After the 12th generation Core desktop processor was announced last week (see: Intel officially released the 12th generation Core desktop processor size and core mix to hit the peak of performance), it was also announced today (11/4) Officially launched in the evening and lifted the ban on performance reports, and Chen Ba's first wave of battle is the highest-end Core i9-12900K processor, using a 16-core 24-thread configuration, through the performance core (P-Core) and efficiency The combination of the core (E-Core) allows the system to adjust the load of the processor to cope with different work or multitasking requirements to achieve the best performance, which also makes many people look forward to the performance of the 12th generation of Intel. , and the balance of power consumption can meet the expectations of many people, and whether this is the case, please see Chen Ba's test report.

●Intel Core i9-12900K processor specifications

First, let's look at the specifications of the Intel Core i9-12900K processor, which is composed of 8 performance cores (P-Core) and 8 efficiency cores (E-Core). -Core The efficiency core is to provide a thread configuration. The P-Core performance core has a nominal base clock of 3.2 GHz and a maximum acceleration clock of 5.1 GHz; the E-Core efficiency core has a nominal base clock of 2.4 GHz and a maximum acceleration clock of 3.9 GHz. Someone asked whether the E-Core efficiency core can also be overclocked. The answer is that both the P-Core efficiency core and the E-Core efficiency core can be overclocked.

Specifications of the Intel 12th Gen Core i9-12900K processor.

In addition, in the section of cache memory configuration, the Intel Core i9-12900K processor provides 1.25 MB of L2 cache per P-Core and 2 MB of L2 cache shared by every four E-Cores, for a total of 14 MB. In addition, in the L3 cache part, it comes to Alder-Lake's full allocation of 30MB . The memory part of ADUC7022BCPZ62 can be matched with DDR4 or DDR5 memory, and the maximum clock support is 4800 -ic/" title="4800 model">4800-ic/" title="4800 model">4800-ic/" title ="4800 Model">4800-ic/" title="4800 Model">4800-ic/" title="4800 Model">4800-ic/" title="4800 Model">4800-ic/" title=" Model 4800">4800-ic/" title="Model 4800">4800-ic/" title="Model 4800">4800-ic/" title="Model 4800">4800-ic/" title="Model 4800 ">4800-ic/" title="Model 4800">4800-ic/" title="Model 4800">4800-ic/" title="Model 4800">4800-ic/" title="Model 4800"> 4800-ic/" title="Model 4800">4800-ic/" title="Model 4800">4800-ic/" title="Model 4800">4800-ic/" title="Model 4800">4800 MHz , and provides a dual-channel configuration with a maximum support capacity of 128GB.

However, in the previous generations of intel, due to the high power consumption performance of the process factor, this problem still exists in the 12th generation Core desktop processors. The maximum acceleration power consumption of the Core i9-12900K processor is 241W. , not only is a challenge for the power supply of the motherboard, but also the high heat caused by high power consumption is also a major problem. At the Intel innovation presentation event held last week, the on-site display of models equipped with the intel Core i9-12900K processor, all of which are The use of AIO water cooling as the cooling solution also means that if you want to use the Intel Core i9-12900K processor, the heat dissipation in the motherboard and the chassis is definitely the key point to pay attention to.

Dell Alienware's new Aurora R13 mainframe on display at the intel innovation launch event.

●Intel Core i9-12900K processor test platform settings

The combination of motherboard and memory tested this time.

In the actual test part, Chen Ba used the MSI Z690 Unify motherboard and the Coreliquid S360 AIO water cooling that were introduced before out of the box for the test (see: MSI Z690 Unify motherboard + S360 AIO water cooling media test set is full of texture out of the box Full sincerity), since the memory specification supported by this motherboard is DDR5, the memory used for the test is the newly launched FURY Beast DDR5-5200 module by Kingston. The following are the detailed specifications of the test platform:

◆Motherboard: MSI Z690 Unify

◆Memory: Kingston FURY Beast DDR5-5200 16GB x2

◆System SSD: Kingston Renegade PCIe Gen 4 SSD 2TB

◆Display card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 FE

◆Power supply: Seasonic TX-1000

◆Cooling system: MSI Coreliquid S360 AIO water cooling

◆Operating system: Windows 11 Pro 21H2

The state of the overall testbed.

First look at the MSI Z690 Unify BIOS section.

It can be seen that after applying MSI's official Game Boost function, the clock of the Core i9-12900K can be set to 5.0 GHz.

For the memory part, Kingston FURY Beast DDR5-5200 provides two sets of XMP profiles, 5200 MHz CL40 and 4800 CL38 respectively, and 5200 MHz is used for testing here.

In addition, in the overclocking section of individual cores, MSI Z690 Unify can overclock individual cores in professional mode:

When the GAME Boost game acceleration mode is turned on, the Core i9-12900K processor tested by Chen Ba, the P-Core performance core can be opened at 5.0 GHz for all cores, and the single-core part is up to 5.3 GHz; the E-Core efficiency core is All cores are at 3.8 GHz, and the highest core is 4.0 GHz.

In addition, through the Intel XTU overclocking tool, the P-Core performance core and the E-Core efficiency core multiplier can also be overclocked. The set product of Core performance core 5.3 GHz, E-Core efficiency core 4.0 GHz setting, P-Core full core can reach 5.3 GHz, it should be a lot of blessings.

The demonstration host used by Intel at the press conference uses NZXT 360 AIO water cooling as a tool to suppress the heat of the processor.

A core setting of 5.3 GHz for full P-Core and 4.0 GHz for full E-Core.

Since the Intel XTU (Extreme Tuning Utility) overclocking tool was mentioned, Intel also updated XTU to the new version 7.5.3 when the 12th generation Core processing was launched, providing one-click overclocking and individual core setting adjustment functions. In addition, it also has a stress test function, allowing users to test the adjusted results.

New version of the Intel XTU overclocking tool interface.

In this version, the previous "Basic Tuning" function has been changed to "Speed Optimizer" speed optimization adjustment, and the overclocking setting can be automatically performed by pressing a button. (How come there is a feeling of applying a profile)

The result after pressing the "Speed Optimizer" button, because Chen Ba has set the Game Boost on the MSI MEG Z690 Unify motherboard, so it still maintains the 5.0 GHz setting.

In addition, in the "Advanced Tuning" interface, you can see the current settings of each core, and adjust the frequency multiplier. You can see that under the automatic setting, the same core settings as the MSI MEG Z690 Unify motherboard are maintained.

Then use the stress test tool in the Intel XTU software to test, you can see that under full load, with the MSI Coreliquid S360 AIO water cooling radiator, under the "Game Mode" fan setting, the temperature of the i9-12900K reaches 95 ℃, the overall CPU power consumption came to 264 W, and the operating clock was between 5.0 and 5.1 GHz.

● Can the E-Core efficiency core be turned off?

Under the news published last week, many partners asked whether it is possible to turn off the E-Core efficiency core and leave all the work to the P-Core performance core for processing. Chen Ba also asked this question at the press conference. According to an Intel spokesperson, Intel said that the 12th generation Core processors have been allocated and processed through the combination of Intel Thread Director technology and the operating system (Windows 11), so from Intel's point of view, there is no need to turn off E. - Core Efficiency core.

However, in the BIOS of the MSI Z690 Unify motherboard, there is still an adjustment setting for users to turn on/off the processor core, and users can make adjustments according to their own needs.

But as for how to see whether the current work is being processed by the P-Core efficiency core or the E-Core performance core? Intel does not officially provide such a tool for users to monitor. The only feasible way is to monitor it through the built-in Task Manager of the Windows operating system, but there is no P-Core in the Task Manager interface. The performance core, which is the E-Core efficiency core, still needs to be judged through auxiliary programs such as Core-temp.

The more reliable core performance utilization can only be viewed by the built-in work administrator tool in Windows. With the monitoring results of Core-Temp, the P-Core performance core starts from the upper left, with two threads per core, from the lower right Started as E-Core efficiency core, single thread per core. As can be seen from this standby mode diagram, the first 16 threads (up to the fourth from the left in the third row) are the P-Core performance cores, and the last 8 threads (the bottom row and the third row from the right) Two threads) are E-Core efficiency cores.

However, in the actual measurement process, it was found that even in the light-load working mode, the Alder-Lake processor will still provide the main operating performance with the P-Core performance core, and the E-Core efficiency core is added under heavy load conditions. Auxiliary, offloading lower-load applications from the P-Core, so that the P-Core can focus on the main work. This is different from the general perception that the "large and small" heterogeneous cores in mobile phone processors are configured differently (in general mobile phone large and small core configurations, the small core is usually used to maintain basic standby operation, and the large core is activated only when the load is heavy). In the press conference, Intel also emphasized again that Alder-Lake is the combination of the performance core and the efficiency core, not the concept of "large and small cores" as commonly known.

It can be seen that under heavy load, the E-Core efficiency core below starts to join the workload distribution.

Intel hopes to achieve products with both performance and power consumption in this way. However, when the main processing performance is loaded with the higher frequency P-Core performance core, it is still difficult to achieve the same power consumption and temperature. Competitor AMD's 16-core offering: Ryzen 9 5950X compared. However, the adjustment of workload is not only through Intel's own Intel Thread Director technology, but also with the operating system, so there may be adjustments through software in the future?

●Intel Core i9-12900K processor performance

After talking so much, of course, I want to look at the actual performance of Intel's 12th generation Core i9-12900K processor. In addition, in the part of the comparison data, because this test platform uses DDR5 memory configuration, it is still using DDR4. The comparison of AMD Zen 3 with memory or Intel's own 11th generation Core processor is not fair on the benchmark point, so only the core performance data with less memory impact is provided for comparison, and Chen Ba also borrowed it from the board factory. In order to use the DDR4 memory version of the Z690 motherboard, the performance test is currently underway, and the test data of the application performance part on the DDR4 memory platform will be provided later.

Intel Core i9-12900K processor on CPU-Z.

In addition, the test platform specifications of the AMD control group are listed for your reference:

◆Processor: AMD Ryzen 9 5950X

◆Motherboard: ROG X570 Dark Hero

◆Memory: Corsair VENGENCE RS DDR4-3600 8GB x4

◆System SSD: Samsung 980 Pro 1TB

◆Display card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 FE

◆Power supply: Seasonic TX-1000

◆Cooling system: ROG RUNJIN 2 360 AIO

◆Operating system: Windows 11 Pro 21H2

●Intel Core i9-12900K processor core performance test

First, let’s look at the performance of the processor core. This part uses four sets of software: CPU-Z, 7-Zip, WinRAR, Sisoftware Sandra to test the performance of the processor core, file compression/decompression, etc. The following are the test results:

Intel Core i9-12900K CPU-Z single thread benchmark results.

Intel Core i9-12900K CPU-Z multi-threaded benchmark results.

Intel Core i9-12900K 7-Zip compression/decompression benchmark results.

Intel Core i9-12900K WinRAR decompression performance test results.

Intel Core i9-12900K Sisoftware Sandra arithmetic processor performance test results.

Intel Core i9-12900K Sisoftware Sandra Multimedia Processor Benchmark Results.

As far as the core test results are concerned, Intel's previous single-thread performance with a higher clock rate still leads the Core i9-12900K, and in the multi-thread part, the Core i9-12900K mainly relies on the P-Core performance. The higher core clock makes up for the performance gap of the E-Core single thread, and can have a chance to compete with the Ryzen 9 5950X's 16 cores and 32 threads, but in the case of 7-Zip, it still has to fight the number of threads. In applications, the Core i9-12900K still falls short of the Ryzen 9 5950X.

●Intel Core i9-12900K processor multimedia performance test

Then use X264 FHD BENCHMARK, X265 BENCHMARK, Sissoftware, CINEBENCH R15/R20/ R23 and other software to test the performance of Intel Core i9-12900K processor in video encoding, pixel processing and image rendering speed. The following are the test results:

Benchmark results of Intel Core i9-12900K processor on Sisoftware Sandra multimedia processor.

Performance test results of Intel Core i9-12900K processor in X264 FHD BENCHMARK and X265 BENCHMARK video encoding.

Single-core performance test results of Intel Core i9-12900K processor in CineBench R15/R20.

Multi-core performance test results of Intel Core i9-12900K processor in CineBench R15/R20.

Intel Core i9-12900K processor core performance test results in CineBench R23.

Core benchmark results of Intel Core i9-12900K processor in V-Ray image rendering.

GPU performance test results of Intel Core i9-12900K processor in V-Ray image rendering (set to CPU).

Benchmark results of Intel Core i9-12900K processor in Corona 1.3 image rendering.

The original AMD Ryzen 9 5950X has a considerable lead in this part, but in the performance of the Intel Core i9-12900K processor, it can be seen that the use of 8+8 heterogeneous cores and P-Core performance cores have higher clocks Even if the i9-12900K has only a single thread in the E-Core efficiency core, it does catch up in multimedia performance.

●Intel Core i9-12900K processor memory performance test

Next, let’s look at the performance of the Intel Core i9-12900K processor in the memory performance part. This part is tested by using DDR5 memory modules, so it will not be compared. After the DDR4 Z690 test results come out, I will add more. The following is Using the AIDA64 Engineer version, the test results on the test platform, the matching memory is Kingston FURY Beast DDR5-5200, to enable the XMP profile to operate at 5200MHz clock.

Tested with Kingston FURY Beast DDR5-5200 memory module specifications.

In the test results of the memory test project of AIDA64 Engineer software, it can be seen that with the help of the high frequency of DDR5 memory, the memory bandwidth of the Intel Core i9-12900K processor is higher than that of the Intel 11th generation Core processor and AMD Zen3 architecture. It is about 20% more, but it is relatively much higher in the delay part.

●Intel Core i9-12900K processor gaming performance test

Next, let’s look at the performance of the Intel Core i9-12900K processor in the game performance part, first in the 3DMark test software part, mainly through five test items such as 3DMark Time SPY/Time SPY Extreme, FireStrike Extreme/Ultra and CPU Profile. Looking at the performance of the Intel Core i9-12900K processor in game performance, please remind everyone that although Chen Ba also attached game test data here, but after all, he is comparing under different memory platforms, and Chen Ba will also use DDR4 memory later. Carry out the test, here is for your reference first, the following are the test results:

The performance test results of the Intel Core i9-12900K processor in the Time SPY part of 3DMark using the Direct 12 API have a considerable lead in the Time SPY test item at 1440p resolution, but there is little difference in the Time SPY Exteme at 4K resolution .

In addition, on the FireStrike test project using the DirectX 11 API, there is no significant difference between the 1440p Extreme and the 4K resolution Ultra test project.

In the new CPU Profile test section of 3DMark, the Intel Core i9-12900K processor is slightly ahead of the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X in the single thread part, but in the full thread part, after all, there are still 8 threads less, so the overall score still lagging behind.

As for the performance of the game, Chen Ba used "Tom Clancy's The Division 2" (Tom Clancy's The Division 2), "Watch Dogs: Legion" (WatchDogs: Legion), "Polar War Cry 6" (FarCry 6), "Shadow of the Tomb Raider", "Wolfenstein: Youngblood" (Wolfenstein: Youngblood), "Borderland 3" (Borderland 3) and "F1 2021" and other seven This game is tested at 1080p resolution, with the highest quality of the game and the settings of full special effects. The following are the results of the Intel Core i9-12900K processor test:

The performance of Intel Core i9-12900K processor in game performance, compared with past data, Intel Core i9-12900K processor can be said to be 55 waves compared with AMD Ryzen 9 5950X, but Chen Ba will use DDR4 platform in the future The test results were compared again.

●Intel Core i9-12900K processor daily work performance test

Next, let's take a look at the daily work performance test of the Intel Core i9-12900K processor. The test tools used include BAPCO's new cross-platform work performance test software CrossMark, UL's Procyon test software, PCMark 10 test software, WebXPRT 3 test webpage, to Take a look at the performance of the Intel Core i9-12900K processor in daily work. The Office test part of CrossMark and UL Procyon is a new test item, so there are still gaps in the data in the control group. Chen Ba will test in the DDR4 group I will add it to everyone. Now let's take a look at the test results of the DDR5 part (remind once again that the control group uses DDR4 memory, the comparison results are for reference only):

Let's first look at the results of the commonly used PCMark 10 test items in the past:

The results obtained by the Intel Core i9-12900K processor in the PCMark 10 test project show that with the combination of DDR5 memory, the Intel Core i9-12900K processor is in the leading position in the application project test.

In addition, in UL's own new Procyon test software, there are also more test items launched for Microsoft Office series suites. Chen Ba also used it for comparison tests. The following are the test results:

Intel Core i9-12900K processor scores in the UL Procyon Office benchmark.

In the UL Procyon Office related tests, the results are the same, with the exception of the Outlook application, the Intel Core i9-12900K processor leads the way.

This time, Bapco's new CrossMark cross-platform test software is also newly introduced. This test software is also used to test the performance of the script through Microsoft Office software and Adobe's Photoshop/Premiere Pro, and has added a response speed evaluation. The following is the Intel CrossMark test results of Core i9-12900K processor:

Intel Core i9-12900K CrossMark test results.

The Intel Core i9-12900K processor's score in the CrossMark test software.

●Intel Core i9-12900K processor content creation performance test

In addition to game applications, another major group of high-end processors will be selected, which is the content creation part. Therefore, Intel has emphasized the help of content creation performance with the multi-core part on the Intel Core i9-12900K processor this time. It uses the Photo/Video BenchMark test item in the UL Procyon test software and Adobe's PugetBench performance test plug-in. The following are the test results:

Test results of Intel Core i9-12900K processor in UL Procyon Photo Editing Benchmark Project.

Test results of Intel Core i9-12900K processor in UL Procyon Video Editing Benchmark Project.

Test results of the Intel Core i9-12900K processor in the PugetBench for Adobe Premiere Pro video editing benchmark project.

Test results of the Intel Core i9-12900K processor in the PugetBench for Adobe Photoshop photo editing benchmark project.

With the exception of the PugetBench for Adobe Premiere Pro test project, the Intel Core i9-12900K processor's advantage in content creation performance can be seen in most projects.

●Intel Core i9-12900K processor multitasking performance test

This time Intel designed the Alderlake processor with a combination of P-Core performance cores and E-Core efficiency cores, adding Intel Thread Director technology to allocate suitable work to different cores, and emphasizing that multitasking is more efficient than in the past. Better performance, so Chen Ba also used two test scenarios this time to see if the Intel Core i9-12900K processor is more efficient in multitasking than in the past.

◆Live streaming + video while playing games

Use OBS to conduct a test of playing games and live streaming + recording at the same time.

The first is the more common multi-tasking scenario. The game live broadcaster uses OBS to broadcast Youtube while playing the game and records the whole process. The main purpose is to see if enabling live broadcast + recording while the game is in progress will slow down the performance of the game. On the OBS settings, the live streaming is set to 1080p 60fps, the encoding is set to NVENC with hardware encoding, and the Video Bitrate is 10000.

Streaming settings for OBS.

Chen Ba also observed the core load of the Intel Core i9-12900K in the Windows 11 work administrator. The differences between single-player games and simultaneous live broadcast + recording are as follows:

Open The Division 2 game alone

Game + Live Streaming + Recording

It can be seen that the order in which different games are started in the core is slightly different, such as "Tom Clancy's The Division 2" (Tom Clancy's The Division 2) is fully opened, and "Watch Dogs: Liberty Legion" (WatchDogs: Legion) is the design of opening a single thread first and then opening multiple threads.

In addition, Chen Ba also compared the performance difference before and after OBS live broadcast + recording, and the results are as follows:

The performance difference of the Intel Core i9-12900K processor when the game is playing live + video at the same time is about 4.8% to 13.4% performance degradation depending on the game. As for the part of the control group, it will be placed in the DDR4 memory group. in comparison.

◆Edit with Adobe Premiere Pro and edit images with Lightroom Classic

In addition, Intel also provided a very interesting test script this time, which mainly simulates the workflow of content creators: after editing the video with Adobe Premiere Pro, open Lightroom Classic for image editing while waiting for output. To be honest, these two The authors are all work items that consume system resources. Put them together for testing. Is the representative of Intel very confident in the performance of their own products?

Intel's own video + photo workflow multitasking test project, the results can be divided into three stages, namely Premiere Pro video output time, Lightroom Classic photo input time and Lightroom Classic photo output time.

During operation, Adobe Premiere Pro and Lightroom Classic will be opened at the same time to execute the same test script. The shorter the overall test time, the better the performance. The following are the test results:

Results obtained with Intel Core i9-12900K processor in Adobe Lightroom Classic/Premiere Pro Multitasking Benchmark Template.

From the results observed by the Windows 11 work administrator during the test, it can be seen that in addition to the full load of the P-Core performance core, the E-Core efficiency core is also added to the allocation work, but it is not used to full usage.

●Intel Core i9-12900K processor test power consumption and temperature performance

After the performance has been greatly improved, the power consumption and temperature have been increased, and this time the Intel Core i9-12900K has indeed increased in this part. In addition to what was mentioned earlier in the article, it is best to use a water cooling jacket in the heat dissipation part. In addition to the group, in the power consumption part, Chen Ba recorded a power consumption output of more than 600 W during the test process. If it is matched with a high-end graphics card such as NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080, it is best to choose the power supply part. The level above 850 W will have more margin to cope with the power consumption setting of the whole machine.

Let's first look at the power consumption of the whole machine recorded by Chen Ba with an external power meter during the test process:

The overall power consumption of the Intel Core i9-12900K during core performance testing.

The overall power consumption measured by the Intel Core i9-12900K processor working application performance test.

The overall power consumption measured by the Intel Core i9-12900K processor content creation benchmark.

In the power consumption part of the whole machine, it can be seen that only in the performance test of the processor, the power consumption of the Intel Core i9-12900K is 30% to 50% more than that of the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X. The difference in the application part is not that big, but in the 3DMark test project, there is a power consumption record performance of more than 700W. (RTX 3080 means: I pushed too?)

In addition, in the processor temperature part, even if the MSI Coreliquid S360 AIO water cooling radiator was used in the test, and the "game" configuration with a higher speed was used in the setting, it was still difficult to suppress the Intel Core i9- The enthusiasm of the 12900K processor often encounters the upper limit of 100 ℃ during the test. The following are the highest temperature values of the Intel Core i9-12900K processor recorded by Chen Ba using the Core Temp software during the test:

The core temperature measured during the Intel Core i9-12900K processor core performance test.

Core temperature as measured by the Intel Core i9-12900K Processor Work Application Benchmark.

Core temperature as measured by the Intel Core i9-12900K processor for content creation applications.

It can be seen that in response to the increase in the number of cores this time, the temperature performance has been maintained at a high level. Even with 360 AIO water cooling, there are times when it hits the temperature wall under heavy load.

Another reason for the high temperature is that the area of the top cover of the Alder Lake processor is enlarged this time, so that the bottom contact area of many heat sinks cannot be completely covered. For example, the bottom of the water block of the MSI Coreliquid S360 tested this time is just right. The top cover of the Intel Core i9-12900K is only covered. The pre-applied thermal paste in the center cannot completely cover the top of the processor after covering it. It is better to wipe it off and recoat it.

Using the water block pre-applied with thermal paste after installation, it can be seen that the corners are still a little bit worse, so Chen Ba still reapplied and covered it once.

●Intel Core i9-12900K processor test summary

As far as the performance test results are concerned, the Intel Core i9-12900K processor can be said to be the consumer-grade processor on the market. The combination of Core and E-Core also catches up with the ceiling created by competitors in the past with 16 cores and 32 threads in the multi-core performance. With the large bandwidth of DDR5 memory, content creators, It's a really powerful tool for streamers.

However, such a design also results in high power consumption and high heat generation. The Intel Core i9-12900K processor must be used, and the power supply and heat dissipation design must be dealt with. For example, the motherboard of the Z690 chipset this time, The power supply design is stronger than the Z590, and the radiator part also needs to deal with the increased top cover area of the Alder-Lake processor. It may be necessary to push a new version with an increased contact area, so as to calmly deal with the brought heat coming.