The Intel 12th Gen Core i9-12900K Review: Hybrid Performance Brings Hybrid Complexity
by Dr. Ian Cutress & Andrei Frumusanu on November 4, 2021 9:00 AM ESTCPU Benchmark Performance: E-Core
In this batch of testing, we're focusing primarily on the E-cores. Intel claimed that the performance was around the level of its Skylake generation of processors (6th Gen to 10th Gen, depending which slide you read), and we had to put that to the test. In this instance, we're comparing to the flagship Skylake processor, the Core i7-6700K, which offered 4C/8T at 91 W. We also did a number of multi-threaded tests to see where the E-cores would line up.
In order to enable E-core only operation, we used affinity masks.
Single Threaded
In these few tests, we can see that the E-core is almost there at 4.2 GHz Skylake. Moving down to 3.9 GHz, perhaps something like the i7-6700, would put it on par.
Multi-Thread Tests
Having a full eight E-cores compared to Skylake's 4C/8T arrangement helps in a lot of scenarios that are compute limited. When we move to more memory limited environments, or with cross-talk, then the E-cores are a bit more limited due to the cache structure and the long core-to-core latencies. Even with DDR5 in tow, the E-cores can be marginal to the Skylake, for example in WinRAR which tends to benefit from cache and memory bandwidth.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
474 Comments
View All Comments
adamxpeter - Friday, November 5, 2021 - link
Very poetic post.bananaforscale - Friday, November 5, 2021 - link
Seems we're actually getting a Zen 3 refresh early next year. Alder Lake's lead also decreases with DDR4, gaming above 1080p (so basically anyone who would buy a 12900K for a gaming rig), it uses more power and with DDR5 you pay extra for memory.Yeah, Alder Lake has some advantages. Not sure I'd call it a better overall package at the moment.
madseven7 - Saturday, November 6, 2021 - link
Intel is back at the cost of power. AMD at that power will destroy Intel. Intel basically said screw TDP.Qasar - Saturday, November 6, 2021 - link
intel has been saying that for 2-3 years now, its the only way their chips can be competitive with zen 2 and 3Maverick009 - Sunday, November 7, 2021 - link
They really haven't screwed up as you would like to think. I do believe AMD was thrown off some by the unexpected performance in Hybrid design. They still do trade blows between some games, multi-threaded software, and on applications that are just not optimized for Alder Lake.What I have noticed though in the days since Alder Lake's NDA went up and reviews came out, is leaks to AMD's next gen Zen CPUs have begun to trinkle out a little more than usual. Yes we have Zen 4 on the way, which will pave the way for DDR5 and PCIe Gen5 along with an uplift in IPC. However the real secret sauce may be in Zen 4D as the platform to build a heavily multi-threaded core package along with SMT enabled, and then Zen 5. The big picture, is AMD's version of a Hybrid CPU may include a combination of Zen 4D big cores and Zen 5 Bigger cores. The Zen 4D are said to possibly carry as many as 16 cores per chiplet, too, so it would speak to a possible heavily multi-threaded efficient CPU, while sacrificing a little bit of single threaded performance to achieve it. The timeframe would also put the new Hybrid CPU on a collision course to battle Raptor Lake.
For once the CPU market has gotten interesting again, and the consumer ultimately wins here.
NikosD - Monday, November 8, 2021 - link
@reviewersSince AVX-512 is working on ADL, it would be useful to test the AVX-512 vs AVX2 power consumption of ADL by running POVRAY using P-cores only and compare that maximum AVX2 power consumption to AVX-512 max power consumption using 3DPM.
Because max 272W power consumption of POVRAY as reported, includes 48W from E-cores too.
mode_13h - Tuesday, November 9, 2021 - link
> it would be useful to test the AVX-512 vs AVX2 power consumption of ADL by running POVRAYI'm not sure of POV-Ray is the best way to stress AVX-512.
NikosD - Wednesday, November 10, 2021 - link
They have already tested max power consumption of AVX-512 using 3DPM.I just asked to test POVRAY using P-cores only, for max power consumption of AVX2 in order to compare with 3DPM.
usernametaken76 - Monday, November 8, 2021 - link
lolxhris4747 - Tuesday, November 9, 2021 - link
They did not take the performance crown gaming is almost tied overall mt is a mixed bag hopefully they use pbo which gives about 27k-30k on c23