Home > CPU Comparison > Core i9 12900KF or Ryzen 9 5950X: what's better?

Intel Core i9 12900KF vs AMD Ryzen 9 5950X

69 out of 100
Intel Core i9 12900KF
VS
63 out of 100
AMD Ryzen 9 5950X
Intel Core i9 12900KF
AMD Ryzen 9 5950X

We compared two 16-core desktop CPUs: the 3.2 GHz Intel Core i9 12900KF against the 3.4 GHz AMD Ryzen 9 5950X. 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.
๐Ÿ”Œ Usage Scenario:

Value for money (Beta)

Global average CPU prices are used by default! For better accuracy, enter your current prices and click โ€œCalculate".
Currency
VS
60.3
(Average)
Value Index
40.4
(Average)

Key Differences

What are the key differences between 5950X and 12900KF
Advantages of Intel Core i9 12900KF
  • Around 29.12 GB/s (61%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth
  • Newer PCI Express version โ€“ 5.0
  • Newer - released 1 year and 1 month later
  • 18% faster in a single-core Geekbench v6 test - 2686 vs 2276 points
  • 4% higher Turbo Boost frequency (5.1 GHz vs 4.9 GHz)
Advantages of AMD Ryzen 9 5950X
  • Has 34 MB larger L3 cache size, helping fully utilize a high-end GPU in gaming
  • More modern manufacturing process โ€“ 7 versus 10 nanometers

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks
CPU:
Core i9 12900KF
vs
Ryzen 9 5950X

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
Cinebench 2026 (Single) - 464
Cinebench 2026 (Multi) - 5693
Cinebench Scores (77th and 76th 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 12900KF +27%
16140
Ryzen 9 5950X
12728
File compression 1150 MB/sec 1120 MB/sec
Clang compilation 141 Klines/sec 147.1 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 363.2 pages/sec 224.5 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 475.6 Mpixels/sec 372.1 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 274.8 pages/sec 222.5 pages/sec
Background blur 66.8 images/sec 28.4 images/sec
Photo processing 138.5 images/sec 85 images/sec
Ray tracing 33.9 Mpixels/sec 38.4 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] โ€“ 1129 & 741 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
Core i9 12900KF
40499
Ryzen 9 5950X +12%
45260
Integer math 138.3 GOps/sec 183.9 GOps/sec
Floating point math 104.8 GOps/sec 100.5 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 138M Primes/sec 223M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 56.7M Strings/sec 64.9M Strings/sec
Data encryption 29.2 GBytes/sec 39.4 GBytes/sec
Data compression 532.8 MBytes/sec 622.5 MBytes/sec
Physics 2054 Frames/sec 1854 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 33.4B Matrices/sec 40.4B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] โ€“ 3476 & 19398 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU
Core i9 12900KF
365.61
Ryzen 9 5950X +13%
413.83

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 11.7 PPW 13.9 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 129.1 PPW 121.2 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 324 PPW 431 PPW
Blender / Watt 2.92 PPW 3.94 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 i9 12900KF
No benchmark results yet
Add
AMD Ryzen 9 5950X
DateBenchmarkResult
๐Ÿ“˜ 2026-07-12 (stream pc)Cinebench 2026456 / 4979
๐Ÿ“˜ 2026-06-30 (DDD)Cinebench 2026464 / 5693
๐Ÿ“˜ 2025-12-04 (PhillyBass)GeekBench2259 / 12745
๐Ÿ“˜ 2025-12-04 (PhillyBass)Cinebench 202499 / 1448
๐Ÿ“˜ 2025-10-07 (C0d3M0nk3y)Cinebench 202497 / 1451
Add View all (13)

Specifications

Full technical specification of Intel Core i9 12900KF and AMD Ryzen 9 5950X

General

Vendor Intel Amd
Released October 27, 2021 October 8, 2020
Type Desktop Desktop
Instruction Set x86-64 x86-64
Codename Alder Lake Zen 3 (Vermeer)
Model number i9-12900KF -
Integrated GPU No No
Rival Equivalent - AMD Ryzen 9 5950X - Intel Core i9 11900K
Successor - Intel Core i9 14900KF - AMD Ryzen 9 9950X
Intel CPU rating (#49th place)
AMD Ryzen CPU ranking (#51st place)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 8 16
P-Threads 16 32
Base Frequency (P) 3.2 GHz 3.4 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) 5.1 GHz 4.9 GHz
Efficient Cores
E-Cores 8 -
E-Threads 8 -
Base Frequency (E) 2.4 GHz -
Turbo Boost Frequency (E) 3.9 GHz -
Total
Total Cores 16 16
Total Threads 24 32
Bus Frequency 100 MHz 100 MHz
Multiplier 32x 34x
L1 Cache 64K (per core) 64K (per core)
L2 Cache 14MB (shared) 512K (per core)
L3 Cache 30MB (shared) 64MB (shared)
Unlocked Multiplier Yes Yes

Package

Transistors - 4.15 billions
Fabrication Process 10 nm 7 nm
TDP (PL1) 125 W 105 W
Max. Boost TDP (PL2) 241 W 142 W
Socket LGA-1700 AM4
Peak Temperature 100ยฐC 95ยฐC
Desktop CPU ranking (51st and 72nd place)

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 i9 12900KF official page AMD Ryzen 9 5950X official page
PCI Express Version 5.0 4.0
PCI Express Lanes 20 20

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
192 (56.8%)
146 (43.2%)
Total votes: 338

Competitors

1. Intel Core i9 12900KF vs Intel Core i9 12900K (15)
2. AMD Ryzen 9 5950X vs AMD Ryzen 9 9950X
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4. AMD Ryzen 9 5950X vs AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (5)
5. AMD Ryzen 9 5950X vs AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D
6. AMD Ryzen 9 5950X vs AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D
7. AMD Ryzen 9 5950X vs AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D (1)
8. AMD Ryzen 9 5950X vs AMD Ryzen 7 9700X
Compare other CPUs (460+)

Comments

So which CPU will you choose: AMD Ryzen 9 5950X or Intel Core i9 12900KF?
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