Home > CPU Comparison > Core i7 12700K or Ryzen 9 3900X: what's better?

Intel Core i7 12700K vs AMD Ryzen 9 3900X

64 out of 100
Intel Core i7 12700K
VS
48 out of 100
AMD Ryzen 9 3900X
Intel Core i7 12700K
AMD Ryzen 9 3900X

We compared two 12-core desktop CPUs: the 3.6 GHz Intel Core i7 12700K against the 3.8 GHz AMD Ryzen 9 3900X. On this page, you'll find out which processor has better performance in benchmarks, games and other useful information.

  1. Review
  2. Differences
  3. Performance
  4. Specs
  5. Comments

Review

General overview and comparison of the processors
Single-Core Performance
Performance in single-threaded apps and benchmarks
Multi-Core Performance
Measure performance when all cores are involved
Power Efficiency
The efficiency score of power consumption
The "iGPU" and "Power Efficiency" have a minor impact on the NanoReview Score for desktop CPU.
NanoReview Final Score
Choose your main usage scenario to recalculate the Final Score and see which CPU suits your needs.
πŸ”Œ Usage Scenario:

Value for money (Beta)

Global average CPU prices are used by default! For better accuracy, enter your current prices and click β€œCalculate".
Currency
VS
75.8
(Good)
Value Index
23.6
(Mediocre)

Key Differences

What are the key differences between 3900X and 12700K
Advantages of Intel Core i7 12700K
  • Around 29.12 GB/s (61%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth
  • Newer - released 2 years and 4 months later
  • 55% faster in a single-core Geekbench v6 test - 2627 vs 1699 points
  • Newer PCI Express version – 5.0
  • Includes an integrated GPU Intel UHD Graphics 770
  • 7% higher Turbo Boost frequency (4.9 GHz vs 4.6 GHz)
Advantages of AMD Ryzen 9 3900X
  • Has 39 MB larger L3 cache size, helping fully utilize a high-end GPU in gaming
  • More modern manufacturing process – 7 versus 10 nanometers

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks
CPU:
Core i7 12700K
vs
Ryzen 9 3900X

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
Cinebench 2026 (Single) 597 -
Cinebench 2026 (Multi) 4728 -
Cinebench Scores (110th and 159th place)
Submit your benchmark results

GeekBench v6

The new version of this benchmark emulates common operations often used in real-world apps
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Core i7 12700K +55%
2627
Ryzen 9 3900X
1699
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Core i7 12700K +41%
14714
Ryzen 9 3900X
10470
File compression 1230 MB/sec 872.1 MB/sec
Clang compilation 122.3 Klines/sec 104.4 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 382.6 pages/sec 209.4 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 374.5 Mpixels/sec 299.9 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 267.6 pages/sec 144.4 pages/sec
Background blur 55.9 images/sec 41.1 images/sec
Photo processing 98.2 images/sec 75.2 images/sec
Ray tracing 29.6 Mpixels/sec 24.4 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] – 731 & 801 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
Core i7 12700K +48%
4003
Ryzen 9 3900X
2703
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
Core i7 12700K +5%
34256
Ryzen 9 3900X
32492
Integer math 114.3 GOps/sec 99.4 GOps/sec
Floating point math 87.9 GOps/sec 58.4 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 112M Primes/sec 213M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 45.8M Strings/sec 48.2M Strings/sec
Data encryption 23.4 GBytes/sec 28.6 GBytes/sec
Data compression 445.1 MBytes/sec 448.8 MBytes/sec
Physics 1773 Frames/sec 1782 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 28.8B Matrices/sec 29.2B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] – 11963 & 17216 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU
Core i7 12700K +11%
309.16
Ryzen 9 3900X
278.98

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 9.6 PPW 9.4 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 117.7 PPW 99.7 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 274 PPW 309.4 PPW
Blender / Watt 2.47 PPW 2.66 PPW
These are rough calculations, as most CPUs surpass PL1 TDP wattage even in multicore workloads.

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
Intel Core i7 12700K
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-08-14 (Melvin Tejada)Cinebench 2026597 / 4728
πŸ“˜ 2026-07-08 (Myla)Cinebench 2026555 / 3917
πŸ“˜ 2026-05-04 (sisham)Cinebench 2024100 / 635
πŸ“˜ 2025-08-22 (Ray)Cinebench 2024115 / 1305
πŸ“˜ 2024-12-19 (Zach Jones)Cinebench 2024114 / 1231
Add View all (10)
AMD Ryzen 9 3900X
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-03-08 (Heliosgt)Cinebench 202476 / 1081
πŸ“˜ 2026-02-11 (Ethan)Cinebench 202469 / 778
πŸ“˜ 2026-01-30 (Amara)Cinebench 202475 / 986
πŸ“˜ 2025-11-16 (LegendryDrifter)Geekbench 6 CPU1821 / 11106
πŸ“˜ 2025-11-16 (LegendryDrifter)Cinebench 202479 / 1054
Add View all (9)

Specifications

Full technical specification of Intel Core i7 12700K and AMD Ryzen 9 3900X

General

Vendor Intel Amd
Released October 27, 2021 July 7, 2019
Type Desktop Desktop
Instruction Set x86-64 x86-64
Codename Alder Lake -
Model number i7-12700K -
Integrated GPU UHD Graphics 770 No
Rival Equivalent - AMD Ryzen 7 5800X - Intel Core i9 9900K
Successor - Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus - AMD Ryzen 9 9900X
Intel CPU rating (#69th place)
AMD Ryzen CPU ranking (#126th place)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 8 12
P-Threads 16 24
Base Frequency (P) 3.6 GHz 3.8 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) 4.9 GHz 4.6 GHz
Efficient Cores
E-Cores 4 -
E-Threads 4 -
Base Frequency (E) 2.7 GHz -
Turbo Boost Frequency (E) 3.8 GHz -
Total
Total Cores 12 12
Total Threads 20 24
Bus Frequency 100 MHz 100 MHz
Multiplier 36x 38x
L1 Cache 80K (per core) 64K (per core)
L2 Cache 12MB (shared) 512K (per core)
L3 Cache 25MB (shared) 64MB (shared)
Unlocked Multiplier Yes Yes

Package

Transistors - 3.8 billions
Fabrication Process 10 nm 7 nm
TDP (PL1) 125 W 105 W
Max. Boost TDP (PL2) 190 W -
Socket LGA-1700 AM4
Peak Temperature 100Β°C 95Β°C
Desktop CPU ranking (69th and 121st place)

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Intel UHD Graphics 770 -
GPU Base Clock 300 MHz -
GPU Boost Clock 1500 MHz -
Shading Units 256 -
TMUs 16 -
ROPs 8 -
Execution Units 32 -
TGP 15 W -
iGPU FLOPS
Core i7 12700K
0.8 TFLOPS
Ryzen 9 3900X
n/a
See: Intel UHD Graphics 770 benchmarks

Memory Support

Memory Types - DDR5-4800
- DDR4-3200		 - DDR4-3200
Max. Memory Size 128 GB 128 GB
Memory Channels 2 2
Max. Memory Bandwidth 76.8 GB/s 47.68 GB/s
ECC Support Yes Yes

Misc

Official Site Intel Core i7 12700K official page AMD Ryzen 9 3900X official page
PCI Express Version 5.0 4.0
PCI Express Lanes 20 16

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
32 (61.5%)
20 (38.5%)
Total votes: 52

Competitors

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4. Intel Core i7 12700K vs Intel Core i5 14600K
5. Intel Core i7 12700K vs Intel Core i5 14500
6. Intel Core i7 12700K vs Intel Core i7 14700K (1)
7. Intel Core i7 12700K vs Intel Core i7 12700F
8. AMD Ryzen 9 3900X vs AMD Ryzen 7 5700X
9. AMD Ryzen 9 3900X vs AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D
10. AMD Ryzen 9 3900X vs AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D
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Comments

So which CPU will you choose: AMD Ryzen 9 3900X or Intel Core i7 12700K?
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