Intel 12th Gen Core i5-12600K, i7-12700K & i9-12900K CPU Review

It’s a big day for us here at eTeknix, for Intel, and for the PC community in general, as there’s a lot of kick-ass new hardware hitting the market. There are the new Z690 motherboards with the 12th Gen ready LGA1700 socket, as well as the new Intel 12th Gen Alder Lake CPUs. However, both the motherboards and processors bring a suite of new technologies to the market, as well as a few that play catch-up with what AMD has been doing. PCIe 5.0 is rolling out, there’s now PCIe 4.0 M.2 storage, DDR5 is here, the latest Intel WiFi 6, Thunderbolt 4 and more! With all that in mind, it’s hard not to be excited about these new launches.

Intel 12th Gen Core i5-12600K, i7-12700K & i9-12900K

I’ve got three CPUs in the office today, the Intel Core i5-12600K, i7-12700K and the i9-12900K giving us a good sample of what the range has to offer. However, I’m sure most are really excited to see what the i9 can do, given that it’s the new Intel flagship, but I’m expecting big things from them all. These are the first CPUs from Intel to use their new big.LITTLE design, which mixes larger and faster performance cores, with smaller and more efficiency-focused cores. So the flagship i9-12900K has 8 performance cores and 8 efficiency cores.

There’s also a new cache architecture, offering a shared smart cache between the P and E cores, but there’s also much more memory available on the L2 and L3 cache too. All the CPUs also use the latest Intel 10nm design, with Thread Director, DDR5, PCIe 5.0, and have integrated Intel WiFi 6E. There’s also the latest Intel UHD Xe graphics too, however, I suspect we’ll see later models expand on this or models without Xe at some point.

What Intel Had to Say

“The 12th Gen Intel® Core™ desktop processor redefines x86 architecture performance. Introducing our new performance hybrid architecture, combining Performance-cores with Efficient-cores to elevate gaming, productivity, and creation. These breakthrough processors intelligently optimize workloads and pave the way for future leaps in processor design. Enjoy the full range of the latest platform innovations like industry-first PCIe 5.0 readiness and DDR5 memory. With Intel® UHD graphics immerse yourself in a visually stunning experience with up to 8K HDR support and the ability to view 4 simultaneous 4K displays. 12th Gen Intel® Core™ desktop processors bring all the features you need to game, work, and create like never before.” – Intel

Z690 and 12th Gen Reviews

• ASUS ROG MAXIMUS Z690 EXTREME Motherboard Review
• ASUS ROG MAXIMUS Z690 HERO Motherboard Review
• ASUS TUF Gaming Z690-Plus WiFi D4 Motherboard Review
• ASUS ROG Z690-I Gaming WiFi Motherboard Review
• Gigabyte Z690 AORUS Pro Motherboard Review
• Gigabyte Z690 AORUS XTREME Motherboard Review
• Gigabyte Z690 AORUS Master Motherboard Review
• MSI MAG Z690 TOMAHAWK WIFI DDR4 Motherboard Review
• MSI MPG Z690 Carbon WiFi Motherboard Review
• MSI MEG Z690 UNIFY Motherboard Review

Of course, for this review, use the navigation menu below to see more!

Core i9-12900K

• Cores (P-cores + E-cores) – 16 (8P+8E)
• Max Turbo Frequency – 5.2 GHz
• Single P-core Turbo – 5.1 GHz
• Single E-core Turbo – 3.9 GHz
• P-core Base – 3.2 GHz
• E-core Base – 2.4 GHz
• Threads – 24
• Intel Smart Cache Size (L3) – 30
• Total L2 Cache Size – 14
• Xe Graphics – Intel UHD Graphics 770

Intel i7-12700K

• Cores (P-cores + E-cores) – 12 (8P+4E)
• Max Turbo Frequency – 5.0 GHz
• Single P-core Turbo – 4.9 GHz
• Single E-core Turbo – 3.8 GHz
• P-core Base – 3.6 GHz
• E-core Base – 2.7 GHz
• Threads – 20
• Intel Smart Cache Size (L3) – 25
• Total L2 Cache Size – 12
• Xe Graphics – Intel UHD Graphics 770

Intel Core i5-12600K

• Cores (P-cores + E-cores) – 10 (6P+4E)
• Max Turbo Frequency – 4.9 GHz
• Single P-core Turbo – 4.9 GHz
• Single E-core Turbo – 3.6 GHz
• P-core Base – 3.7 GHz
• E-core Base – 2.8 GHz
• Threads – 16
• Intel Smart Cache Size (L3) – 20
• Total L2 Cache Size – 9.5
• Xe Graphics – Intel UHD Graphics 770

Tell Me More

For in-depth specifications, please visit the official product page here.

Core i9-12900K

Intel i7-12700K

Intel Core i5-12600K

How We Test

Here at eTeknix, we endeavour to disclose vital information regarding the benchmarking process so that readers can quantify the results and attempt to replicate them using their hardware. When it comes to our benchmarks in our reviews, the benchmarks are pretty self-explanatory although there are a few exceptions. Remember that your choice of motherboard, the silicon lottery, and other factors can yield different numbers, and there’s always a margin for error when using any software. Therefore, your experience may vary, but our aim is to make our results as good a representation of real-world performance as possible.

Testing Your Own System

We typically focus on commonly available benchmarks so that you too can run the same benchmarks on your own system. We hope this makes it easy for our readers to gauge the performance improvement available to them when they upgrade their own systems.

Gaming Tests

All games are run at their specified resolutions using the “high” settings or equivalent. We avoid using the Ultra settings as these often offer diminishing returns for performance vs visuals. If a game runs extremely well using high settings, then we can safely suggest the hardware can be used at higher graphics settings. We may sometimes run more advanced settings, such as ray tracing, DLSS, and similar, but again, these will be made clear in the title of each benchmark.

Test Bench

Synthetic Benchmarks

Online Benchmarks

Compression & Rendering

Experience Lara Croft’s defining moment as she becomes the Tomb Raider. In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Lara must master a deadly jungle, overcome terrifying tombs, and persevere through her darkest hour. As she races to save the world from a Maya apocalypse, Lara will ultimately be forged into the Tomb Raider she is destined to be.

Available now on Steam.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider Performance

Welcome to Yara, a tropical paradise frozen in time. As the dictator of Yara, Antón Castillo is intent on restoring his nation back to its former glory by any means, with his son, Diego, following in his bloody footsteps. Their oppressive rule has ignited a revolution.

Available now on Epic Games Store

Far Cry 6

Metro Exodus is an epic, story-driven first-person shooter from 4A Games that blends deadly combat and stealth with exploration and survival horror in one of the most immersive game worlds ever created. Flee the shattered ruins of dead Moscow and embark on an epic, continent-spanning journey across post-apocalyptic Russia in the greatest Metro adventure yet.

Explore the Russian wilderness in vast, non-linear levels and follow a thrilling story-line inspired by the novels of Dmitry Glukhovsky that spans an entire year through spring, summer and autumn to the depths of nuclear winter.

Available now on Epic Game Store.

Metro Exodus Performance

World of Tanks enCore RT is the demo of the updated Core graphics engine. It will let you know how well your PC will perform in World of Tanks with the updated Core engine.

Available now here.

World of Tanks Performance

Memory & Storage

Power Consumption

Z690 Motherboards and Intel 12th Gen Alder Lake Pricing

Here’s a round-up of all the motherboards and processors I’ve reviewed today. This includes up to date pricing that was correct prior to launch. However, I expect prices and stock to be a little more volatile after the launch, so please keep in mind that they are subject to change. Most of the prices and links are from Amazon UK, however, I have included some prices and links to Scan.co.uk for items that were not available on Amazon at the time of writing.

• Intel 12th Gen Core i5-12600K, i7-12700K & i9-12900K CPU (review) – £290 @ Scan / £419 @ Scan / £599 @ Scan
• ASUS ROG MAXIMUS Z690 EXTREME Motherboard (review) – £935 @ Scan / £1669 Glacial Edition
• ASUS ROG MAXIMUS Z690 HERO Motherboard (review) – £520 @ Scan
• ASUS TUF Gaming Z690-Plus WiFi D4 Motherboard (review) – £280 @ Scan
• ASUS ROG Z690-I Gaming WiFi Motherboard (review) – £375 @ Scan
• Gigabyte Z690 AORUS XTREME Motherboard (review) – £767
• Gigabyte Z690 AORUS Master Motherboard (review) – £416
• Gigabyte Z690 AORUS Pro Motherboard (review) – £290
• MSI MPG Z690 Carbon WiFi Motherboard (review) – £410 @ Scan
• MSI MAG Z690 TOMAHAWK WIFI DDR4 Motherboard (review) – £301
• MSI MEG Z690 UNIFY Motherboard (review) – £510 @ Scan

Overview

It’s clear that Intel is back on top once again, albeit with a few predictable consequences. The Intel Core i9-12900K is extremely fast, thrashing everything that’s come before it and it’ll likely stay on top for some time. When it comes to gaming, it made light work of everything we ran, setting new high scores with ease. That’s hardly surprising though, given the new big.LITTLE core design, higher clock speeds, and leveraging the new technologies of the Z690 motherboards. This is the next-gen upgrade we’ve been waiting for from Intel.

Z690 Performance

We used the Intel Core i9-12900K in all our Z690 motherboard reviews. As we might have expected, pretty much all of the Z690 motherboards performed around about the same, so if all you care about is straight-up gaming performance, then just pick the one you like and go nuts. If they can max out the i9-12900K, the Core i5-12600K and the Core i7-12700K should be a breeze. Of course, those wanting to sit at max boost all day for heavy workloads should look towards models with a more robust VRM and cooling in general.

The new CPUs come with the latest Intel WiFi 6E built-in too, so all the motherboards we reviewed did indeed have WiFi, which is pretty fantastic.

DDR5

It’s clear that DDR5 is a huge advantage in our memory performance tests and rendering tasks. All that extra bandwidth just provides a brute force advantage, even if memory timings and latencies aren’t as good as what we’re used to on DDR4, however, that will certainly mature as DDR5 is fresh to market. Furthermore, I fully expect we’ll see some BIOS updates, further Windows 10/11 updates and more that will see all the new Intel CPUs, Z690 and DDR5 have their performance fine-tuned over the coming weeks and months.

PCIe 4.0 and 5.0

While the performance of the AMD chips is great, Intel is now stepping up to match AMD with PCIe 4.0 M.2 storage, so Intel fans can now have 7000 Mbps+ read and write speeds, which is awesome. So they’re an even match there now. However, Intel are the first to adopt PCIe 5.0, and while there are no supporting GPUs or storage devices, I suspect the new Intel GPUs will be the first products to market for this, and perhaps new storage devices after CES 2022.

Power

There’s no doubting that the new CPUs are powerful, all three of them did great. It’s clear the bit.LITTLE is having an impact on things like temperatures too. At idle, all three sat around 26-28c, which is much cooler than anything else we tested, likely because the P-core are shut off. However, when gaming, the P-Cores are working and the 12900K reached 82C. However, under intense rendering workloads in R23, they reached 101C, because all cores were maxed out. That’s pretty hot, but that’s within the operating range, and the performance we got was exceptional. Of course, the 12600K only hit 64C gaming and 68C rendering, with the 12700K doing 72C gaming and 84C rendering. They’re certainly a lot easier to keep cool then!

Power consumption was up, but I mean… duh, of course it was. There are more cores, these cores are running faster than the old model, and even the die is larger. They’re just taking more power and turning it into more performance. However, it seems like AMD is still more efficient, but that’s expected given AMDs 7nm vs Intels 10nm process. However, Intel has gone for “more is more” approach, and power and heat aside, it seems to be working.

Should I Buy One?

They’re all fantastic, and I think most will be happy with the 12600K or even the 12700K if you need a little more punch. The prices of both are certainly more competitive than I expected. However, the 12900K is just such a brutal weapon that I can’t help but love what it has to offer. Of course, you’ll want a really solid CPU cooler if you plan to max it out all day, but any decent air cooler is fine for a more gaming focused setup.

This is clearly just the beginning though, with the new motherboards, chipset, and CPUs bringing PCIe 5.0, DDR5, Gen 4 M.2 and so much, the performance lift in your new build will benefit from more than just the new CPU cores, as it’s time to overall the whole thing!