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: DDR5 vs DDR4
Traditionally we test our memory settings at JEDEC specifications. JEDEC is the standards body that determines the requirements for each memory standard. In this case, the Core i9 supports the following aligning with those standards:
- DDR4-3200 CL22
- DDR5-4800B CL40*
There's an * next to the DDR5 for a couple of reasons. First, when asked, Intel stated that 4800A (CL34) was the official support, however since the technical documents have now been released, we've discovered that it is 4800B (CL40). Secondly, 4800B CL40 technically only applies to 1 module per 64-bit channel on the motherboard, and only when the motherboard has two 64-bit slots to begin with. We covered Intel's memory support variants in a previous article, and in this instance, we're using DDR5-4800B memory in our testing.
As explained in our SPEC section, DDR5 memory not only brings bandwidth improvements but also the increased number of channels (4x32-bit vs 2x64-bit) means that the memory can be better utilized as threads pile on the memory requests. So while we don't see much improvement in single threaded workloads, there are a number of multi-threaded workloads that would love the increased performance.
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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