The Intel Core i9-12900KS Review: The Best of Intel's Alder Lake, and the Hottest
by Gavin Bonshor on July 29, 2022 8:00 AM ESTCPU Benchmark Performance: Power, Office, and Science
Our previous set of ‘office’ benchmarks have often been a mix of science and synthetics, so this time we wanted to keep our office section purely on real-world performance.
For the remainder of the testing in this review of the Core i7-12700K and i5-12600K, we are using DDR5 memory at the following settings:
- DDR5-4800(B) CL40
Power
Compared directly to the Core i9-12900K, the Core i9-12900KS does draw more power in our Peak Power test, albeit not immensely more. Because Intel has assigned the chip the same 241W PL1 limit as the original 12900K, in TDP-constrained scenarios both chips are held to a similar limit. Still, with a figure of 276.44 W, this is considerably more than other processors including all of AMD's premium 5000-series offerings, and Intel's 12th Gen Core i5 and i7 processors.
Office
In our Agisoft Photoscan 1.3 benchmark, the Core i9-12900KS is around 1.5% better than the regular i9-12900K, and considerably quicker than the rest on test.
Science
In our science-based benchmarks, the Core i9-12900KS and the Core i9-12900K trade blows which is to be expected with two similar processors, albeit the extra core clock speeds on the i9-12900KS do not show as much benefit as the price difference would suggest.
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Alistair - Friday, July 29, 2022 - link
peak power was 276 watts...Carls Car - Saturday, July 30, 2022 - link
Peak power can get way higher.dicobalt - Saturday, July 30, 2022 - link
I'm sure kilowatt PCs will cause no electrical problems at all. At this rate people will need to hire an electrician to make sure it's safe. It's not like DIY repairs in hurricane and flood zones ever cause fires or deaths.Tunnah - Saturday, July 30, 2022 - link
It's just so violently 'Murican. Pure horsepower and engine size, drinks tons of fuel and is inefficient as hell. The alternatives do way better with less power and cost you less to run. It's just so..brash.But people will buy it because they wanna wave their willys.
Carls Car - Saturday, July 30, 2022 - link
Because enthusiasts don't exist.Alistair - Sunday, July 31, 2022 - link
All the top CPU designs are American ;pGrapple - Saturday, July 30, 2022 - link
Would have loved to see one 12th Gen Core i9 at each power level in the charts — i9-12900T, i9-12900, i9-12900K, and the i9-12900KS — to see how the power/performance looks across the gamut.stephenbrooks - Saturday, July 30, 2022 - link
Yes - the 12900T looked the 2nd-most-interesting chip to me in this lineup, I'm curious what this does at lower power.I think the 12900F looks best because: it's the cheapest, doesn't have a iGPU you won't use, uses less power but not a particularly bad regression on clocks.
Alistair - Sunday, July 31, 2022 - link
but the 5800x3d is far ahead of the 12900fhansip87 - Sunday, July 31, 2022 - link
Those heat output could be linked to the LGA 1700 locking issue. i bet those who bought such a chip won't mind using the aftermarket bracket.