i9-12900K vs Ryzen 9 3900X

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Aggregate performance score

Ryzen 9 3900X
2019
12 cores / 24 threads, 125 Watt
20.53
Core i9-12900K
2021
16 cores / 24 threads, 125 Watt
26.08
+27%

Core i9-12900K outperforms Ryzen 9 3900X by a significant 27% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

Primary details

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

Place in the ranking275191
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation21.7037.26
Market segmentDesktop processorDesktop processor
SeriesAMD Ryzen 9Intel Core i9
Power efficiency15.5419.75
Architecture codenameMatisse (Zen 2) (2019−2020)Alder Lake, Golden Cove, Gracemont (2021)
Release date7 July 2019 (5 years ago)4 November 2021 (3 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)$499$589

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance per price, higher is better.

i9-12900K has 72% better value for money than Ryzen 9 3900X.

Detailed specifications

Ryzen 9 3900X and Core i9-12900K 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)
Performance-coresno data8
Efficient-coresno data8
Threads2424
Base clock speed3.8 GHz3.2 GHz
Boost clock speed4.6 GHz5.2 GHz
Bus typeno dataDMI 4.0
Bus rateno data8 × 16 GT/s
Multiplierno data32
L1 cache96K (per core)80K (per core)
L2 cache512K (per core)1.25 MB (per core)
L3 cache64 MB30 MB (shared)
Chip lithography7 nm, 12 nm10 nm
Die sizeno data215.25 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 multiplier++

Compatibility

Information on Ryzen 9 3900X and Core i9-12900K 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 Watt125 Watt

Technologies and extensions

Technological solutions and additional instructions supported by Ryzen 9 3900X and Core i9-12900K. 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++
vProno data+
Enhanced SpeedStep (EIST)no data+
Speed Shiftno data+
Turbo Boost Technologyno data2.0
Hyper-Threading Technologyno data+
Idle Statesno data+
Thermal Monitoring-+
SIPP-+
Turbo Boost Max 3.0no data+
Precision Boost 2+no data
Deep Learning Boost-+

Security technologies

Ryzen 9 3900X and Core i9-12900K 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 i9-12900K are enumerated here.

AMD-V+-
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 i9-12900K. Depending on the motherboard, higher memory frequencies may be supported.

Supported memory typesDDR4 Dual-channelDDR4, DDR5
Maximum memory size128 GB128 GB
Max memory channels22
Maximum memory bandwidth51.196 GB/s76.805 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 i9-12900K integrated GPUs.

Number of displays supported-4

Graphics image quality

Maximum display resolutions supported by Ryzen 9 3900X and Core i9-12900K 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 i9-12900K 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 i9-12900K.

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 20.53
i9-12900K 26.08
+27%

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.

Ryzen 9 3900X 32610
i9-12900K 41432
+27.1%

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.

Ryzen 9 3900X 1710
i9-12900K 2647
+54.8%

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.

Ryzen 9 3900X 9940
i9-12900K 15550
+56.4%

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.

Ryzen 9 3900X 6019
i9-12900K 9859
+63.8%

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.

Ryzen 9 3900X 45539
i9-12900K 71819
+57.7%

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.

Ryzen 9 3900X 14889
i9-12900K 18753
+25.9%

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.

Ryzen 9 3900X 2.69
+36.1%
i9-12900K 3.66

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.

Ryzen 9 3900X 34
i9-12900K 46
+34.7%

Cinebench 15 64-bit multi-core

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

Ryzen 9 3900X 3049
i9-12900K 4057
+33.1%

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.

Ryzen 9 3900X 207
i9-12900K 289
+39.6%

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.

Ryzen 9 3900X 2.36
i9-12900K 3.5
+48.3%

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.

Ryzen 9 3900X 10.8
i9-12900K 19.3
+79.1%

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.

Ryzen 9 3900X 7534
i9-12900K 11834
+57.1%

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.  

Ryzen 9 3900X 147
i9-12900K 201
+36.7%

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.  

Ryzen 9 3900X 268
i9-12900K 367
+37.1%

Geekbench 5.5 Multi-Core

Ryzen 9 3900X 10498
i9-12900K 17776
+69.3%

Blender(-)

Ryzen 9 3900X 162
+30.2%
i9-12900K 125

Geekbench 5.5 Single-Core

Ryzen 9 3900X 1250
i9-12900K 2006
+60.4%

7-Zip Single

Ryzen 9 3900X 5316
i9-12900K 6576
+23.7%

7-Zip

Ryzen 9 3900X 80935
i9-12900K 97316
+20.2%

WebXPRT 3

Ryzen 9 3900X 225
i9-12900K 325
+44.4%

Gaming performance

Pros & cons summary


Performance score 20.53 26.08
Recency 7 July 2019 4 November 2021
Physical cores 12 16
Chip lithography 7 nm 10 nm

Ryzen 9 3900X has a 42.9% more advanced lithography process.

i9-12900K, on the other hand, has a 27% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 2 years, and 33.3% more physical cores.

The Core i9-12900K is our recommended choice as it beats the Ryzen 9 3900X in performance tests.


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

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AMD Ryzen 9 3900X
Ryzen 9 3900X
Intel Core i9-12900K
Core i9-12900K

Similar processor comparisons

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Community ratings

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Questions & comments

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