Core i9-12900KF: specs and benchmarks

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Aggregate performance score

Core i9-12900KF
2021
16 cores / 24 threads, 125 Watt
25.88

Core i9-12900KF provides good benchmark performance at 25.88% of a leader's which is a 96-core EPYC 9655P.

Summary

Intel started Core i9-12900KF sales 4 November 2021 at a recommended price of $564. Based on an Alder Lake, Golden Cove, Gracemont architecture, this desktop processor is primarily aimed at home systems. It has 16 cores and 24 threads, and is based on Intel 7 manufacturing technology, with a max turbo frequency of 5200 MHz and an unlocked multiplier.

Compatibility-wise, this is FCLGA1700 processor with a TDP of 125 Watt and a maximum temperature of 72 °C. It supports DDR5-4800, DDR4-3200 memory.

Primary details

Core i9-12900KF processor market type (desktop or notebook), architecture, sales start time and pricing.

Place in the ranking188
Place by popularitynot in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation36.86
Market segmentDesktop processor
SeriesIntel Core i9
Power efficiency19.59of 100.00 (Core Ultra 7 164U)
Architecture codenameAlder Lake, Golden Cove, Gracemont (2021)
Release date4 November 2021 (3 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)$564of 17,906 (Xeon Platinum 8280L)

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance per price, higher is better.

Detailed specifications

Basic microprocessor parameters such as number of cores, number of threads, base frequency and turbo boost clock, lithography, cache size and multiplier lock state. These parameters can generally indicate CPU performance, but to be more precise you have to review its test results.

Physical cores16 (Hexadeca-Core)
Threads24
Base clock speed3.2 GHzof 4.7 GHz (Ryzen 9 7900X)
Boost clock speed5.2 GHzof 6.2 GHz (Core i9-14900KS)
Bus typeDMI 4.0
Bus rate8 × 16 GT/s
Multiplier32of 42 (Core i7-7700K)
L1 cache80K (per core)of 80 KB (EPYC 9965)
L2 cache1.25 MB (per core)of 2 MB (Xeon 6980P)
L3 cache30 MB (shared)of 1152 MB (EPYC 9684X)
Chip lithographyIntel 7 nmof 3 nm (Core Ultra 9 285K)
Die size215.25 mm2
Maximum core temperature100 °Cof 110 °C (Core Ultra 9 185H)
Maximum case temperature (TCase)72 °Cof 105 °C (Core i7-5950HQ)
64 bit support+
Windows 11 compatibility+
Unlocked multiplier+

Compatibility

Information on Core i9-12900KF compatibility with other computer components and devices: motherboard (look for socket type), power supply unit (look for power consumption) etc. Useful when planning a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. Note that power consumption of some processors can well exceed their nominal TDP, even without overclocking. Some can even double their declared thermals given that the motherboard allows to tune the CPU power parameters.

Number of CPUs in a configuration1of 8 (Xeon Platinum 8454H)
SocketFCLGA1700
Power consumption (TDP)125 Wattof 3100 ‑ 4500 (Ryzen 7 7435H)

Technologies and extensions

Technological capabilities and additional instructions supported by Core i9-12900KF. You'll probably need this information if you require some particular technology.

Instruction set extensionsIntel® SSE4.1, Intel® SSE4.2, Intel® AVX2
AES-NI+
AVX+
vPro+
Enhanced SpeedStep (EIST)+
Speed Shift+
Turbo Boost Technology2.0
Hyper-Threading Technology+
Idle States+
Thermal Monitoring+
Turbo Boost Max 3.0+
Deep Learning Boost+

Security technologies

Processor technologies aimed at improving security, for example, by protecting against hacks.

EDB+
Secure Key+
OS Guard+

Virtualization technologies

Supported virtual machine optimization technologies. Some are specific to Intel only, some to AMD.

VT-d+
VT-x+
EPT+

Memory specs

Types, maximum amount and channel number of RAM supported by Core i9-12900KF's memory controller. Depending on the motherboard, higher memory frequency may be supported.

Supported memory typesDDR5-4800, DDR4-3200
Maximum memory size128 GBof 6 TiB (EPYC 9654)
Max memory channels2of 12 (Xeon Platinum 9221)
Maximum memory bandwidth76.805 GB/sof 460.8 GB/s (EPYC 9654)

Peripherals

Specifications and connection types of supported peripherals.

PCIe version5.0 and 4.0
PCI Express lanes20of 128 (EPYC 9655P)

Benchmark performance

Single-core and multi-core benchmark results of Core i9-12900KF. Overall benchmark performance is measured in points in 0-100 range, higher is better.


Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark performance rating. We are regularly improving our combining algorithms, but if you find some perceived inconsistencies, feel free to speak up in comments section, we usually fix problems quickly.

i9-12900KF 25.88

Passmark

Passmark CPU Mark is a widespread benchmark, consisting of 8 different types of workload, including integer and floating point math, extended instructions, compression, encryption and physics calculation. There is also one separate single-threaded scenario measuring single-core performance.

i9-12900KF 41116

GeekBench 5 Single-Core

GeekBench 5 Single-Core is a cross-platform application developed in the form of CPU tests that independently recreate certain real-world tasks with which to accurately measure performance. This version uses only a single CPU core.

i9-12900KF 2601

GeekBench 5 Multi-Core

GeekBench 5 Multi-Core is a cross-platform application developed in the form of CPU tests that independently recreate certain real-world tasks with which to accurately measure performance. This version uses all available CPU cores.

i9-12900KF 15069

Gaming performance

Closest competitors

Core i9-12900KF's performance relative to its closest rivals among desktop CPUs.


Core i7-14700 104.71
Core i9-12900KF 100

AMD equivalent

According to our data, the closest AMD alternative to Core i9-12900KF is Ryzen 7 9800X3D, which is slower by 3% and lower by 8 positions in our ranking.

Here are some closest AMD rivals to Core i9-12900KF:

Ryzen 9 7900 118.74
Ryzen 9 5950X 110.94
Core i9-12900KF 100

Similar processors

Here is our recommendation of several processors that are more or less close in performance to the one reviewed.

Recommended GPUs

People consider these graphics cards to be good for Core i9-12900KF, according to our PC configuration statistics.

These are the fastest graphics cards for Core i9-12900KF in our user configuration statistics. There is a total of 6716 configurations using Core i9-12900KF in our database.

RTX 4090 GeForce RTX 4090
6% (402/6716)
RTX 4080 GeForce RTX 4080
1.1% (72/6716)
RTX 4070 Ti GeForce RTX 4070 Ti
2.3% (156/6716)
RX 7900 XTX Radeon RX 7900 XTX
0.1% (7/6716)
RTX 3090 Ti GeForce RTX 3090 Ti
18.8% (1264/6716)
RX 7900 XT Radeon RX 7900 XT
0.1% (10/6716)
RX 6950 XT Radeon RX 6950 XT
0.2% (14/6716)

All comparisons with Core i9-12900KF

Community ratings

Here is the rating given to the reviewed processor by our users. Let others know your opinion by rating it yourself.


4 541 vote

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Questions & comments

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