ALDER LAKE is Intel’s first desktop
processor to use the Intel 7 process node,
which was previously referred to as Intel
10nm SuperFin, and also the first in a long
time to not use the 14 nm process node.
Oh, how times have changed. Intel has
finally broken free from the shackles of
14nm and managed to escape the node
that was once so congested it caused an
embarrassing pile-up for the chipmaker.
With Alder Lake, Intel is no longer tied to
that node and so it is free to do more in the
space it does have. The company says it
even expects to shift plenty of Alder Lake
chips this side of New Year. So, perhaps
this is some silicon you will actually be
able to buy at launch.
The most notable change of all for
Intel Alder Lake, though, is the hybrid
Core architecture. What this means is
that Intel is stuffing all of the K-series
12th-Generation chips, those that are
arriving at launch, with two types of
cores: Performance Cores (P-Cores) and
Efficient Cores (E-Cores).
The P-Cores are based on the Golden
Cove micro-architecture, which is one
step beyond the Willow Lake micro-
architecture found in Intel’s 1 1th-gen
mobile Tiger Lake processors. Alder
Lake’s P-Cores are more closely related
to the CPU cores of previous Intel desktop
generations. Take the Core i 9 1090 0K,
for example, which has eight CPU cores
in total. Consider the 129 00K’s eight
P-Cores in much the same way, although
considerably faster.
For gaming these P-Cores are key.
They offer the highest clock speeds of the
Finally, Team Blue’s Hybrid 10 nm design is hereIntel Core i 9 - 12900 K
9
VERDICT Intel Core i 9 - 12900 KPIERCING THE HEAVENS
Incredible single-core
performance; huge multi-thread
performance; big leap for Intel; DDR5 and
PCIe 5. 0 support.PLUMBING THE DEPTHS Some games don’t
play nicely; high power consumption; new
platform costs.
$590, http://www.intel.comSPECIFICATIONS
Cores/Threads 8/16 P + 8/ 8 EBase/Turbo Clock 2.4^ /^ 5.2GHz
Architecture Alder LakeLithography Intel 7 (10nm SuperFin)
Memory Support
DDR5 @ 128GB
(4800MT/s) / DDR4
@ 128GB (3200MT/s)
PCIe Support PCIe 5.0 x16 (Graphics),
PCIe 4.0 x4 (Storage)
Integrated Graphics Intel UHD Graphics 770TDP 125-241Wtwo—on the Core i9 12 900K, these reach
5.2GHz at times—and nail down slick
single-threaded speed for it. They’re
also built to minimize latency, and they’re
technically wider and smarter to catch up
with the competition.
Each P-Core has access to 1 .25MB of
L2 cache. From there, they’re hooked up
to 3 0MB of Intel Smart Cache, which is
shared between E-Cores and onboard
integrated graphics, though that is
disabled in the KF-series chips. For
a marker of performance, the Core i 9
129 00K’s P-Cores are able to surpass the
Cypress Cove cores in the Core i9 119 00K
by a significant margin, and we’re yet to
touch on the eight Efficient Cores Intel
has stuffed into the 129 00K’s back pocket.
Intel has been talking a good
game when it comes to Alder Lake
performance, and after getting our hands
on the Core i9 12 900K, we can’t say we’re
surprised, either. This chip does reclaim
the gaming performance crown in almost
every game we tested, and often by quite
some large margin.
The same goes for synthetic single-
core performance. We ran Cinebench
R23 through a 1 0-minute cycle to ensure
no power draw funny business, and the
Core i 9 129 00K delivered a tremendous
leap in single-core performance over
the best of Zen 3 in the Ryzen 9 5 950X.
Even the lower-clocked Core i 5 126 00K
delivers a huge bump here.
When it comes to CPU power and
thermal performance, Intel has clearly
still had to push its Core i 9 package to
make sure it is capable of beating AMD’stop Ryzen processor. That means a much
higher power draw under load than
AMD’s Ryzen 9 5 950X during x 264 v5.0
benchmarking, at a 53 percent increase,
and a 6°C increase in peak temperature.
That’s even in excess of the Core i 9
119 00K, the chip infamous for its high
wattage draw. Though Intel writes this
off by saying that if you were to drop the
Core i 9 129 00K to even a fraction of its
24 1W MTP, at just 6 5W, it would still be a
match for the Core i9 1190 0K. At least the
performance is there to justify the leap in
wattage in comparison with Intel’s own
chips, but next to AMD’s processors, it
still appears comparatively high.
From an enthusiast’s point of view—
and the Core i 9 129 00K is an enthusiast
chip after all—this chip totally obliterates
previous Intel generations by most
metrics: single-threaded performance,
multi-threaded performance, clock
speed, and memory performance. And
you’re probably paying less for the
privilege, which is saying something in
this day and age. – JACOB RIDLEYBENCHMARKS
Intel Core i9- 129 00K AMD Ryzen 9 5950XCineBench R23 Single (Index) 1,886 1,617
CineBench R23 Multi (Index) 26,434 24,109
Tech ARP’s x264 (avg fps) 76 81
Total War: Three Kingdoms (DX11) @ 108 0p 211 196
Far Cry 6 (DX12) @ 10 80p (avg fps) 147 136
3D Mark: Timespy CPU Score 16,240 12,554
Recommended Retail Price ($) $590 $750Best scores in bold. Test bed consists of an Asus ROG Maximus Z690 Hero, 32GB (2x16GB) Corsair Dominator
Platinum RGB DDR5 @ 5, 200 MT/s, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3 080, 1TB WD Black SN850 PCIe 4.0 SSD, and an NZXT
850W PSU. All tests performed on Windows 11 on the highest preset available.