse than Skylake. awful .1% lows in many games. slower than a 5950x in Multithreading while consuming almost twice the power...
and i almost pre ordered one yesterday...

 

[dicktracy]

Cheaper and faster than 5950x. Thank you Intel.

 

[lexluthermiester]

So to sum up, Intel's delivered the goods, but this model runs hot and is pricey. Seems to have taken back the performance crown. Imagine if they added in another set of core packs....

 

[luches]

That Temp !!! So you can no longer air-cool intel's flagship even with the top of the line air cooler !!! 100c will turn your room into a furnace .
I consider my 5900 running at 76c to be pretty high and it heats up my room but 100c.. HELL NO !!!! Not to mention 300W power draw. My undervolted 3080ti only draws 30W more @ 330W.
This feels like a very bad trade off. Sacrifice all the efficiency for the sake of performance.

 

[oldwalltree]

Looks like my x299 will live on another generation....

 

[THANATOS]

Next week Intel CPUs arrived yesterday. I've been rebenching everything else since the W11 AMD L3 cache fix came out. Will rebench Zen 2 and 9th gen too and add them to the reviews.

Thanks for the review, but honestly I wouldn't compare It to AMD for now only to Its predecessor.
For example Ryzen 9 5950X has too low score in Cinebench R23. I think Hardware Unboxed mentioned a problem when you change AMD CPUs then the L3 fix doesn't work or something like that.

 

[W1zzard]

100c will turn your room into a furnace .
I consider my 5900 running at 76c to be pretty high and it heats up my room but 100c.. HELL NO !!!!

Yeah my lab is quite warm right now Just to add a bit here, what heats up your room is the Watts, not the absolute temp. If you slow down your fan speed your CPU temp will go up, yet the heat output of the CPU stays the same, and thus your room will be just as warm.

 

[so11ex]

Heat and noise is now a problem for top perfomance PC.
Videocard alone can take 300w+ for 6900xt and 400w+ for 3090

Now add that extra 300w from 12900 CPU - too much.

I have 5900x and 6900xt - both are downvolted / downclocked because even for a big PC case with lots of 140mm fans - there is too much heat output!
It becomes too hot and noisy!

Sad intel dont have Pcore only 8core and 10-12 core units. that would be nice.

 

[BSim500]

So +11% faster (1080p) falling to 7% faster (1440p) in games on average for +23% higher power consumption on a newer 10nm process vs 2-gen old i9-10900K on 14nm process and 92-100c temps even with a Noctua NH-U14S? That's... not very impressive...

 

[Lord_Soth]

Cheaper and faster than 5950x. Thank you Intel.

Yes, you only forgot: hot, power hungry, more expensive system, lose in half of the cpu test, worst efficiency to an year old AMD processor.

 

[W1zzard]

For example Ryzen 9 5950X has too low score in Cinebench R23

Seems fine? I have 25813
https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/kf2gqs The higher scores are with manual PBO settings?

 

[tetrapak]

Highly recommend for what? Heating your room? To sum this up, It cost 25% more than 5900x , faster ~5%, and it draws 100% more watts, while cooking under 100c. Wp Intel , you have fastest cpu!

 

[b4psm4m]

That Temp !!! So you can no longer air-cool intel's flagship even with the top of the line air cooler !!! 100c will turn your room into a furnace .
I consider my 5900 running at 76c to be pretty high and it heats up my room but 100c.. HELL NO !!!! Not to mention 300W power draw. My undervolted 3080ti only draws 30W more @ 330W.
This feels like a very bad trade off. Sacrifice all the efficiency for the sake of performance.

It's watts (Joules per second) that heat rooms, not component temperature. If you had the end of a pin at 1000C in a room, it will make hardly any difference; but if you have a 3kW bar fire at 200C, that will het the entire room. But I get what you mean.

Anyway, it's good to see intel strike back but imo, amd 5000 is still the platform of choice

 

[lexluthermiester]

Thanks for the review, but honestly I wouldn't compare It to AMD for now only to Its predecessor.
For example Ryzen 9 5950X has too low score in Cinebench R23. I think Hardware Unboxed mentioned a problem when you change AMD CPUs then the L3 fix doesn't work or something like that.

Comparing AMD's top consumer model to Intel's now top consumer model is perfectly fair regardless of details.

 

[KarymidoN]

On Linus Video he showed that the NH-D15 can't cool this beast (especially when summer comes).
DDR5 and Z690 is also a more expensive Platform.
The I5 12600K is the winner, amazing price/performance.

 

[Camm]

Definitely interesting. If I was building right now, I'd certainly consider it, but power usage and temps are just batshit. That's going to have flow ons in what cases you can run, what coolers you can run, etc. New motherboard platform is quite nice as well.

So a swing and a nudge I think.

 

[luches]

it's watts (Joules per second) that heat rooms, not component temperature. If you had the end of a pin at 1000C in a room, it will make hardly any difference; but if you have a 3kW bar fire at 200C, that will het the entire room. But I get what you mean.

Anyway, it's good to see intel strike back but imo, amd 5000 is still the platform of choice

Thanks for elborating. Yes, I understand and I was generally speaking.
I went from a 8700k to 5900x cooled by a Assassin III and immediately noticed how its heating up my room quite abit more (It's even undervolted). Now 12900k drawing 300W and the extra heat gonna be so unpleasant, atleast for me. Plus I always use air cooler and you can't cool this lava pool in summer.
My undervolted 3080ti only draws 30W more @ 330W !

 

[Zareek]

Thanks for another great review @W1zzard .

The power consumption and temps are concerning but you can't argue with that performance. Too bad it requires Windows 11 to work properly. Maybe there will be a Windows 10 patch for it.

 

[N3M3515]

So......overclocking is out useless on intel's 12th gen?

 

[Ravenas]

I agree that “Intel is back”.

How is this any different than before with good single threaded performance at the cost of horrible power consumption?

There isn’t a significant reason for someone like myself (even with platform upgrades such as DDR5) with a 5950x to swap over platforms and regress in power consumption for slightly better single core performance and essentially the same or worse multi threaded performance.

This is why the pricing is below the 5950x MSRP.