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.
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MDD1963 - Thursday, November 4, 2021 - link
Not sure what statement was actually intended there....jerrylzy - Friday, November 5, 2021 - link
Even with DDR5 and PCIe 5.0 Intel is only barely competitive with AMD on the high end, and that's pretty sad. Only 12600K is competitive.Spunjji - Friday, November 5, 2021 - link
PCIe 5.0 is currently useless to consumers and likely to be so for the duration of ADL's life. DDR5 is currently far more expensive and doesn't provide a compelling performance benefit for most users.So, yeah - just as Comet Lake was a reasonable alternative to Zen 2 and 3 for many users despite being stuck on PCIe 3.0, so ADL doesn't really make a compelling argument for itself just by having PCIe 5.0.
NikosD - Friday, November 5, 2021 - link
@reviewersAny sign of AMX silicon inside P-cores ?
As another Intel's surprise like AVX-512, I mean.
cc2onouui - Friday, November 5, 2021 - link
Good performance with DDR5 but this review is less than complete (after you started "intel vs AMD ddr4 was not used for the tests) that's odd because DRAM price and MB makes the pick..it's sad that an important review with too much effort (now more than 17000 words)looks only on the shallow.. is windows 10 used for gaming tests or 11 and why ddr4 is out so the not good enough 2080ti5j3rul3 - Thursday, November 4, 2021 - link
Is there any advanced analysis between TSMC N7 and Intel 7?grahaman27 - Thursday, November 4, 2021 - link
Both are marketing terms that mean nothing. There.Wrs - Thursday, November 4, 2021 - link
But they happen to be surprisingly close. Can't go wrong with one over the other.Spunjji - Friday, November 5, 2021 - link
They are both marketing terms, yes, but they both refer to actual processes that can be compared.Fataliity - Thursday, November 4, 2021 - link
Der8auer had a video at... Kleindeck i think? Where they analyzed the transistors of Intel 10nm vs AMD 7nm processor. Essentially they are almost equal.