Intel Core i9-12900KS: specs and benchmarks

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Summary

Intel started Core i9-12900KS sales 5 April 2022. Based on an Alder Lake-S 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 5300 MHz and an unlocked multiplier.

Compatibility-wise, this is FCLGA1700 processor with a TDP of 150 Watt and a maximum temperature of 72 °C. It supports DDR5-4800, DDR4-3200 memory.

It provides good benchmark performance at 28.69% of a leader's which is AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 7995WX.

Ryzen Threadripper PRO 7995WXRyzen ThreadripperPRO 7995WX
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General info

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

Place in performance ranking133
Place by popularitynot in top-100
Value for money64.29
Market segmentDesktop processor
Architecture codenameAlder Lake-S (2022)
Release date5 April 2022 (1 year old)
Current price$458 of 17802 (Threadripper PRO 7995WX)
Value for money

Performance per price, higher is better.

Technical specs

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 speed3.4 GHzof 4.7 (FX-9590)
Boost clock speed5.3 GHzof 6.2 (Core i9-14900KS)
L1 cache80K (per core)of 7475.2 (Apple M2 Pro 10-Core)
L2 cache1.25 MB (per core)of 36 (Apple M2 Max)
L3 cache30 MB (shared)of 768 (EPYC 7373X)
Chip lithographyIntel 7 nmof 3 (Apple M3 Max 16-Core)
Die size215 mm2
Maximum core temperature90 °Cof 110 (Atom x7-E3950)
Maximum case temperature (TCase)72 °Cof 105 (Core i7-5950HQ)
64 bit support+
Windows 11 compatibility+
Unlocked multiplierYes

Compatibility

Information on Core i9-12900KS 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 (Opteron 842)
SocketFCLGA1700
Power consumption (TDP)150 Wattof 400 (Xeon Platinum 9282)

Technologies and extensions

Technological capabilities and additional instructions supported by Core i9-12900KS. 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+
Enhanced SpeedStep (EIST)+
Speed Shift+
Turbo Boost Technology2.0
Hyper-Threading Technology+
TSX+
Idle States+
Thermal Monitoring+
Turbo Boost Max 3.0+
StatusLaunched

Security technologies

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

TXT+
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 i9-12900KS's memory controller. Depending on the motherboard, higher memory frequency may be supported.

Supported memory typesDDR5-4800, DDR4-3200of 5600 (Ryzen 9 7940HS)
Maximum memory size128 GBof 786 (Xeon E5-2670 v3)
Max memory channels2of 12 (Xeon Platinum 9221)
Maximum memory bandwidth76.8 GB/sof 460.8 (EPYC 9124)
ECC memory support+

Graphics specifications

General parameters of a GPU integrated into Core i9-12900KS.

Integrated graphics cardIntel UHD Graphics 770
Quick Sync Video+
Clear Video HD+
Graphics max frequency1.55 GHz
Execution Units32

Graphics interfaces

Available interfaces and connections of Core i9-12900KS's integrated GPU.

Number of displays supported4

Graphics image quality

Maximum display resolutions supported by Core i9-12900KS's integrated GPU, including resolutions over different interfaces.

Max resolution over HDMI 1.44096 x 2160 @ 60Hz
Max resolution over eDP5120 x 3200 @ 120Hz
Max resolution over DisplayPort7680 x 4320 @ 60Hz

Graphics API support

APIs supported by Core i9-12900KS's integrated GPU, sometimes API versions are included.

DirectX12
OpenGL4.5

Peripherals

Specifications and connection types of supported peripherals.

PCIe version5.0 and 4.0
PCI Express lanes20of 128 (EPYC 7551P)

Benchmark performance

Single-core and multi-core benchmark results of Core i9-12900KS. 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.

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.

Benchmark coverage: 68%

i9-12900KS 44173

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.

Benchmark coverage: 42%

i9-12900KS 2692

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.

Benchmark coverage: 42%

i9-12900KS 16223

Gaming performance

Relative perfomance

Overall Core i9-12900KS performance compared to nearest competitors among desktop CPUs.


AMD equivalent

According to our data, the closest AMD alternative to Core i9-12900KS is Ryzen 9 5950X, which is faster by 3% and higher by 7 positions in our ranking.

Ryzen 9 5950XRyzen 95950X
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Here are some closest AMD rivals to Core i9-12900KS:

Intel Core i9-12900KS 100

Similar processors

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

i9-13900TCore i913900T
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Ryzen 9 5950XRyzen 95950X
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i7-13700KFCore i713700KF
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i7-13700KCore i713700K
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i9-12900KCore i912900K
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i9-12900KFCore i912900KF
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Recommended GPUs

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

These are the fastest graphics cards for Core i9-12900KS in our user configuration statistics. There is a total of 7811 configurations based on Core i9-12900KS in our database.

RTX 4090 GeForce RTX 4090
9.2% (716/7811)
RTX 4080 GeForce RTX 4080
0.4% (30/7811)
RTX 4070 Ti GeForce RTX 4070 Ti
0.4% (35/7811)
RX 7900 XTX Radeon RX 7900 XTX
0.06% (5/7811)
RTX 3090 Ti GeForce RTX 3090 Ti
39.8% (3105/7811)
RTX 4090 D GeForce RTX 4090 D
0.01% (1/7811)
RX 7900 XT Radeon RX 7900 XT
0.03% (2/7811)
RX 6950 XT Radeon RX 6950 XT
0.6% (47/7811)
RTX 3080 Ti GeForce RTX 3080 Ti
4.4% (343/7811)

User ratings: view and submit

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


3.5 376 votes

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Questions and comments

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