Intel Core i9-12900 vs AMD Ryzen 9 3900X

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Combined performance score

Ryzen 9 3900X
21.27

Core i9-12900 outperforms Ryzen 9 3900X by 5% in our combined benchmark results.

General info

Comparing Ryzen 9 3900X and Core i9-12900 processor market type (desktop or notebook), architecture, sales start time and price.

Place in performance ranking219199
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Value for money38.6349.71
Market segmentDesktop processorDesktop processor
SeriesAMD Ryzen 9no data
Architecture codenameMatisse (Zen 2) (2019−2020)Alder Lake-S (2022)
Release date7 July 2019 (4 years old)4 January 2022 (2 years old)
Launch price (MSRP)$499$489
Current price$388 (0.8x MSRP)$417 (0.9x MSRP)
Value for money

Performance per price, higher is better.

i9-12900 has 29% better value for money than Ryzen 9 3900X.

Technical specs

Ryzen 9 3900X and Core i9-12900 basic parameters such as number of cores, number of threads, base frequency and turbo boost clock, lithography, cache size and multiplier lock state. These parameters indirectly say of CPU speed, though for more precise assessment you have to consider their test results.

Physical cores12 (Dodeca-Core)16 (Hexadeca-Core)
Threads2424
Base clock speed3.8 GHz2.4 GHz
Boost clock speed4.6 GHz5.1 GHz
L1 cache96K (per core)80K (per core)
L2 cache512K (per core)1.25 MB (per core)
L3 cache64 MB30 MB (shared)
Chip lithography7 nmIntel 7 nm
Die sizeno data215 mm2
Maximum core temperature95 °C100 °C
Maximum case temperature (TCase)no data72 °C
Number of transistors19,200 millionno data
64 bit support++
Windows 11 compatibility++
Unlocked multiplierYesYes

Compatibility

Information on Ryzen 9 3900X and Core i9-12900 compatibility with other computer components: 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 configuration1 (Uniprocessor)1
SocketAM4FCLGA1700
Power consumption (TDP)125 Watt65 Watt

Technologies and extensions

Technological solutions and additional instructions supported by Ryzen 9 3900X and Core i9-12900. You'll probably need this information if you require some particular technology.

Instruction set extensionsno dataIntel® SSE4.1, Intel® SSE4.2, Intel® AVX2
AES-NI++
AVX++
Enhanced SpeedStep (EIST)no data+
Speed Shiftno data+
Turbo Boost Technologyno data2.0
Hyper-Threading Technologyno data+
TSXno data+
Idle Statesno data+
Thermal Monitoringno data+
SIPPno data+
Turbo Boost Max 3.0no data+
Statusno dataLaunched

Security technologies

Ryzen 9 3900X and Core i9-12900 technologies aimed at improving security, for example, by protecting against hacks.

TXTno data+
EDBno data+
Secure Keyno data+
OS Guardno data+

Virtualization technologies

Virtual machine speed-up technologies supported by Ryzen 9 3900X and Core i9-12900 are enumerated here.

AMD-V+no data
VT-dno data+
VT-xno data+
EPTno data+

Memory specs

Types, maximum amount and channel quantity of RAM supported by Ryzen 9 3900X and Core i9-12900. Depending on the motherboard, higher memory frequencies may be supported.

Supported memory typesDDR4 Dual-channelDDR5, DDR4
Maximum memory size128 GB128 GB
Max memory channels22
Maximum memory bandwidth51.196 GB/s76.8 GB/s
ECC memory support-+

Graphics specifications

General parameters of integrated GPUs, if any.

Integrated graphics card-Intel UHD Graphics 770
Quick Sync Video-+
Clear Video HD-+
Graphics max frequency-1.55 GHz
Execution Units-32

Graphics interfaces

Available interfaces and connections of Ryzen 9 3900X and Core i9-12900 integrated GPUs.

Number of displays supported-4

Graphics image quality

Maximum display resolutions supported by Ryzen 9 3900X and Core i9-12900 integrated GPUs, including resolutions over different interfaces.

Max resolution over HDMI 1.4-4096 x 2160 @ 60Hz
Max resolution over eDP-5120 x 3200 @ 120Hz
Max resolution over DisplayPort-7680 x 4320 @ 60Hz

Graphics API support

APIs supported by Ryzen 9 3900X and Core i9-12900 integrated GPUs, sometimes API versions are included.

DirectX-12
OpenGL-4.5

Peripherals

Specifications and connection of peripherals supported by Ryzen 9 3900X and Core i9-12900.

PCIe versionno data5.0 and 4.0
PCI Express lanesno data20

Synthetic benchmark performance

Various benchmark results of the processors in comparison. Overall score 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.

Ryzen 9 3900X 21.27
i9-12900 22.35
+5.1%

Core i9-12900 outperforms Ryzen 9 3900X by 5% in our combined benchmark results.


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%

Ryzen 9 3900X 32665
i9-12900 34333
+5.1%

Core i9-12900 outperforms Ryzen 9 3900X by 5% in Passmark.

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%

Ryzen 9 3900X 1693
i9-12900 2474
+46.1%

Core i9-12900 outperforms Ryzen 9 3900X by 46% in GeekBench 5 Single-Core.

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%

Ryzen 9 3900X 9934
i9-12900 13065
+31.5%

Core i9-12900 outperforms Ryzen 9 3900X by 32% in GeekBench 5 Multi-Core.

Cinebench 10 32-bit single-core

Cinebench R10 is an ancient ray tracing benchmark for processors by Maxon, authors of Cinema 4D. Its single core version uses just one CPU thread to render a futuristic looking motorcycle.

Benchmark coverage: 20%

Ryzen 9 3900X 6019
i9-12900 8949
+48.7%

Core i9-12900 outperforms Ryzen 9 3900X by 49% in Cinebench 10 32-bit single-core.

Cinebench 10 32-bit multi-core

Cinebench Release 10 Multi Core is a variant of Cinebench R10 using all the processor threads. Possible number of threads is limited by 16 in this version.

Benchmark coverage: 19%

Ryzen 9 3900X 45539
i9-12900 68729
+50.9%

Core i9-12900 outperforms Ryzen 9 3900X by 51% in Cinebench 10 32-bit multi-core.

3DMark06 CPU

3DMark06 is a discontinued DirectX 9 benchmark suite from Futuremark. Its CPU part contains two scenarios, one dedicated to artificial intelligence pathfinding, another to game physics using PhysX package.

Benchmark coverage: 19%

Ryzen 9 3900X 14889
i9-12900 17464
+17.3%

Core i9-12900 outperforms Ryzen 9 3900X by 17% in 3DMark06 CPU.

wPrime 32

wPrime 32M is a math multi-thread processor test, which calculates square roots of first 32 million integer numbers. Its result is measured in seconds, so that the less is benchmark result, the faster the processor.

Benchmark coverage: 18%

Ryzen 9 3900X 2.69
i9-12900 2.67
+0.7%

Ryzen 9 3900X outperforms Core i9-12900 by 1% in wPrime 32.

Cinebench 11.5 64-bit multi-core

Cinebench Release 11.5 Multi Core is a variant of Cinebench R11.5 which uses all the processor threads. A maximum of 64 threads is supported in this version.

Benchmark coverage: 17%

Ryzen 9 3900X 34
i9-12900 39
+15%

Core i9-12900 outperforms Ryzen 9 3900X by 15% in Cinebench 11.5 64-bit multi-core.

Cinebench 15 64-bit multi-core

Cinebench Release 15 Multi Core is a variant of Cinebench R15 which uses all the processor threads.

Benchmark coverage: 15%

Ryzen 9 3900X 3049
i9-12900 3299
+8.2%

Core i9-12900 outperforms Ryzen 9 3900X by 8% in Cinebench 15 64-bit multi-core.

Cinebench 15 64-bit single-core

Cinebench R15 (standing for Release 15) is a benchmark made by Maxon, authors of Cinema 4D. It was superseded by later versions of Cinebench, which use more modern variants of Cinema 4D engine. The Single Core version (sometimes called Single-Thread) only uses a single processor thread to render a room full of reflective spheres and light sources.

Benchmark coverage: 15%

Ryzen 9 3900X 207
i9-12900 262
+26.6%

Core i9-12900 outperforms Ryzen 9 3900X by 27% in Cinebench 15 64-bit single-core.

Cinebench 11.5 64-bit single-core

Cinebench R11.5 is an old benchmark by Maxon, authors of Cinema 4D. It was superseded by later versions of Cinebench, which use more modern variants of Cinema 4D engine. The Single Core version loads a single thread with ray tracing to render a glossy room full of crystal spheres and light sources.

Benchmark coverage: 14%

Ryzen 9 3900X 2.36
i9-12900 3.16
+33.9%

Core i9-12900 outperforms Ryzen 9 3900X by 34% in Cinebench 11.5 64-bit single-core.

TrueCrypt AES

TrueCrypt is a discontinued piece of software that was widely used for on-the-fly-encryption of disk partitions, now superseded by VeraCrypt. It contains several embedded performance tests, one of them being TrueCrypt AES, which measures data encryption speed using AES algorithm. Result is encryption speed in gigabytes per second.

Benchmark coverage: 13%

Ryzen 9 3900X 10.8
i9-12900 17.2
+60%

Core i9-12900 outperforms Ryzen 9 3900X by 60% in TrueCrypt AES.

WinRAR 4.0

WinRAR 4.0 is an outdated version of a popular file archiver. It contains an internal speed test, using 'Best' setting of RAR compression on large chunks of randomly generated data. Its results are measured in kilobytes per second.

Benchmark coverage: 13%

Ryzen 9 3900X 7534
i9-12900 10739
+42.5%

Core i9-12900 outperforms Ryzen 9 3900X by 43% in WinRAR 4.0.

x264 encoding pass 1

x264 version 4.0 is a video encoding benchmark uses MPEG 4 x264 compression method to compress a sample HD (720p) video. Pass 1 is a faster variant that produces a constant bit rate output file. Its result is measured in frames per second, which means how many frames of the source video file were encoded per second.  

Benchmark coverage: 13%

Ryzen 9 3900X 268
i9-12900 310
+15.9%

Core i9-12900 outperforms Ryzen 9 3900X by 16% in x264 encoding pass 1.

x264 encoding pass 2

x264 Pass 2 is a slower variant of x264 video compression that produces a variable bit rate output file, which results in better quality since the higher bit rate is used when it is needed more. Benchmark result is still measured in frames per second.  

Benchmark coverage: 13%

Ryzen 9 3900X 147
i9-12900 148
+0.3%

Gaming performance

Advantages and disadvantages


Performance score 21.27 22.35
Recency 7 July 2019 4 January 2022
Physical cores 12 16
Cost $499 $489
Power consumption (TDP) 125 Watt 65 Watt

We couldn't decide between Ryzen 9 3900X and Core i9-12900. The differences in performance seem too small.


Should you still have questions on choice between Ryzen 9 3900X and Core i9-12900, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.

User ratings

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AMD Ryzen 9 3900X
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Intel Core i9-12900
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