Home > CPU Comparisons > Core i9 9900K or Core i9 12900K: what's better?

Intel Core i9 9900K vs i9 12900K

Intel Core i9 9900K
VS
Intel Core i9 12900K
Intel Core i9 9900K
Intel Core i9 12900K

We compared two desktop CPUs: the 3.6 GHz Intel Core i9 9900K with 8-cores against the 3,2 GHz i9 12900K with 16-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

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
Generic CPU rating
The "iGPU" and "Power Efficiency" have a minor impact on the NanoReview Score when comparing desktop CPUs.

Key Differences

What are the key differences between 12900K and 9900K
Advantages of Intel Core i9 12900K
  • Newer - released 3-years and 2-months later
  • Has 8 more physical cores
  • Has 14336 KB larger L3 cache size
  • Around 35.2 GB/s (85%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth
  • Newer PCI Express version – 5.0
  • More modern manufacturing process – 10 versus 14 nanometers
  • 2% higher Turbo Boost frequency (5.1 GHz vs 5 GHz)
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Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks
CPU:
Core i9 9900K
vs
Core i9 12900K

Cinebench R23

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench R23 (Single-Core)
Core i9 9900K
1352
Core i9 12900K +49%
2008
Cinebench R23 (Multi-Core)
Core i9 9900K
12479
Core i9 12900K +121%
27560
Submit your Cinebench result

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)
File compression - 1340 MB/sec
Clang compilation - 145.4 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser - 446.3 pages/sec
PDF Renderer - 490.7 Mpixels/sec
Text processing - 270.7 pages/sec
Background blur - 69.7 images/sec
Photo processing - 150.1 images/sec
Ray tracing - 34.3 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1]

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
Core i9 9900K
2942
Core i9 12900K +43%
4196
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
Core i9 9900K
18427
Core i9 12900K +125%
41482
Integer math 66.3 GOps/sec 139.3 GOps/sec
Floating point math 41.3 GOps/sec 106.2 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 47M Primes/sec 149M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 37M Strings/sec 57.8M Strings/sec
Data encryption 6.7 GBytes/sec 29.7 GBytes/sec
Data compression 286 MBytes/sec 539.6 MBytes/sec
Physics 942 Frames/sec 2209 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 19B Matrices/sec 33.8B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4]

Value for money

Enter the current prices of the CPUs and click "Calculate" to determine which one has a better value-to-performance ratio.
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Specifications

Full technical specification of Intel Core i9 9900K and i9 12900K

General

Vendor Intel Intel
Released October 8, 2018 October 27, 2021
Type Desktop Desktop
instruction set x86-64 x86-64
Codename Coffee Lake Alder Lake
Model number i9-9900K i9-12900K
Integrated GPU UHD Graphics 630 UHD Graphics 770

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 8 8
P-Threads 16 16
Base Frequency (P) 3.6 GHz 3,2 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) 5 GHz 5.1 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 8 16
Total Threads 16 24
Bus Frequency 100 MHz 100 MHz
Multiplier 36x 32x
Bus Bandwidth 8 GT/s -
L1 Cache 64K (per core) 64K (per core)
L2 Cache 256K (per core) 14MB (shared)
L3 Cache 16MB (shared) 30MB (shared)
Unlocked Multiplier Yes Yes

Package

Fabrication process 14 nm 10 nm
TDP (PL1) 95 W 125 W
Socket LGA-1151 LGA-1700
Peak temperature 100°C 100°C

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Intel UHD Graphics 630 Intel UHD Graphics 770
GPU Base Clock 350 MHz 300 MHz
GPU Boost Clock 1200 MHz 1550 MHz
Shading Units 192 256
TMUs 24 16
ROPs 3 8
Execution Units 24 32
TGP 15 W 15 W
Max. Resolution 4096x2304 - 60 Hz -
iGPU FLOPS
Core i9 9900K
0.38 TFLOPS
Core i9 12900K
0.78 TFLOPS

Memory Support

Memory types - DDR4-2666 - DDR5-4800
- DDR4-3200
Memory Size 128 GB 128 GB
Max. Memory Channels 2 2
Max. Memory Bandwidth 41.6 GB/s 76.8 GB/s
ECC Support No Yes

Misc

Official site Intel Core i9 9900K official page Intel Core i9 12900K official page
PCI Express Version 3.0 5.0
PCI Express Lanes 16 20
Extended instructions SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AVX-2 -

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
51 (30.7%)
115 (69.3%)
Total votes: 166

Сompetitors

1. Intel Core i7 13700K or Intel Core i9 12900K
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4. Apple M2 or Intel Core i9 12900K
5. Apple M1 Max or Intel Core i9 12900K
6. AMD Ryzen 7 7700X or Intel Core i9 12900K
7. Intel Core i9 13900K or Intel Core i9 9900K
8. AMD Ryzen 9 7900X or Intel Core i9 9900K
9. Apple M1 or Intel Core i9 9900K
10. Intel Core i7 13700K or Intel Core i9 9900K
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Comments

So which CPU will you choose: Intel Core i9 12900K or i9 9900K?
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