The Intel Core i9-12900KS Review: The Best of Intel's Alder Lake, and the Hottest
by Gavin Bonshor on July 29, 2022 8:00 AM ESTGaming Performance: 4K
All of our game testing results, including other resolutions, can be found in our benchmark database: www.anandtech.com/bench. All gaming tests were with an RTX 2080 Ti.
We are using DDR5 memory at the following settings:
- DDR5-4800(B) CL40
Civilization VI
Final Fantasy 14
Final Fantasy 15
World of Tanks
Borderlands 3
Far Cry 5
Gears Tactics
Grand Theft Auto V
Strange Brigade (DirectX 12)
Strange Brigade (Vulkan)
When gaming at 4K resolutions, the Core i9-12900KS performs very well, although the Core i9-12900K does outperform it in a couple of games. It's also worth noting that in our game benchmark suite, the Core i9-12900KS for the better part, actually outperforms the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D, but the latter almost certain wins in situations where more L3 cache is favored by the game title.
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Carls Car - Saturday, July 30, 2022 - link
It's not the CPU that's bent. It's the ILM that is the issue.charlesg - Friday, July 29, 2022 - link
Meh. I like my 1.5 year old 5950X thank you.Alistair - Friday, July 29, 2022 - link
The 12900KS has already been discontinued at our store, as nobody bought one. Terrible chip.Don't forget that Ryzen 7000 series is releasing in a few weeks only, and will beat it soundly, with half the power consumption.
But even if you were buying today I'd get the 5800X3D which is now on sale. $390 at our store. Much more popular.
Alistair - Saturday, July 30, 2022 - link
Emulation with the 12900KS is a dream though... that's the one high spot for me, as Ryzen is still not a great emulation chipI hope Ryzen 7000 fixes this in the Dolphin benchmark.
Oxford Guy - Saturday, July 30, 2022 - link
Is emulation worth the heat, power use, and cost?Alistair - Saturday, July 30, 2022 - link
Emulation is single core heavy, there isn't a heat or power use issue.Tunnah - Saturday, July 30, 2022 - link
I have a 3700X that runs switch emu at 60fps, so I don't see why more single core performance is any more necessary. You're not unlocking something previously undoable, you're just paying a shedload of money for a few more FPS.Silver5urfer - Saturday, July 30, 2022 - link
RPCS3, Xenia, PCSX2Ryzen cannot run games vs 10th+ gen processors in performance. You do not need to dump a ton of cash. A 10700K can perform much better in either of these and that is available for peanuts now. Z590 is also super cheap.
Tom Sunday - Wednesday, August 3, 2022 - link
I heard that if anyone upgrades to a regular 13900K that this chip will be faster then the current 12th Gen KS model?PeachNCream - Friday, July 29, 2022 - link
Burn the planet! 241W TDP not high enough for my video gaming habit to destroy our world in the name of keeping me amused and allow me to brag to my superficial circle of so-called friends on Discord and disinterested coworkers about how many more FPSes I get in Fortnite!