Intel Core i9 12900K review

Alder Lake could be the start of Intel's push again towards a resurgent AMD, however greater than that, for the PC gamer in 2021, it's a particularly good gaming chip. And that's actually what counts, proper?

I can harp on about what this chip means for the heavyweight title combat between x86 goliaths, Intel and AMD, and don't fear I’ll, however on this website, it finally comes right down to which is best for gaming and provide us the most effective bang for our buck. That's typically fallen in AMD's favour as of late, whose Ryzen 5000-series processors are all-mighty for gaming and a sensible selection for streamers and content material creators, however that's set to alter with the arrival of Intel's twelfth Gen Alder Lake CPUs.

The twelfth Gen is Intel claiming again its gaming crown and even does so at a lower cost tag than the normally bargainous purple workforce.

It'd be remiss of me to not point out Alder Lake's peculiarities. With each important shake-up of a bit of computing {hardware}, there's a bedding-in interval that should happen, and Intel's twelfth Gen isn't totally with out idiosyncrasies. For one, it comes with the prerequisite of Home windows 11 if you happen to need high efficiency. However extra on that shortly.

In the end, the Core i9 12900K affords us a very good indication as as to if Intel is again at its finest. On the very least, Alder Lake is a big step in the correct route, however when operating at its easiest it appears to be like as a lot the return to kind for the chipmaker at the vanguard from the very starting because it has been made out to be.

Structure

What's totally different concerning the Intel Core i9 12900K?

The Core i9 12900K represents the easiest in Intel's desktop twelfth Era processors, and what meaning is it homes the Alder Lake structure in its most performant kind. At its easiest, that equates to extra cores, extra velocity, and extra bandwidth than ever earlier than, however if you happen to dig beneath the floor you'll discover a chip structure that’s wildly totally different to what got here earlier than.

With that comes body charges, OS necessities, and idiosyncrasies. All of which makes for fascinating evaluation.

So let's dig into it, beginning with the method that defines the whole chip: Intel 7. Alder Lake is Intel's first desktop processor to make use of the Intel 7 course of node, which was beforehand known as Intel 10nm SuperFin, and likewise the primary in a really very long time to not use the 14nm course of node.

Oh, how instances have modified. Intel has lastly damaged free the shackles of 14nm and managed to flee the node that was as soon as so congested it brought on a reasonably embarrassing pile-up for the chipmaker. With Alder Lake, it's not tied to that node, so it's free to do extra within the house it's bought, and the corporate says it even expects to shift a number of Alder Lake chips this facet of New Yr So maybe that is some silicon you'll really be capable to purchase at launch.

Right here's hoping, in any case.

Essentially the most notable change of the lot for Intel Alder Lake, although, is the hybrid Core structure. What this implies is that Intel is stuffing all the Ok-series twelfth Gen chips, these that are arriving at launch, with two varieties of cores: Efficiency Cores (P-Cores) and Environment friendly Cores (E-Cores).

The P-Cores are based mostly on the Golden Cove microarchitecture, which is one step past the Willow Lake microarchitecture present in Intel's eleventh Gen cell Tiger Lake processors. In desktop phrases, that's roughly two steps on the architectural marathon from the backported Sunny Cove microarchitecture, renamed Cypress Cove, in Intel's eleventh Gen Rocket Lake desktop processors, such because the Core i9 10900K.

And also you're most likely already considering that's a number of architectural codenames, and also you'd be proper. Alder Lake is sort of a Russian nesting doll of architectures. It doesn't get any simpler, both, however it’s fairly a bit extra thrilling for it.

Alder Lake's P-Cores are extra carefully associated to the CPU cores of earlier Intel desktop generations. Take the Core i9 10900K, for instance, which has eight CPU cores in complete. Take into account the 12900K's eight P-Cores in a lot the identical means, though significantly sooner.

For gaming these P-Cores are key. They provide the best clock speeds of the 2—on the Core i9 12900K these attain 5.2GHz at instances—and nail down slick single-threaded velocity for it. They're additionally constructed to minimise latency, and so they're technically wider and smarter to meet up with the competitors. That's AMD's savvy Zen 3 structure, by the by.

Every P-Core has entry to 1.25MB of L2 cache. From there, they're hooked as much as 30MB of Intel Good Cache, which can be shared between E-Cores and onboard built-in graphics (disabled in KF-series chips).

For a marker of efficiency, the Core i9 12900K's P-Cores are in a position to surpass the Cypress Cove cores within the Core i9 11900K by a major margin, and we're but to the touch on the eight Environment friendly Cores that Intel has stuffed into the 12900K's again pocket.

The Environment friendly Cores are constructed on the Gracemont structure, whose origins are within the Atom lineup. Historically constructed for lower-power, lower-performance processors, Intel has determined that its Atom structure might discover a use in additional highly effective processors in spite of everything, and the Core i9 12900K options eight Gracemont Environment friendly Cores in complete.

That's eight Environment friendly Cores clustered into two teams of 4, every group with entry to 2MB of L2 cache. These then share entry to that very same 30MB of Intel Good Cache that the P-Cores are additionally aware about.

I'll admit I wasn't at all times positive about Intel's Environment friendly Cores. Chip designer Arm has been rolling out huge.LITTLE designs for some time, to nice success, however primarily within the cell market the place energy effectivity equates to longer battery life. Intel intends to carry Alder Lake to cell, too, so I get that angle, however on the desktop facet of issues, it didn't first seem that these can be of large worth. What’s a cluster of small cores, constructed out of Intel's next-gen Atom structure, going to ship a PC gamer like me?

Effectively, I ought to've recognized it wasn't all about uncooked numbers, clock speeds, and single-threaded efficiency, as a result of Intel's Environment friendly Cores are way more than you would possibly first think about.

These Environment friendly Cores serve a few features with Alder Lake. For starters, they assist improve the multi-threaded efficiency, as you've merely bought extra cores to throw at an issue. Then, there's the flexibility to take away load from the P-Cores in a pinch, which is de facto the place these low-power cores turn out to be useful for gaming.

Say you're a streamer and also you're attempting to play a aggressive title on one display screen and beam your seize off to the world on the opposite. An Alder Lake CPU, with just a little assist from Home windows 11, ought to be capable to divvy up this workload to be able to maintain your P-Cores centered on delivering gaming body charges and your E-Cores on streaming that over the online.

Therein lies a few of Alder Lake's magic, however there's extra to getting all of those architectures working collectively than merely putting all of them on one chip. A big a part of Intel's Alder Lake efficiency comes from utilising these two totally different cores in an efficient method, and to try this it makes use of one thing referred to as the Thread Director.

The Thread Director helps your OS resolve which duties ought to go to which cores, by handing your OS extra data than it might in any other case have obtainable to it. Via continuously monitoring and feeding thread data again to the OS, Thread Director works to verify your recreation at all times will get precedence over your RGB lighting controller doing an replace. Thus retaining your body price regular.

In the end, although, it's your OS that makes these choices, and that's why Thread Director works finest with Home windows 11, which Intel labored with Microsoft on to get excellent for Alder Lake.

Using a {hardware} embedded Thread Director has a few knock-on results for us, then. Firstly, it means you'll actually need to use Home windows 11 you probably have an Alder Lake processor for the most effective efficiency, which has its ups and downs and isn't entirely an OS we recommend today. Secondly, there are nonetheless some oddities within the Alder Lake structure and optimisation that imply these two totally different cores both aren't utilise to their fullest, or don't perform in any respect with a handful of video games.

Now, granted, a processor with a straight 16-cores is ready to handle a number of workloads simply positive, too, such because the Ryzen 9 5950X, however Alder Lake does have just a few extra efficiency boons up its sleeve.

Essentially the most important is DDR5. For a protracted whereas now we've been fortunately plodding together with DDR4 machines, and admittedly these DDR4 kits have began to hit unbelievable speeds contemplating their humble beginnings, however instances are a-changin'. DDR5 is already setting the bar increased for reminiscence frequencies and efficiency, and Alder Lake is able to meet it.

So that you're taking a look at a lot increased frequencies with the trade-off being a lot increased reminiscence latencies on early DDR5 kits. Additionally they include usually increased worth tags, which isn't one thing PC players will need to hear in 2021—sadly, that's the truth of a model new know-how equivalent to this coming to market. Maybe particularly so due to the continuing international shortages affecting all method of chips.

On the plus facet, you should purchase a DDR4 suitable motherboard and skip over the burgeoning DDR5 market altogether. Although do keep in mind that you’re caught with one or the opposite. So make your decide and be ready to stay with it for the remainder of your chip's life. Or get a brand new motherboard, both means.

That brings us neatly onto the Z690 chipset in suitable LGA 1700 motherboards. The brand new socket shouldn't come as a lot of a shock if you happen to've caught sight of the 12900K itself, as the warmth spreader on this chip is bigger than earlier Core desktop processors. It does, nonetheless, imply you will have a brand new motherboard for Alder Lake. These new boards do provide better bandwidth for PCIe gadgets by assist for PCIe 5.0, which is able to imply extra for SSD storage than the rest, though we're solely simply getting used to speedy PCIe 4.0, so that is spec'd out for the long run.

Specs

What's contained in the Intel Core i9 12900K?

Because the main processor out of Intel's twelfth Gen household, the Core i9 12900K affords essentially the most cores, the best speeds, and the most effective efficiency. It's Alder Lake operating on all cylinders, which implies this particular chip affords us an excellent glimpse of what this structure can do when it is ready to stretch its legs.

The Core i9 12900K is a 16-core processor in an 8+8 design, which implies it contains eight P-Cores and eight E-Cores to fulfill its complete core rely. HyperThreading is enabled on the P-Cores, which doubles the obtainable threads to 16, making for a complete of 24 with the E-Cores factored in. Meaning the Core i9 12900K is tentatively a match for AMD's Ryzen 9 5950X when it comes to uncooked core rely however has to make up just a little misplaced floor when it comes to threads.

These eight P-Cores are clocked mightily excessive, too. The utmost Turbo clock velocity of the P-Cores on the Core i9 12900K is 5.2GHz, though with a base clock of three.2GHz, you'll are likely to see clock speeds someplace between the 2 throughout real-world operation and relying on the workload.

For all its velocity, the Core i9 12900K can be essentially the most power-hungry of the Alder Lake lot, and, properly, most desktop CPUs thus far. Regardless of Intel's finest efforts with the Intel 7 course of node and the Environment friendly Cores, this chip remains to be fairly thirsty at 241W Most Turbo Energy (MTP).

You'll discover that's MTP, not TDP. Intel says it's taking away the TDP specification for the twelfth Gen, and in some methods, I agree with its determination, if solely to be truthful to our poor CPU coolers. Earlier TDPs haven't been significantly consultant of, properly, a lot in any respect with Intel's previous few CPU generations, and so MTP, together with the brand new Processor Base Energy (PBP), seem just a little extra upfront.

The PBP of the Core i9 12900K is 125W, which is a match for the Core i9 11900K's TDP. Neither chip operates inside this energy envelope for essentially the most half, nonetheless. 

You may make issues worse by fiddling along with your chip's energy to make sure a secure overclock, which isn’t solely doable with the unlocked Ok-series processors, such because the Core i9 12900K, and suitable Z690 motherboards, however even encouraged by Intel this generation. 

The Z690 motherboard you select will play an necessary function in overclocking, however past that, the brand new chipset does have its advantages for everybody, overclocker or no.

For starters, there's PCIe 4.0 assist baked proper into the Z690 chipset, as much as 12 lanes of it. That accompanies the 16 lanes of PCIe 5.0 direct from the CPU, which implies you shouldn't find yourself in need of obtainable bandwidth on your GPU and a handful of speedy SSDs. The supply of loads of bandwidth additionally ensures there's the potential for loads of USB ports, though that can rely in your board selection.

Talking of bandwidth and the Core i9 12900K, like several of the twelfth Gen chips, it helps each DDR5 and DDR4 reminiscence kits. You'll must verify which your motherboard helps before you purchase, as no board helps each. So that you'll have to stay along with your determination, both means.

Benchmarks

How does the Intel Core i9 12900K carry out?

Intel's been speaking an enormous recreation in relation to Intel Alder Lake efficiency, and after getting my arms on the Core i9 12900K, I can't say I'm stunned, both. This chip does reclaim the gaming efficiency crown in virtually each recreation we examined, and sometimes by a big margin.

Let's not neglect what the Core i9 12900K is up towards. That's the Ryzen 9 5950X, probably the most effective processor AMD has ever put collectively and essentially the most well-suited desktop CPU for absolutely anything you throw at it. To not put down the Ryzen 9 5950X in any means, however the Core i9 12900K is just the much better gaming chip.

That's actually saying one thing for Intel's efforts in single-core enhancements on the Core i9 12900K. It's clocked to the heavens, which positive helps, however architecturally the Golden Cove P-Cores look like working wonders when it counts in gaming workloads.

One thing significantly noteworthy right here is Intel's efficiency in video games that historically favour AMD's chips, equivalent to Far Cry 6. These would normally be the video games the place we'd see the largest swings in direction of AMD's processors in efficiency, however whereas that’s true to some extent immediately, the Core i9 12900K has managed to move off any main advances into the lead from the Ryzen 9 5950X.

PC Gamer twelfth Gen check rig: Asus ROG Maximus Z690 Hero, Corsair Dominator @ 5,200MHz (efficient), Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080, 1TB WD Black SN850 PCIe 4.0, Asus ROG Ryujin II 360, NZXT 850W, DimasTech Mini V2, Home windows 11
PC Gamer eleventh Gen check rig: MSI MPG Z490 Carbon WiFi, Corsair Vengeance Professional RGB @ 3,600MHz (efficient), Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080, 1TB WD Black SN850 PCIe 4.0, Asus ROG Ryujin II 360, NZXT 850W, DimasTech Mini V2, Home windows 11
PC Gamer AMD check rig: Gigabyte X570 Aorus Grasp, Thermaltake DDR4 @ 3,600MHz, Zadak Spark AIO, 2TB Sabrent Rocket PCIe 4.0, Corsair 850W, Home windows 11

The identical goes for artificial single-core efficiency. Look to Cinebench R23, which I ran by a 10-minute cycle to make sure no energy draw humorous enterprise, and also you'll discover that the Core i9 12900K delivers an incredible leap in single-core efficiency over the most effective of Zen 3 within the Ryzen 9 5950X. Even the lower-clocked Core i5 12600K, too, delivers an enormous bump right here, in order that's completely a return to kind for Intel.

Pair its glorious single-threaded efficiency with the brand new wave of E-Cores and also you're onto a winner in multi-threaded efficiency, too. To my shock, the Core i9 12900K manages to outmuscle the Ryzen 9 5950X, a straight 16-core chip, in Cinebench R23. In Time Spy's CPU checks, it runs away with it. In all honesty, I wasn't anticipating the mix of P-Cores and E-Cores to do that in such a means.

The Ryzen 9 5950X does maintain its personal in x264 v5.0, nonetheless, and simply edges out the Core i9 12900K in Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Civilisation 6's flip time benchmark, the place AMD has been stronger lately. So it's not a flawless victory for Intel, although it’s nonetheless a really convincing one.

Although I’m lacking one benchmark outcome for Intel's Core i9 12900K: Murderer's Creed: Valhalla. The reason is it doesn't work on Alder Lake, or no less than our system and possibly a good few extra. As Intel informed me, “We’re conscious of a problem with Murderer’s Creed: Valhalla, and we’re working with the sport writer on a repair.” Although this does play into the marginally wobbly facet of Alder Lake at launch.

As I've mentioned earlier than, Alder Lake isn't an iterative replace to an already long-standing structure. For that, it seems some creases weren't ironed out forward of launch, and one is the occasional incompatible recreation, as Intel acknowledged forward of time with regard to DRM resolution, Denuvo.

Intel mentioned it was but to treatment a problem with Denuvo on Alder Lake for 32 video games, which was inflicting points enjoying these video games on the platform, however the the rest of the library was good to go.

So clearly there are nonetheless some areas to run the iron over, even post-launch. I can solely be hopeful that these points are solved early on and that new releases are appropriately optimised for Alder Lake. I’d assume so, however I can't say for positive. So sit tight, and if you happen to're an enormous Murderer's Creed: Valhalla fan, possibly stick along with your outdated CPU for a short while earlier than upgrading to the twelfth Gen.

With regards to CPU energy and thermal efficiency, as I discussed earlier than, the Core i9 12900K just isn’t essentially the most power-savvy chip going. No less than in its default, out-of-the-box, state.

Intel has clearly nonetheless needed to push its Core i9 package deal to the nines to verify it's able to beating AMD's high Ryzen processor, and meaning I'm seeing a a lot increased energy draw underneath load than AMD's Ryzen 9 5950X throughout x264 v5.0 benchmarking, at a 53% improve, and a 6°C improve in peak temperature.

That's even in extra of the Core i9 11900K, the chip notorious for its excessive wattage draw. Although Intel writes this off as saying that, if you happen to have been to drop the Core i9 12900K to even a fraction of its 241W MTP, at simply 65W, it might nonetheless be a match for the Core i9 11900K. 

No less than the efficiency is there to justify the leap in wattage by the use of comparability with Intel's personal chips, however subsequent to AMD's processors it nonetheless seems comparatively excessive.

Evaluation

What does the Intel Core i9 12900K imply for PC gaming? 

I discussed in the beginning of this overview that it's necessary to concentrate on the real-world efficiency and functionality of those chips, and never get too misplaced within the competitors facet of all of it. However hey, I'm human, and the continuing tug-of-war backwards and forwards between Intel and AMD is considered one of my favorite spectator sports activities. So let's get into what the Core i9 12900K, and the broader Alder Lake twelfth Gen launch, means for that all-important battle.

Beginning with comparisons to Intel's earlier technology, the eleventh Gen, and the Core i9 11900K felt like a processor launched to say the world's quickest gaming processor title, With the Core i9 12900K, Intel might have constructed one that really deserves it.

As each a proposition to players immediately and a glimpse of what's to return from Intel, the Core i9 12900K is an extremely thrilling chip and one we've been ready to get our arms on for a very long time. It's an thrilling platform, too. Typically enjoying catch-up to AMD this previous half-decade, Intel is delivering the most recent applied sciences, equivalent to DDR5 and PCIe 5.0, forward of AMD this time.

Pricing is what largely decides our opinion of those spectacular processors, and rumours had initially foretold of a a lot nearer pricing battle between Intel's twelfth Gen and AMD's Ryzen 5000-series. Intel's pricing wasn't fairly as sky-high as anticipated, although, and we're left with a state of affairs the place Intel's twelfth Gen might put a number of strain on AMD's Ryzen 5000-series.

Let's hone in on the Core i9 12900K we're discussing right here immediately. This chip is listed at its most cost-effective at $589 on Intel's Ark product database, and that's $210 cheaper than the MSRP of the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X. To be truthful to AMD, although, let's draw a comparability between the precise on-sale worth of those two chips proper now as an alternative, that are extra like $649 for the Core i9 12900K and $749 for the Ryzen 9 5950X.

When you have been to really hit the checkout with both chip immediately, that makes for roughly a $100 saving with Intel's Core i9 over AMD's Ryzen 9.

That's most likely going to have an effect on AMD's outlook, as the corporate not has a completely unmatched fanatic desktop processor. The Core i9 12900K is a match, and it's cheaper, successfully shifting the bar for future fanatic desktop processors from each corporations.

For AMD, that might look like its 3D V-Cache processors, which it says are already in manufacturing and will enhance gaming efficiency by as much as 15%. When you scan over my benchmarking numbers, that has the potential to as soon as once more give AMD a lead in lots of video games. However these chips are going to must ship a major enhance to compete at their present costs, and for as soon as it's AMD within the scorching seat to justify its premium pricing relatively than the opposite means round. 

No less than AMD's AM4 platform affords loads of cheaper motherboards immediately, one thing we might have to attend round for a bit longer to see from Intel's board companions.

There are additionally nonetheless some finer factors to work out with Alder Lake as I write this, although it's been much less hit-or-miss in testing than I had anticipated it to be at instances throughout its growth and unveiling. In the end, although, it looks like Intel has made ahead progress with Alder Lake, and that may solely be a very good factor for our gaming PCs. Extra competitors begets extra aggressive costs, extra aggressive characteristic units, and sooner adoption of up-to-date requirements.

For these causes, and for its pure velocity benefit immediately, the Intel Core i9 12900K means quite a bit for PC gaming.

Verdict

From an fanatic's viewpoint, and the Core i9 12900K is an fanatic chip in spite of everything, this chip completely obliterates earlier Intel generations by most metrics: single-threaded efficiency, multithreaded efficiency, clock velocity, and reminiscence efficiency. And also you're most likely paying much less for the privilege, which is de facto saying one thing at the present time.

From a gamer's viewpoint, the Core i9 12900K can ship the efficiency to recreation, stream, seize, and extra, abruptly. Although it should be mentioned that cheaper chips such because the Core i5 12600K would seem the extra wise purchase if you happen to're primarily gaming, since even the Core i5 makes mincemeat of the eleventh Gen Core i9 for PC players, and can solely hinder your graphics card at 4K and past as a lot as most different fashionable processors.

To tie a bow on it, if you happen to're genuinely available in the market for a brand new processor at this second and also you need the most effective for gaming, the Core i9 12900K is that and extra. The Z690 platform affords the one means into essentially the most cutting-edge applied sciences round immediately, and for PC builders in 2021, it's positive good to know you received't be falling behind the curve in 2022 as soon as PCIe 5.0 and DDR5 are extra extensively adopted.

So if you happen to match the fanatic profile and don't thoughts some added platform prices, sure, you should purchase the Core i9 12900K.