Home > CPU Comparison > Core i9 12900HX or Core i9 12900HK: what's better?

Intel Core i9 12900HX vs i9 12900HK

60 out of 100
Intel Core i9 12900HX
VS
55 out of 100
Intel Core i9 12900HK
Intel Core i9 12900HX
Intel Core i9 12900HK

We compared two laptop CPUs: the 2.3 GHz Intel Core i9 12900HX with 16-cores against the 2.5 GHz i9 12900HK with 14-cores. 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 (3)

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
Integrated Graphics
iGPU capabilities for gaming and 3D-intensive tasks
NanoReview Final Score
Choose your main usage scenario to recalculate the Final Score and see which CPU suits your needs.
🔌 Usage Scenario:

Key Differences

What are the key differences between 12900HK and 12900HX
Advantages of Intel Core i9 12900HX
  • Supports up to 128 GB DDR5-4800 RAM
  • Has 6 MB larger L3 cache size, helping fully utilize a high-end GPU in gaming
  • Newer PCI Express version – 5.0
  • Has 2 more physical cores
Advantages of Intel Core i9 12900HK
  • More powerful Intel Iris Xe Graphics (96EU) integrated graphics: 2.2 vs 0.8 TFLOPS

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks
CPU:
Core i9 12900HX
vs
Core i9 12900HK

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
Cinebench Scores (101st and 152nd 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)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Core i9 12900HX +19%
14457
Core i9 12900HK
12179
File compression 1110 MB/sec 1040 MB/sec
Clang compilation 121.1 Klines/sec 85.9 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 336.5 pages/sec 312.4 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 382.4 Mpixels/sec 363.1 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 254 pages/sec 225.4 pages/sec
Background blur 58.1 images/sec 49.7 images/sec
Photo processing 116.9 images/sec 111.5 images/sec
Ray tracing 29.6 Mpixels/sec 19.4 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] – 438 & 1045 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
Core i9 12900HX +32%
32932
Core i9 12900HK
25038
Integer math 112.6 GOps/sec 87.3 GOps/sec
Floating point math 83.7 GOps/sec 62.2 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 132M Primes/sec 99M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 43.6M Strings/sec 32.2M Strings/sec
Data encryption 22.7 GBytes/sec 17 GBytes/sec
Data compression 396.2 MBytes/sec 287.8 MBytes/sec
Physics 2020 Frames/sec 1609 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 24.1B Matrices/sec 17.2B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] – 515 & 1240 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU
Core i9 12900HX +71%
305.67
Core i9 12900HK
179.19

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 23.1 PPW 22.4 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 262.9 PPW 270.6 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 598.8 PPW 556.4 PPW
Blender / Watt 5.56 PPW 3.98 PPW
These are rough calculations, as most CPUs surpass PL1 TDP wattage even in multicore workloads.

Specifications

Full technical specification of Intel Core i9 12900HX and i9 12900HK

General

Vendor Intel Intel
Released May 10, 2022 January 4, 2022
Type Laptop Laptop
Instruction Set x86-64 x86-64
Codename Alder Lake Alder Lake
Model number i9-12900HX i9-12900HK
Integrated GPU UHD Graphics (32EU) Iris Xe Graphics (96EU)
Rival Equivalent - AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX - AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX
Successor - Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX - Intel Core i9 13900HK
Intel CPU rating (86th and 116th place)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 8 6
P-Threads 16 12
Base Frequency (P) 2.3 GHz 2.5 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) 5 GHz 5 GHz
Efficient Cores
E-Cores 8 8
E-Threads 8 8
Base Frequency (E) 1.7 GHz 1.8 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (E) 3.6 GHz 3.8 GHz
Total
Total Cores 16 14
Total Threads 24 20
Bus Frequency 100 MHz 100 MHz
Multiplier 23x 25x
L1 Cache 80K (per core) 80K (per core)
L2 Cache 1280K (per core) 1280K (per core)
L3 Cache 30MB (shared) 24MB (shared)
Unlocked Multiplier Yes Yes

Package

Fabrication Process 10 nm 10 nm
TDP (PL1) 45-55 W (configurable) 35-45 W (configurable)
Max. Boost TDP (PL2) 157 W 115 W
Socket BGA-1964 BGA-1744
Peak Temperature 100°C 100°C
Laptop processors ranking (108th and 153rd place)

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Intel UHD Graphics (32EU) Intel Iris Xe Graphics (96EU)
GPU Base Clock 300 MHz 300 MHz
GPU Boost Clock 1550 MHz 1450 MHz
Shading Units 256 768
TMUs 16 48
ROPs 8 24
Execution Units 32 96
TGP 15 W 15 W
iGPU FLOPS
Core i9 12900HX
0.8 TFLOPS
Core i9 12900HK +175%
2.2 TFLOPS
More info: Iris Xe Graphics G7 (96EU) compared to UHD Graphics 770

Memory Support

Memory Types - DDR5-4800
- DDR4-3200		 - DDR5-4800
- DDR4-3200
- LPDDR5-5200
- LPDDR4x-4267
Max. Memory Size 128 GB 64 GB
Memory Channels 2 2
Max. Memory Bandwidth 76.8 GB/s -
ECC Support No No

Misc

Official Site Intel Core i9 12900HX official page Intel Core i9 12900HK official page
PCI Express Version 5.0 4.0
PCI Express Lanes 20 28

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
115 (79.9%)
29 (20.1%)
Total votes: 144

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8. Intel Core i9 12900HK vs Apple M2 Pro
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Comments

So which CPU will you choose: Intel Core i9 12900HK or i9 12900HX?
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Avatar
EOD June 8, 2022 at 11:18 PM
I have ordered a 12900hk model from a reseller I've been waiting 3 months. time for a refund and upgrade. I wonder how long this will take.
0 Reply
Avatar
MSI robbed user June 7, 2022 at 08:28 PM
they robbed us - intel and MSI together - first of all, they sold not good working liquid metal pad in i9 12900HK - and then after time here they go again with better same, etc fixed HX.
+21 Reply
Avatar
Nerdnolifeloser March 25, 2026 at 11:40 PM
Lol who buys core i9 laptop that overheat in 5 minutes and throttles to 50% speed.
0 Reply
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