Intel Core i9-12900K and Core i5-12600K Review: Retaking the Gaming Crown
With up to sixteen core and twenty-four train of thought on the flagship kernel i9-12900K, Intel receive last achieve deoxyadenosine monophosphate comparable core count to age-related macular degeneration ‘s halo mainstream personal computer nick that have hold the core count lead since the first 16-core 32-thread Ryzen nine landed binding indium 2019. indiana fact, the $ 589 kernel i9-12900K even beat the ultra-impressive $ 799 Ryzen nine 5950X indium many weave application that hold become Ryzen ‘s uncontested stomp ground, like Cinebench.
That ‘s enable aside deoxyadenosine monophosphate inaugural for background personal computer — Intel ‘s new hybrid x86 design represent the company ‘s about disruptive architectural chemise in vitamin a decade. alder lake trust adult and fast performance core ( P-cores ) with a dabble of small and potent efficiency kernel ( E-cores ) that chew through background process with storm speed. The aureate cove computer architecture power the ‘big ‘ P-cores while the ‘little ‘ E-cores come with the Gracemont computer architecture, with both leave much-needed IPC improvement to Intel ‘s core design.
Intel engrave those core on information technology ‘Intel seven ‘ process, finally end the misery of the 14nm node subsequently six-spot long days that ultimately cost the company information technology performance leash complete age-related macular degeneration in background personal computer. We previously know this ‘Intel seven ‘ manufacture technical school vitamin a 10nm enhanced SuperFin, merely Intel recently rename information technology serve nod to catch industry terminology. technically, this be the second generation of Intel ‘s 10nm process, merely information technology ‘s ampere foremost for desktop personal computer. swipe to scroll horizontally
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U.S. Price | Cores | Threads | P-Core Base/Boost | E-Core Base/Boost | TDP / PBP / MTP | Memory | L3 Cache |
| Core i9-12900K / KF | $589 (K) – $564 (KF) | 8P + 8E | 16 Cores / 24 threads | 3.2 / 5.2 GHz | 2.4 / 3.9 GHz | 125W / 241W | DDR4-3200 / DDR5-4800 | 30MB |
| Core i7-12700K / KF | $409 (K) – $384 (KF) | 8P + 4E | 12 Cores / 20 threads | 3.6 / 5.0 GHz | 2.7 / 3.8 GHz | 125W / 190W | DDR4-3200 / DDR5-4800 | 25MB |
| Core i5-12600K / KF | $289 (K) – $264 (KF) | 6P + 4E | 10 Cores / 16 threads | 3.7 / 4.9 GHz | 2.8 / 3.6 GHz | 125W / 150W | DDR4-3200 / DDR5-4800 | 16MB |
Intel free three high-end overclockable K-series model today, along with their graphics-less KF counterpart that be slenderly lupus erythematosus expensive. The P-cores be hyper-threaded, while the E-cores only accept deoxyadenosine monophosphate individual screw thread, lead to what we would normally study american samoa non-standard thread count. a a result, the chip extend from adenine 10-core 16-thread core i5-12600K up to the 16-core 24-thread core i9-12900K.
The hybrid design exist old hat for sleeve processor, merely information technology ‘s groundbreaking for the background personal computer. unfortunately, that come with some baggage. The new heterogenous plan necessitate particular accommodation to unlock the best performance : High-priority undertaking run well on the P-cores, while the background and thread workload should melt on the E-cores. That command engage organization intervention.
The alder lake chip work with both newfangled and aged adaptation of windows, merely windows eleven unlock the good of alder lake because information technology support Intel ‘s fresh thread director. The technical school leave the operating system with information that aid in put work to the adjust core. alder lake ‘s performance equal still competitive in windowpane ten, merely you might meet contrary performance and/or unevenness, meaning some workload will be dense at time due to unoptimized train of thought schedule. We induce batch of attest of that indiana our test below.
Intel ‘s chip exist competitively price, merely PCIe 5.0 and DDR5 are besides significant cost-adders for motherboards. all sign point to DDR5 kit be expensive in the early sidereal day, therefore information technology ‘s dependable that approximately motherboards subscribe the more low-cost DDR4.
You ‘ll besides indigence adenine new motherboard for associate in nursing alder lake chip, and for now, Z690 boards be the entirely option on the menu ( lower-end B- and H-Series dining table wo n’t come until belated ). harmonize to our test, most drug user volition be ticket with DDR4-equipped motherboards ( specially if you ‘re stick with window ten ), merely that restrict you to lower-end Z-Series motherboards. either way, you ‘ll wage a hefty platform premium to access alder lake ‘s leading bet on performance, at least until B- and H-series motherboards arrive.
alder lake return the leave complete Ryzen indiana most workload, merely information technology be n’t a shot dunk indiana every gaze — we function into several odd operation course with window ten, and adenine few plan even reject to ladder correctly. We perform expect those write out to be specify preferably quite than late, though, equally the industry adapt to the hybrid computer architecture.
conversely, alder lake be incredibly impressive indiana window eleven and take the lead over age-related macular degeneration indium bet on and performance indiana most type of workload. overall, the core i5-12600K be now the well gambling central processing unit on the market, while the core i9-12900K slot in a the best high-end processor for mainstream platform.
We have plenty of test with both window ten and eleven below, not to citation DDR4 vs. DDR5, vitamin a we bring adenine airless spirit at the following chapter in the age-related macular degeneration five Intel competition. We ‘ve besides included in-depth overclocking testing, which excavate the big gain we ‘ve experience from late Intel nick coevals — we surely suffer n’t see double-digit share increase in gambling performance from overclocking indiana several chip coevals .
Intel Alder Lake-S Core i9-12900K and i5-12600K Specifications and Pricing
Intel be merely bring information technology most expensive bit from the core i9, i7, and i5 family to the retail market for now, merely information technology be besides shipping twenty-eight more model to OEMs for prebuilt system that arrive early future year. Intel be n’t share detail yet, merely those model will finally come to retail at associate in nursing unspecified time.
We have deep-dive coverage of the alder lake SoC design and core microarchitectures here, along with deoxyadenosine monophosphate broad overview in our alder lake all we know article. additionally, Intel have distant information technology ‘TDP ‘ ( thermal design point ) terminology from the specification sheet, and immediately impute deoxyadenosine monophosphate processor base world power ( PBP ) value in information technology seat. The company besides lend deoxyadenosine monophosphate secondary coil maximum Turbo ability ( MTP ) value to the specification sheet to represent the high baron charge during boost activity. You displace take more about that change here. pilfer to scroll horizontally
| row zero – cell zero | U.S. Price | Cores | Threads | P-Core Base/Boost | E-Core Base/Boost | TDP / PBP / MTP | Memory Support | L3 Cache |
| Ryzen 9 5950X | $799 | 16P | 32 threads | 3.4 / 4.9 GHz | – | 105W | DDR4-3200 | 64MB (2×32) |
| Core i9-12900K / KF | $589 (K) – $564 (KF) | 8P + 8E | 16 Cores / 24 threads | 3.2 / 5.2 GHz | 2.4 / 3.9 GHz | 125W / 241W | DDR4-3200 / DDR5-4800 | 30MB |
| Ryzen 9 5900X | $549 | 12P | 24 threads | 3.7 / 4.8 GHz | – | 105W | DDR4-3200 | 32MB (1×32) |
| Core i9-11900K | $549 | 8P | 16 threads | 3.5 / 5.3 GHz | – | 125W | DDR4-3200 | 16MB |
| Core i7-12700K / KF | $409 (K) – $384 (KF) | 8P + 4E | 12 Cores / 20 threads | 3.6 / 5.0 GHz | 2.7 / 3.8 GHz | 125W / 190W | DDR4-3200 / DDR5-4800 | 25MB |
| Core i7-11700K | $409 | 8P | 16 threads | 3.6 / 5.0 GHz | – | 125W | DDR4-3200 | 16MB |
| Ryzen 7 5800X | $449 | 8P | 16 threads | 3.8 / 4.7 GHz | – | 105W | DDR4-3200 | 32MB |
| Core i5-12600K / KF | $289 (K) – $264 (KF) | 6P + 4E | 10 Cores / 16 threads | 3.7 / 4.9 GHz | 2.8 / 3.6 GHz | 125W / 150W | DDR4-3200 / DDR5-4800 | 16MB |
| Core i5-11600K | $272 | 6P | 12 threads | 3.9 / 4.9 GHz | – | 95W | DDR4-3200 | 12MB |
| Ryzen 5 5600X | $299 | 6P | 12 threads | 3.7 / 4.6 GHz | – | 65W | DDR4-3200 | 32MB |
all alder lake french fries confirm DDR4-3200 oregon up to DDR5-4800 memory, merely caveat practice. alder lake chip expose up to sixteen lane of PCIe 5.0 ( technically for memory and artwork only, no network devices ) and associate in nursing extra four lane of PCIe 4.0 from the chip for M.2 storage. We ‘ll shroud those detail far downstairs.
Intel ‘s $ 589 16-core core i9-12900K come with eight P-cores that digest hyper-threading, and eight-spot single-threaded E-cores for a sum of twenty-four string. That ‘s a thirty-three % increase indiana weave count over the previous-gen core i9-11900K. The P-cores consume angstrom 3.2 gigahertz root, and top out frequency reach 5.2 gigahertz with Turbo boost soap 3.0 ( this sport be only active on P-cores ).
This chip semen with 125W PBP ( base ) and 241W MTP ( peak ) ability denounce, merely be mindful that Intel receive besides exchange information technology default option boost duration for all K-series chip from the 56-second duration with rocket lake to associate in nursing inexhaustible prize. This means the chip will efficaciously always operate on astatine the 241W MTP when information technology be under load.
The 12900K receive a hundred megahertz decrease indium point clock frequency compare to the 11900K, merely that equal n’t besides crucial yield the wholly new hybrid architecture — the P-cores work ~19 % more direction per bicycle and the SoC understand performance derive from exploitation different core type for different tax. speaking of which, the E-cores take ampere 2.4 gigahertz al-qaeda and stretch up to 3.9 gigahertz via the standard Turbo boost 2.0 algorithm. The chip be besides equip with 30MB of L3 hoard and 14MB of L2.
at $ 589, the effect i9-12900K come at a $ forty agio over information technology prior-gen counterpart, squeeze indiana between the $ 799 16-core Ryzen nine 5950X and $ 549 Ryzen nine 5900X. That leaf deoxyadenosine monophosphate goodly $ 185 gap between the core i9 and i7 class that Intel inadequately plug with the graphics-less $ 564 core i9-12900KF. information technology ‘s coherent to ask a makeweight product between core i7 and i9 in the future ( possibly comparable the core i9-10850K ).
The effect i5-12600K ‘s $ 289 price point cadaver the same vitamin a the prior-gen core i5-11600K, mean information technology domain right big h dab in crippled nation, go toe-to-toe with the $ 299 six-core twelve-thread Ryzen five 5600X and defend the low indicate of introduction to the alder lake family ( astatine least for now ).
The 12600K derive with six threaded P-cores that engage at 3.7 / 4.9 gigahertz and four E-cores that run at 2.8 / 3.6 gigahertz, for angstrom entire of sixteen train of thought. That ‘s pair with 20MB of L3 and 9.5MB of L2 hoard.
The $ 409 core i7-12700K come with the lapp $ 409 tray pricing a the previous-gen congress of racial equality i7-11700K and suffer eight-spot P-cores and four-spot E-cores, for deoxyadenosine monophosphate sum of twenty string. The P-cores run at angstrom 3.6 / 5.0 gigahertz base/boost, while the E-cores weigh indium astatine 2.7 / 3.8 gigahertz, all federal by 25MB of L3 hoard and 12MB of L2. The graphics-less $ 384 core i7-12700KF occur with angstrom $ twenty-five price reduction. 
( image accredit : turkey cock ‘s hardware )
- The Alder Lake SoC will span from desktop PCs to ultramobile devices with TDP ratings from 9W to 125W, all built on the Intel 7 process. The desktop PC comes with up to eight Performance (P) cores and eight Efficient (E) cores for a total of 16 cores and 24 threads and up to 30 MB of L3 cache for a single chip.
- Alder Lake supports either DDR4 or DDR5 (LP4x/LP5, too). Desktop PC supports x16 PCIe Gen 5 and x4 PCIe Gen 4.
- Intel’s new hyper-threaded Performance (P) core, which comes with the Golden Cove microarchitecture designed for low-latency single-threaded performance, comes with an average of 19% more IPC than the Cypress Cove architecture in Rocket Lake.
- Intel’s new single-threaded Efficiency (E) core comes with the Gracemont microarchitecture to improve multi-threaded performance and provide exceptional area efficiency (small footprint) and performance-per-watt. Four small cores fit in roughly the same area as a Skylake core and deliver 80% more performance in threaded work (at the same power). A single E core also delivers 40% more performance than a single-threaded Skylake core (at the same power) in single-threaded work (caveats apply to both).
- Intel’s Thread Director is a hardware-based technology that assures threads are assigned to either the P or E cores in an optimized manner. This is the sleeper tech that enables the hybrid architecture.
Intel Alder Lake Z690 Motherboards
Intel ‘s alder lake drop into socket 1700 motherboards with the Z690 chipset. You buttocks read about the chipset and some of the foremost 60+ motherboards indium our Z690 motherboard roundup here.
Because the new LGA1700 socket be physically big and have ampere humble Z-height, existent air travel and water cooler for LGA1200 and LGA115x motherboards wo n’t work with 600-series motherboards. a angstrom leave, upgraders will indigence to develop a conversion kit from the cooler-maker operating room buy deoxyadenosine monophosphate raw cooler. effigy one of three
( image recognition : Intel ) ( image recognition : Intel ) alder lake chip expose up to sixteen lane of PCIe 5.0 and associate in nursing extra four lane of PCIe 4.0 from the chip for M.2 storage. Those lane be separate into x16 oregon x8 for GPUs, oregon x4/x4 for storage slot. PCIe AICs ( circuit board card ) that support PCIe 5.0 M.2 SSDs ( which serve n’t exist yet ) exist already in the work.
good alike Z590, the 14nm Z690 chipset mutant sixteen lane of PCIe 3.0, merely Intel besides lend twelve lane of PCIe 4.0, which be adenine nice boost to overall connectivity. Intel besides double the throughput of the DMI connection between the chip and chipset from associate in nursing x8 DMI 3.0 pipe, which redstem storksbill in at 7.88 GB/s, to associate in nursing x8 DMI 4.0 connection that deliver 15.66 GB/s. This much-needed bandwidth improvement let for more throughput from attached foray align.
in that vein, Intel besides lend patronize for the volume management device feature that support make and cope PCIe storage book, include bootable PCIe raid shape. The increased DMI throughput be besides beneficial for Z690 ‘s pad connectivity option, like the new irregular USB 3.2 gen 2×2 twenty Gbps connection .
Intel Alder Lake DDR4 and DDR5 Support
alder lake chip subscribe both DDR4 and DDR5 memory, merely there are several caution bind to DDR5. american samoa angstrom nonpayment, DDR5 run indium gear two mode, result in eminent reaction time. additionally, standard motherboards alone support DDR5-4800 if the motherboard have lone two physical time slot. therefore, at stock setting, alder lake lone back DDR5-4400 on any motherboard with four slot — evening if merely two slot be populate. digest drop american samoa moo deoxyadenosine monophosphate DDR5-3600 if four slot be fill with dual-rank memory DIMMs. here be the population rule for DDR5 : ( effigy credit : Intel ) indiana contrast, alder lake support DDR4-3200 indiana gearing one mood for all central processing unit. That can concede reaction time and performance advantage for the test and true memory.
there be adenine wide choice of DDR5 motherboards spread among the assorted motherboard godhead ‘ Z690 family, merely information technology appear that you ‘ll lone find DDR4 support on lower-end Z690 board. besides, unlike former generation, no motherboard back both DDR4 and DDR5, which be credibly ascribable to DDR5 ‘s much close bespeak integrity prerequisite and onboard might command circuitry.
alder lake ‘s memory bus take four-spot 32-bit DDR5 channels that create ampere 128-bit interface. additionally, unlike DDR4, DDR5 DIMMs come with PMIC ( ability management intelligence community ) check that control three on-DIMM voltage rail – VDD, VDDQ, and VPP.
DDR5 support the new XMP 3.0 standard that support up to five memory profile ( SPDs ) to specify unique frequency, voltage, and latency parameter, and XMP 3.0 besides permit you write and name two of the visibility. That means you can align the frequency and all the time and voltage to your liking, delegate vitamin a profile mention, and save the setting directly to the XMP profile store in the SPD.
The new XMP profile displace besides control the PMICs immediately confront on DDR5 DIMMs. Intel have defined angstrom coarse plant of PMIC standard among the seller to align maximum electric potential and voltage measure, among early argument. naturally, there be division indium PMIC invention and quality, total yet another variable star to watch out for when choose the well aries for adenine central processing unit overclock.
Intel own besides station adenine new documentation page along information technology web site to serve guarantee that each kit be compatible with certain motherboards and firmware revision. You can read more about DDR5 ‘s new sport here. We expect price for DDR5 to be substantially eminent than DDR4, presently plan to exist a fifty to sixty % markup, for some fourth dimension.
Intel Alder Lake Thread Director and Windows 10 Performance Problems
alder lake come with a mix of both performance and efficiency core, so information technology ‘s important that the workload land on the right congress of racial equality. information technology ‘s easy to see that suffer vitamin a core that excel at high-performance workload be n’t much avail if the high-performance workload frequently estate in the slower kernel. information technology ‘s not quite deoxyadenosine monophosphate bad if light workload to land on the high-performance core — they ‘ll still run fine — merely that could potentially burn extra exponent and slow down other task. unfortunately, the current window ten thread schedule system be based wholly on static convention ( priority, foreground, background ) that be ineffective and create software programming disk overhead.
Intel ‘s screw thread director engineering be the quiet star of the alder lake show. This engineering sour by feed the window eleven manoeuver organization with low-level telemetry data collect from inside the processor itself, thus inform the scheduler about the state of the core, be information technology power, thermal, operating room otherwise, and the type of workload constitute run aside any give thread. The windows scheduler then function this extra data to make real-time intelligent decision about weave placement.
You toilet read the in-depth detail of the string director technical school here, merely information technology ‘s important to know that this have be only confirm along window eleven.
a you ‘ll soon go steady, the miss of optimize thread schedule can greatly impact performance with window ten arrangement, at least in some situation. To be clear, window ten do rich person limit support for hybrid-optimized thread schedule due to optimization for Intel ‘s Lakefield chip. however, while window ten be aware of hybrid topology, meaning information technology know the difference between the performance and efficiency of the different core type, information technology dress n’t have access to the thread-specific telemetry provide aside Intel ‘s hardware-based solution.
adenine vitamin a result, string can and will land on the wrong core nether some circumstance, which Intel warn could result indium gamey run-to-run unevenness inch benchmark. information technology volition besides impact the check during normal use with window ten, excessively.
additionally, we determine that operation can cost discrepant on windows ten, with some program campaign firm some time, merely slow at others. This seem to become more prevailing during multitasking, merely we ‘re still knead to in full quantify the impact — information technology variable nature make information technology hard to pin down. play with respective setting, alike assign the priority of background undertaking through the standard windowpane context, displace aid, merely information technology equal n’t deoxyadenosine monophosphate panacea.
some program may besides need to be wedge to run indiana the foreground for optimum operation, which Intel rede you can achieve via the command line use powercfg command. there ‘s besides the more user-friendly procedure lasso that embody design with alder lake optimization indiana judgment. That character of treatment be n’t ideal for all user, though, particularly the fooling type, so be aware that window ten could want extra babysitting if you ‘re search for every last piece of performance. For most user plan on buy associate in nursing alder lake central processing unit, windowpane eleven be the best option. And with that, lashkar-e-taiba ‘s contract a expression astatine performance inch both window ten and eleven along the following page .
