Intel Alder Lake 12th generation processors, including the Core i9-12900K, went on sale in November 2021, bringing new enthusiasm to the x86 processor segment. Taking its cue from the ARM big.LITTLE heterogeneous computing architecture, which has proven its utility in smartphones and tablets for more than 5 years, the Core i9-12900K chips also host 8 Performance or high-performance cores, in addition to 8 Efficient power-efficient cores. This combination allows the processor to run more efficiently, as the P-core is responsible for the highest performance on complex tasks, while the E-core handles background processes in the operating system and ensures low power consumption during web browsing and other less demanding activities.
With 30 MB cache, 8 P and 8 E cores, the Core i9-12900K not only beats the previous generation flagship Core i9-11900K by 76% in the CineBench R23 multi-core test, but also defeats all AMD Ryzen 5000 series processors, including the 16-core Ryzen 9 5950X.
As you can see in the performance graph, the new processor performs at its best on <a href="https://www.toppc.fi/en/c/43-operating-systems/filt/85610-85611%20"Windows 11. This is natural, as Microsoft programmers are working closely with Intel engineers on the new operating system to ensure that Windows 11 can use the resources of the different P and E cores efficiently. We can expect to see various other operating system updates in the future that will further improve the performance of Core i9-12900K.
With the amazingly powerful Alder Lake cores, Core i9-12900K proves itself in the latest PC games. We chose Far Cry: New Dawn as an example because it uses the well-known Dunia 2 Engine, which also powers the latest game in the franchise, Far Cry 6. Dunia 2 has particularly high demands on CPU power.
It's the 12th generation Core i9-12900K processor that delivers the highest FPS with the powerful GeForce RTX 3090 graphics card, outperforming all Intel 11th generation and AMD Ryzen 5000 series models.
Thanks to its new architecture, Core i9-12900K has regained its leading position in Adobe's most popular photo processing applications, Photoshop and Lightroom. Intel's most powerful Alder Lake model has a 5-15% advantage over the Ryzen 9 5950X, depending on whether DDR4 or DDR5 RAM is used.
A 15% performance gain in photo processing tasks is impressive, but what about the fact that Core i9-12900K outperforms the more powerful AMD 16-core Ryzen 9 5950X by more than 30% in Adobe Premiere Pro video processing? Impressive!
You may have heard the saying "with great power comes great responsibility". In the Intel Core i9-12900K situation, we can rephrase it a little differently - "with great power comes great power consumption and increased heat output". According to the specification, the TDP of this model is 125W, which denotes the consumption when all cores are running at their base frequency 3.20 GHz. When the processor is subjected to highly complex operations, its P cores increase their frequency to 5.20 GHz, which can result in an actual consumption of up to 228W.
According to TechSpot, the Core i9-12900K system can consume 120-140W more power under heavy load than the most powerful AMD Ryzen processors. These figures do not take into account the performance of the video card, so it's easy to exceed the 700W limit when paired with one of the more powerful NVIDIA GeForce or AMD Radeon video cards. This should be taken into account when choosing a power supply, so for a Core i9-12900K based PC we recommend choosing a PSU of at least 850W or more.
To keep the heat in check, we recommend that any system with a 12th generation Core i9-12900K processor is equipped with a 360mm or 420mm water cooler and a high volume case with multiple intake and exhaust fans to ensure the fastest and most efficient air exchange.
Small, fast memory that stores the copies of the data memories from the main memory that are most often used by the computer applications. It is like a temporary storage or data buffer between the CPU and RAM.
It shows with how big numbers it can operate within a single cycle. It is advisable to have this index at the level of 512 KB or at least 256 KB.
