Intel Core i9-12900KF Desktop Processor 16 (8P+8E) Cores up to 5.2 GHz Unlocked  LGA1700 600 Series Chipset 125W

Product Information

Looking at code compilation performance, the 7900X can be seen matching the 5950X and 12900K, taking 3188 seconds to complete the workload. Not amazing given it only matched the Core i9 CPU, but overall a decent enough result. Gaming Benchmarks The 7900X looks a bit more competitive from a value perspective in Premiere Pro, costing just 9% more than the 7700X when looking at price to performance. It's also much better value than the competing Intel parts. That said, if performance is the ultimate goal then paying the premium for the 7950X will be worth it. What We Learned The 7900X is able to outperform the 12900K by a 12% margin and put away the old 5900X by a convincing 25% margin. Pair its excellent single-threaded performance with the new wave of E-Cores and you're onto a winner in multi-threaded performance, too. To my surprise, the Core i9 12900K manages to outmuscle the Ryzen 9 5950X, a straight 16-core chip, in Cinebench R23. In Time Spy's CPU tests, it runs away with it. In all honesty, I wasn't expecting the blend of P-Cores and E-Cores to do this in such a way.

The 7900X did fall behind the 12900K in the After Effects benchmark, though the margin was slim. A negligible difference there, but not so much when compared to the 5900X as we see a 31% uplift, for an impressive generational improvement.For starters, there's PCIe 4.0 support baked right into the Z690 chipset, up to 12 lanes of it. That accompanies the 16 lanes of PCIe 5.0 direct from the CPU, which means you shouldn't end up short of available bandwidth for your GPU and a handful of speedy SSDs. The availability of plenty of bandwidth also ensures there's the potential for plenty of USB ports, although that will depend on your board choice. The Core i9 12900K represents the very best in Intel's desktop 12th Generation processors, and what that means is it houses the Alder Lake architecture in its most performant form. At its simplest, that equates to more cores, more speed, and more bandwidth than ever before, but if you dig beneath the surface you'll find a chip architecture that is wildly different to what came before.

Looking at the test results, you can’t deny the Intel Core i9-14900K is a real winner in terms of performance. It’s the fastest processor I’ve tested so far and we like it very much. Based on our evaluation, the 12900KF's 5.20 GHz single-core max turbo boost frequency is excellent for performance with the latest graphics-intense games. You can maintain these frequencies with a high-end cooler. Depending on the game, the CPU will often handle tasks including scene management, gameplay logic, physics calculations, and asset loading. We took these factors into account when assessing the expected CPU performance for gaming. Let's not forget what the Core i9 12900K is up against. That's the Ryzen 9 5950X, potentially the best processor AMD has ever put together and the most well-suited desktop CPU for just about anything you throw at it. Not to put down the Ryzen 9 5950X in any way, but the Core i9 12900K is simply the far better gaming chip. Intel classifications are for general, educational and planning purposes only and consist of Export Control Classification Numbers (ECCN) and Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) numbers. Any use made of Intel classifications are without recourse to Intel and shall not be construed as a representation or warranty regarding the proper ECCN or HTS. Your company as an importer and/or exporter is responsible for determining the correct classification of your transaction.With that said, the Core i9-14900K is in my opinion a really tough sell. There isn’t a lot of real differences between it and the previous gen the Core i9-13900K. It has the same number of cores, the same TDP, the same amount of cache … the only thing it has going for it, is the increased core speed. And I’ve said this already, it’s really just a “refresh” of the previous gen Raptor Lake, but the ability to support higher memory speeds of up to DDR5-8266. This means under heavy load they'll sit at TJMax which is about 95 degrees Celsius for the Ryzen 7000 series, and this will be particularly true for the 12 and 16-core models. At some point we thought a similar thing with Horizon Zero Dawn, perhaps the 3090 Ti just wasn't capable of pushing past 200 fps, but Zen 4 proved that theory wrong reaching just over 210 fps. The 7900X matched other Zen 4 CPUs, so while impressive it was no faster than the 6-core model. For our testing we used the be quiet! Pure Loop 2 FX 360mm liquid cooler which is fully compatible with AM5. After an hour of looping Cinebench multi-core with the Pure Loop 2 FX installed inside the be quiet! Silent Base 802, we recorded a peak CPU temperature of 97C for the primary CCD and 94C for the secondary CCD, so just above the 95c TJMax. Cost vs. Performance

Increased core counts can improve the performance of games that use them, but most modern games don't benefit from having more than 6–8 cores. We've experienced the best performance by prioritizing a higher single-core boost frequency, then on a higher multi-core boost frequency, rather than focusing on core count alone. Remember that cache sizes often increase along with core counts, so if you want to increase your L3 cache, you may need to get a CPU with more cores. We found that, in general, more cores do provide better performance in professional tools and when running multiple applications simultaneously. Video editors, 2D and 3D graphics tools, software compilers, and engineering tools require high-performing CPUs. Office and web applications are typically single-threaded, so running a single application won't take advantage of a many-core CPU.

OpenGL* Support

The Core i9-14900K has 8 Performance-cores, 16 Efficient-cores and a total of 32 threads with a massive 36MB of Intel Smart Cache. It sounds impressive, but with only 8 Performance-cores, it seems a little under-powered to be honest. I was expecting at least 10 or 12 even 16 Performance-cores. With the right motherboard and the correct memory modules, it can now support faster memory speeds of up to DDR5-8266 MHz. Alder Lake's P-Cores are more closely related to the CPU cores of previous Intel desktop generations. Take the Core i9 10900K, for example, which has eight CPU cores in total. Consider the 12900K's eight P-Cores in much the same way, although considerably faster. One of the nice things about the MSI MEG Z690 Unify motherboard is that the LED that posts diagnostic codes during bootup switches to a CPU temperature monitor after booting, showing you the temperature of your CPU.