Cutress, Ian (October 28, 2019). "The Intel Core i9-9990XE Review: All 14 Cores at 5.0 GHz". AnandTech . Retrieved November 2, 2019. The primary competition to the Intel Core i9-12900K would be the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X, though you could also include the Ryzen 9 5900X with its still-impressive 12 core and 24 thread configuration. As one can see from the above benchmarks, AMD remained ahead of Intel's older Core i9-11900K processor, but that's all changed with Alder Lake. Windows 11 is really new. So new in fact that performance issues on various platforms are still being fixed: recently a patch was put out to correct an issue with AMD L3 cache sizes, for example. Even when Intel presented data against AMD last week, it had to admit that they didn’t have the patch yet. Other reviewers have showcased a number of performance consistency issues with the OS when simply changing CPUs in the same system. The interplay of a new operating system that may improve performance, combined with a new heterogeneous core design, combined with new memory, and limited testing time (guess who’s CPUs were held in customs for a week), means that for the next few weeks, or months, we’re going to be seeing new performance numbers and comparisons crop up. You can also connect your PC to multiple 4K monitors and other accessories, all with one reversible cable. The 12th Gen Intel® Core™ processor family—our most innovative platform yet—enables Thunderbolt™ 4, the simplest, fastest, most reliable port available 4.

In our review of the Core i9-11900K, we found that the 12-core, 24-thread Ryzen 9 5900X so regularly beat it out in content creation that, for the whole enchilada in 2021, Ryzen is usually the most reasonable way to go. For gamers, AMD has also eaten Intel's lunch this time around, and while some of the outright frame-rate victories of the previous-gen Core i9-10900K might look tempting at first, to our eyes, the results aren't far enough ahead of the stellar Ryzen 5800X to make any Core i9 processors an explicit recommendation over what AMD would offer at the same price. And while normally we'd take the rest of this section to talk about all the nuances of the results and what they could mean for Intel's new position in PC gamer's minds, there's just one problem we noted: The Core i9-12900K can't play every game. Italics intentional. Intel even provided several custom "workflow" benchmarks to its reviewer pool this time, designed to simulate those scenarios where the impact of its hybrid-architecture approach (and Thread Director's effect) would be most apparent. A small word on power (see this article for more info) – rather than giving a simple ‘TDP’ value as in previous generations, which only specified the power at a base frequency, Intel is expanding to providing both a Base power and a Turbo power this time around. On top of that, Intel is also making these processors have ‘infinite Turbo time’, meaning that with the right cooling, users should expect these processors to run up to the Turbo power indefinitely during heavy workloads. Intel giving both numbers is a welcome change, although some users have criticized the decreasing turbo power for Core i7 and Core i5. All other chips for comparison were ran as tests listed in our benchmark database, Bench, on Windows 10.All models support up to DDR5-4800 or DDR4-3200 memory, and 16 lanes of PCI Express 5.0 + 4 lanes of PCIe 4.0. We test CPUs using a variety of synthetic benchmarks that offer proprietary scores, as well as real-world tests using consumer apps such as 7-Zip, Adobe Photoshop, and Adobe Premiere (the latter two using Puget Systems' PugetBench for Photoshop and Premiere extensions), multiplayer games like Rainbow Six: Siege, and AAA 3D games such as Assassin's Creed Valhalla. CPU-Centric Tests The full 12th Gen Intel Core family will include 60 processors, set to power more than 500 designs from a broad set of partners. As detailed during Intel Architecture Day 2021, the new performance hybrid architecture, the first built on Intel 7 process, delivers scalable performance from 9 to 125 watts to enable every PC segment from ultra-thin-and-light laptops to enthusiast desktops and out to the edge.

No, your eyes don't deceive you: Intel has carried its wins from content creation right on through to gaming, and for the first time in too long, has released a desktop gaming CPU that's competitive with AMD on both price and performance. Sure, games like F1 2021 are a "gimme" due to their RAM sensitivity, but both the 3DMark and Rainbow Six Siege results leave us optimistic that Intel can keep pace in the gaming race for at least the next several months (if rumors of Zen 4's launch date prove true). One Gaming Caveat, Though...Intel processor numbers are not a measure of performance. Processor numbers differentiate features within each processor family, not across different processor families. See http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/processors/processor-numbers.html for details. Every new degree of freedom to test is arguably a doubling of testing, so in this case 2 3 means 8x more testing than a normal review. Fun times. But the point to drill down to here is the last one.

FHD+ (1920 x 1200) IPS, 500 nits, 165Hz refresh rate with OverDrive, 100% sRGB, up to VESA DisplayHDR™ 400 Certified, Dolby Vision® support, NVIDIA® G-SYNC™ support, 16:10 aspect ratio The results were impressive, the 5400MHz boost bumped up our benchmark results, but the added heat did cause the 360mm AIO to ramp up to keep temperatures down. The Core i9 was hitting 90C in Cinebench R23 synthetic tests, which wouldn't be the case in games (Ashes of a Singularity, GTA V, Mount & Blade II, etc.) and more realistic tasks, settling at around 66C across the board.All models support: SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AVX, AVX2, FMA3, Speed Shift Technology (SST), Intel 64, XD bit (an NX bit implementation), Intel VT-x, Intel VT-d, Hyper-threading, Turbo Boost 3.0, AES-NI, Smart Cache, Thread Director, DL Boost, and GNA 3.0. This resulted in a near-parity gain in our F1 2021 run, as well as around a 5% bump to Cinebench R23 and the Puget Systems/Adobe Photoshop test. Not a huge bump, but also one that was the easiest to achieve given the one-slider tools provided to us by Intel. As one example for gaming, when paired with an NVIDIA RTX 3080, the Core i9 had no issues playing Doom Eternal at 3840x1600 resolution with graphics set to Ultra Nightmare (the highest) with DLSS (Quality), ray tracing enabled, and adaptive refresh — basically maxed out. Specifically, we consistently hit 144 frames-per-second (FPS) without a hitch. However, these results were achievable with the new Core i5-12600, which is just as impressive. As always, it's more about your GPU than CPU still for many top-tier games. The idea is that with Windows 11, it all works. With Windows 10, it almost all works. The main difference Intel told us is although Windows 10 can separate cores apart, and hyperthreads, it doesn’t really understand efficiency that well. So its decisions are made more in regards to performance requirements, rather than performance vs efficiency. At the end of the day, all this should mean to the user is that Windows 10 tries to minimizes the run-to-run variation, but Windows 11 does it better. Ultimate best-case performance shouldn’t change in any serious way: a single thread on a P-core, or across several P-cores for example, should perform the same. Let’s Talk Testing

A Leap in Content Creation Performance: Advancements in multi-threaded performance, the responsive performance of the P-cores and the ability to move data at incredible speeds with DDR5 enable leadership across all types of content creation experiences, including: We ran the Photoshop and Premiere Pro versions of these benchmarks, which showed some impressive results that shouldn't be shoved aside as mere marketing hoopla. (More on that in a minute.) New Day, New Power DefinitionsFirst up, CPU tests. We ran the various CPUs below (including the Alder Lake chips) under Windows 10, on appropriate testbeds built fresh for this generation of CPUs. (We also reran some of the tests on the Core i9-12900K under Windows 11 to get Thread Director into the mix.) Intel® Thread Directorenables the two new core microarchitectures to work seamlessly together by guiding the operating system (OS) to place the right thread on the right core at the right time. Intel has worked with the ecosystem on extensive testing to optimize performance and compatibility, and as part of the company’s reinforced investments in the developer community, has published white papers for developers with guidance on how independent software vendors can optimize applications for performance hybrid platforms. AMD may still be king of multi-core tasks with the Ryzen 9 5950X, but that doesn't mean the Core i9-12900K is a slouch. Far from it as this CPU boasts impressive single-core scores, as well as decent enough numbers for multi-core tasks that would make AMD sweat slightly. You should not buy this if ... All models support up to DDR5-5600, or DDR4-3200 memory, up to 16 lanes of PCI Express 5.0, and up to 4 lanes of PCI Express 4.0.