News Intel Core i9-12900K and Core i5-12600K Review: Retaking the Gaming Crown

[helper800]

Indeed, specially since the 12400 wont have the efficient cores at disposal.

Which will likely also mean that win10 will be an option at no detriment to performance!

 

[RodroX]

Which will make it immediately be a worse deal compared to the other 12 th gen with e cores since prices will not change, the 12400 will cost as much as the 11400 but won't have any ecores.

It will depend on the cost yes, but if it manage to get at least a +15% performance advantage on every task (gaming and productivity) vs 11400 it will become a nice entry level chip for the new B660 platform.

Sadly, Im not sure it will be able to get that much increase considering the mixed result we saw today with the 12600K which have the e-cores and higher frecuency.

 

[ezst036]

Any word on what Linux support for thread scheduling is like? I'm curious how this will affect server and workstation folks.

Tom's creates news articles linking directly to Phoronix on its own, so I don't feel bad linking there for this:

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=intel-12600k-12900k

To date Intel has not posted any Linux kernel patches for providing any software optimizations around this hybrid architecture and the new Intel Thread Director. Hopefully they will soon but already it is too late for seeing in Linux 5.16.

For some workloads it was clear when they were pegging the E cores when instead should have been to P cores ... in terms of the intelligent handling between P and E cores, there is more work to be done for Linux.

Considering that Intel has its own Linux distribution (Clear Linux) I am a little surprised by this.

 

[gigastrash]

Synthetic tests show Intel is faster, real world tests: application - lets say its on par, or Intel slower.

Let's say ???

What are these Synthetic tests ?? Handbrake video encoding synthetic !?? Adobe premiere pro ?? 3d rendering benchmark like cinebench ? Microsoft excel ?/

Alder lake seem to be winning in most of these benchmarks.... Specially if you look at 12600K vs 5800X

12600KF cost only 299 dollars in newegg
https://www.newegg.com/intel-core-i...=12600KF&cm_re=12600KF-_-19-118-349-_-Product

5800X cost 394 dollars in newegg
https://www.newegg.com/amd-ryzen-7-...e=5800X-_-19-113-665-_-Product&quicklink=true

Synthetic tests show Intel is faster, real world tests: application - lets say its on par, or Intel slower. Gaming - TLDR shows 9% more FPS. But:

• with much higher power draw -> performance /watt lower by ~30 to 40%? power draw means bigger/costly cooling solution, more powerfull PSU etc.

There is small difference in power consumption between 12600K and 5800X

12900K power consumption is high because of high default stock speed... Power consumption and clock speed don't have linear relation

According to other reviews I have seen, 12900K does not consume a lot of power when gaming (not higher than 5950X and 5900X).. It is only high when doing stress test or running heavy benchmark like blender..

Personally, what matters for me is low power, silence, efficiency and performance at real world tasks. As it goes for gaming, there is really not much to show from intel, especially these differences will show up only with the monster-type GPU. And I couldnt care more for difference between 140 and 150 fps in Far Cry.

I do agree gaming performance don't matter if you have 140 or 150.... Honestly I don't even care if I get 80 fps or 200fps

But 12600KF is better than 5800X anyway

- Because it faster in most applications., cheaper and consume almost same power...... So no reason to buy 5800X anymore unless you hardcore AMD fanboy.

 

[Why_Me]

Which will make it immediately be a worse deal compared to the other 12 th gen with e cores since prices will not change, the 12400 will cost as much as the 11400 but won't have any ecores.

The 12400 + B660 will be a favorite for gamers imo depending on the price of the B660 boards.

 

[joker965]

Let's say ???

What are these Synthetic tests ?? Handbrake video encoding synthetic !?? Adobe premiere pro ?? 3d rendering benchmark like cinebench ? Microsoft excel ?/

Alder lake seem to be winning in most of these benchmarks.... Specially if you look at 12600K vs 5800X

12600KF cost only 299 dollars in newegg
https://www.newegg.com/intel-core-i...=12600KF&cm_re=12600KF-_-19-118-349-_-Product

5800X cost 394 dollars in newegg
https://www.newegg.com/amd-ryzen-7-...e=5800X-_-19-113-665-_-Product&quicklink=true

There is small difference in power consumption between 12600K and 5800X

12900K power consumption is high because of high default stock speed... Power consumption and clock speed don't have linear relation

According to other reviews I have seen, 12900K does not consume a lot of power when gaming (not higher than 5950X and 5900X).. It is only high when doing stress test or running heavy benchmark like blender..



I do agree gaming performance don't matter if you have 140 or 150.... Honestly I don't even care if I get 80 fps or 200fps

But 12600KF is better than 5800X anyway

- Because it faster in most applications., cheaper and consume almost same power...... So no reason to buy 5800X anymore unless you hardcore AMD fanboy.

These new Intel offerings look promising. The total cost of the new platform needs to be considered however when making a comparison.

 

[helper800]

- Because it faster in most applications., cheaper and consume almost same power...... So no reason to buy 5800X anymore unless you hardcore AMD fanboy.

So the thing is, its not cheaper if you factor in the cost of current LGA1700 motherboards and DDR5 RAM

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X 3.8 GHz 8-Core Processor ($379.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus ROG STRIX B550-F GAMING (WI-FI) ATX AM4 Motherboard ($184.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL16 Memory ($153.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $718.97
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2021-11-04 13:22 EDT-0400

vs.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i5-12600KF 3.7 GHz 6-Core Processor ($299.99)
Motherboard: Asus PRIME Z690-P ATX LGA1700 Motherboard ($229.99 @ B&H)
Memory: Crucial 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-4800 CL40 Memory ($273.99)
Total: $803.97
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2021-11-04 13:28 EDT-0400

 

[-Fran-]

That i5 looks juicy. YEH BOI.

Now to wait until DDR5 comes down to more reasonable prices with faster kits, lol.

Anyone on anything newer than 9K Gen (maybe even 8K) should be fine without upgrading just yet and hold out. Older than that, Alder Lake seems like a respectable upgrade if you have the money for the Z-board and the DDR5... And can live with the Win11 quirks.

Regards.

 

[King_V]

The loss of AVX512 is unfortunate because Intel engineering did an AMA not long ago where they stated that they're going to continue pushing AVX512. I'm expecting this to return on future iterations of this architecture once they sort out the additional complexity in the ISA. Intel is not going to confirm or deny that today. 🙂I'm going to build one of these anyway since I keep two rigs, but for someone looking to keep a machine further out, AVX512 has proven to be extremely potent when it's used.

I was a little curious about that. Then again, maybe they thought this chip might suffer in any AVX-512-related benchmarks?

Or maybe Linus Torvalds hurt Intel's feelings about it? Or maybe he's quite right about it?

It's not the sort of workload I'm at all familiar with, so.. 🤷‍♂️

 

[kinney]

I was a little curious about that. Then again, maybe they thought this chip might suffer in any AVX-512-related benchmarks?

The same chip can see a 20-fold performance improvement in some workloads. Intel spends a lot of money and effort on compilers and software (including Windows 11's upcoming Android support) . That's just a reality so it's really just buyer-beware, things should be carefully considered if keeping a system for a long period of time. Intel and Nvidia have proven that software support matters as much, if not more, than hardware. Both invest heavily into software. This shouldn't be dismissed outright. I pretty much buy everything from both Intel and AMD, but I personally want it on my main rig going forward.

Since I posted my comment, I've found other reviews revealed that Alder Lake does indeed have AVX512, and it is not fused off. It's not only there, it works. So I was definitely correct, AVX512 was intended for ADL and will certainly return in later chips, if not be enabled later on in these.

 

[TerryLaze]

I was a little curious about that. Then again, maybe they thought this chip might suffer in any AVX-512-related benchmarks?

Or maybe Linus Torvalds hurt Intel's feelings about it? Or maybe he's quite right about it?

It's not the sort of workload I'm at all familiar with, so.. 🤷‍♂️

If you have to turn off the ecores for it to work then it completely destroys the reason for them to bring out a big.bigger arch in the first place.
First priority for intel is to make the new arch look good and if every review would shut them off to show avx (or to make software that uses avx work in the first place) it would be bad for the image.

Is avx x86 specific? Because I can see them putting it into the gpu or making a separate unit just for avx. Since putting avx into the ecores would make them not be efficient cores anymore.

 

[D1v1n3D]

lol 3dvcache with a bump in frequency is going to crush this 7 to 10% lead lol you all know it. this is why AMD waited so they can save money on how they are going to approach and retake the crown within weeks. Now they don't really need to add frequency boost to 5900x to match the 5950x they can be lazy and just use the vcache and still come out on top in most scenarios along with appealing to the majority windows 10 user base as windows 11 adoption is even slower than windows 10 for good reason its bugged for traditional CPU's. Again this will lower prices for AMD good thing but I'm waiting to replace my 3800x with a 5900x3D and low cl 4000mhz ddr4. I will wait for am5 to do a complete system rebuild unless 13th gen aka 14th they will skip that title for superstitious beliefs. AMD is not going to back off they have more funding than they ever had and they have an engineer as CEO who understands the chip design fully. For sure this is a good step and direction for Intel I hope 13/14th gen really adds to this only forces AMD to do what they can to compete WE ALL WIN lol so long as prices don't shoot sky high like GPU's

 

[Phaaze88]

Hoo-wee, I've been through several reviews(Tom's, TPU, HWUB, GN, Kitguru, Jayz, Linus, Paul's)...
Intel's 12900K wins some, and it loses some.
1)This is my main argument which I can't argue enough - though some are going to do it anyway - but don't early adopt. Some of the following arguments(see, I used it three times) are because of this.
2)Windows 11 still needs to iron out some kinks. Honestly, I think 12th gen and Ryzen 5000 should be re-reviewed after several more months.
3)Just skip DDR4 motherboard options. DDR5 kits will only get better with time. The ones out now 'suck', and if you get 12th gen with a DDR4 combo, you'll be 'inclined' to change later. Just ouch.
4)Overclocking's doors are open for custom liquid and LN2 users. Everyone else would be better served undervolting.
5)Probably best to forget about air cooling this cpu for games. The power that can be generated in that small package appears to be too much for them.
Yes, some reviews have shown that air cooling is off the table for this cpu specifically in all core workloads, but there are some games out there that can do this to, or similar. They probably can be counted on your fingers, but they are there, and there will be more to come.
We don't know what this person plays, or what that person plays, or what they're going to play later on - better to play it safe and go liquid, 280mm or bigger.
The 11900K and 10900K can be cooled reasonably well on air, but not this one.

It's ok, but I strongly suggest waiting it out some more months, or skipping to 13th gen - perhaps the Rzyen equivalent - entirely.
Haven't seen that many 12600K reviews yet - there might be a more compelling reason for 12th gen with that one.

 

[Eximo]

It's ok, but I strongly suggest waiting it out some more months, or skipping to 13th gen - perhaps the Rzyen equivalent - entirely.
Haven't seen that many 12600K reviews yet - there might be a more compelling reason for 12th gen with that one.

Skipping. Don't want to pay the DDR5 tax, don't want to deal with random incompatibilities.

1st->4th->7th->10th, 13th would fit the pattern well, but I suspect Zen 4 to be quite something as well.

 

[MerrHeLL]

This article was bought and paid for by "Wintel" No objectivity or fair basis given. Fix the Windows 11 bug for Ryzen and this whole review flips. Even with the bug, Ryzens are still winning as long as your at 2K or above

 

[Phaaze88]

Skipping. Don't want to pay the DDR5 tax, don't want to deal with random incompatibilities.

Yeah. I like how someone in another comment section put it: 12th gen is kinda like Intel's version of Ryzen 1000.

 

[VforV]

After watching both HUB's and GN's reviews both showed +7% more performance in games for 12900k vs Zen3 and that's all I need to know.

+7% is laughable, those synthetics and click bait leaks of +50% are BS, like I said then.

I'm really, really NOT impressed at all by the 12900k... Is this the best intel has now? +7% better in games vs Zen3 at 1080p?

Alder Lake comes one year later, it's much more expensive (the entire platform, CPU + big water cooler, expensive MB and DDR5), consumes more power even though it has 8 big + 8 little cores vs Zen3's 16 big cores (so that's laughable), it's hotter, it needs Win11 and DDR5 (though it malfunctions sometimes) and this is the result? Yeah, not impressed...

I'm glad competition is back, because prices should get lower for Zen3, which is good, but the best Alder Lake CPU is a mixed bag and really not impressive.
Zen 3D can't come soon enough, it will have no problem achieving at least parity in performance while also being a cheaper platform and more efficient.

Now imagine Zen4 with DDR5 when it's also matured... that one also will come before Raptor Lake."

 

[alanwu]

Which graph in the section Windows 11: Adobe Premiere Pro, Photoshop, Lightroom on Core i9-12900K" corresponds to the test for Adobe Photoshop?

 

[hotaru251]

LTT chart of its most concerning issue...power and heat outside of gaming.
this is with an NH-D15.
not even the best air cooler on market can control the thermals. (and a massive 230w power draw)

 

[Zarax]

We put Intel's new Core i9-12900K and Core i5-2600K through the wringer in Windows 10 and 11 testing with DDR4 and DDR5 memory.

Intel Core i9-12900K and Core i5-12600K Review: Retaking the Gaming Crown : Read more

Hello Paul, what kind of cooling was used for the 12900k in the review? Thanks!

 

[King_V]

Hello Paul, what kind of cooling was used for the 12900k in the review? Thanks!

At the bottom after the end of the review there is a table that says "Core i9-12900K and Core i5-12600K Test System Configurations"

It shows:

Cooling

Corsair H115i, Custom loop

 

[RodroX]

Hello Paul, what kind of cooling was used for the 12900k in the review? Thanks!

Im guessing thats the part of the article that said "Custom Loop". Cause we all know Corsair H115i should not work well on Alder Lake as it is today, even if you can mount it, it would not do great contact.

The Corsair aio was probably used for AM4, 10th and 12th gen.

 

[rtoaht]

So the thing is, its not cheaper if you factor in the cost of current LGA1700 motherboards and DDR5 RAM

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X 3.8 GHz 8-Core Processor ($379.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus ROG STRIX B550-F GAMING (WI-FI) ATX AM4 Motherboard ($184.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL16 Memory ($153.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $718.97
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2021-11-04 13:22 EDT-0400

vs.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i5-12600KF 3.7 GHz 6-Core Processor ($299.99)
Motherboard: Asus PRIME Z690-P ATX LGA1700 Motherboard ($229.99 @ B&H)
Memory: Crucial 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-4800 CL40 Memory ($273.99)
Total: $803.97
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2021-11-04 13:28 EDT-0400

I am astonished to see just how many people doesn't know that Alder Lake also supports cheap DDR4 memory. The i5-12600KF will still beat Ryzen 7-5800X even with DDR4 in both multi threaded and single threaded benchmarks and real world applications. The gaming scores will actually be even better with 12600KF using DDR4 vs DDR5 due to DDR4 having lower latency. So i5-12600KF is the ultimate value king. Just accept and move on.

 

[helper800]

I am astonished to see just how many people doesn't know that Alder Lake also supports cheap DDR4 memory. The i5-12600KF will still beat Ryzen 7-5800X even with DDR4 in both multi threaded and single threaded benchmarks and real world applications. The gaming scores will actually be even better with 12600KF using DDR4 vs DDR5 due to DDR4 having lower latency. So i5-12600KF is the ultimate value king. Just accept and move on.

I did know that Alder Lake supports DDR4. There does not seem to be a point in arguing with you, so I will just state my opinion. There is no point in getting a z690 board with DDR4 support because DDR5 performs the same or better in almost every scenario. Also DDR5 is only ever going to get faster as it matures so if you go a DDR4 board you will be gimping yourself later on. The 12600kf is only ever just slightly better than a 5800x with a 3090 playing games at 1080p which nearly nobody does. As soon as you go to 1440p+ or have lets say a 3060 ti, that performance difference melts. You also have to stick with Window 11 which is objectively terrible in its current state to actually take advantage of the new architecture. So I will not "accept and move on."

 

[TerryLaze]

5)Probably best to forget about air cooling this cpu for games. The power that can be generated in that small package appears to be too much for them.
Yes, some reviews have shown that air cooling is off the table for this cpu specifically in all core workloads, but there are some games out there that can do this to, or similar. They probably can be counted on your fingers, but they are there, and there will be more to come.
We don't know what this person plays, or what that person plays, or what they're going to play later on - better to play it safe and go liquid, 280mm or bigger.
The 11900K and 10900K can be cooled reasonably well on air, but not this one.

I agree with all your other points but this one is just hyperbole, you are not forced to use the CPU at whatever the mobo happens to come at as default, you can go into the bios and select whatever power you want.
The 5900x running at 88w is 8% faster than the 12900k running at 88W, it's not the end of the world, you don't need any heavy cooling or a good board for 88W.
At 125W the 12900k matches the 5950x at 88w, 125 compared to 88W isn't going to break the bank, heat will be practically the same and you don't need any better equipment.
The difference between the 12900k at 125w and at 241w is a laughable 7-10%

Intel Core i9-12900K, i7-12700K & i5-12600K im Test: Leistung und Effizienz P- vs. E-Core

Intel Alder Lake im Test: Leistung und Effizienz P- vs. E-Core / Wie effizient ist die Hybrid-Architektur?

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