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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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.