Intel Core i9-12900KS "Alder Lake" CPU Review

1. Introduction and Pricing
2. Packaging and Test System
3. Cinebench R23,CrossMark and AIDA64
4. UL Benchmarks
5. 1080p Gaming Performance
6. Power, Pricing and Final Thoughts

TweakTown's Rating: 93%

The Bottom Line

It comes at a price, but the Intel Core i9-12900KS "Alder Lake" processor is the best CPU currently available on Intel's 600 series platform.

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Introduction and Pricing

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We are almost six months into Alder Lake, and Intel has resumed its KS series, the last time being with 9th Gen Core processors with the 9900KS. This serves to further enhance the performance of its Alder Lake architecture at the cost of increased TDP as base power has been upgraded to 150W from the 125W of the 12900K, but the maximum turbo power has stuck; both the K and KS showing 241W.

We still have the hybrid architecture using "Golden Cove" high-performance P-Cores and "Gracemont" Efficient E-Cores. The 12900KS is the new flagship offering with an 8+8 design with added HT on the P-Cores, essentially the same design as 12900K.

The increased TDP also allows Intel to offer higher performance by bumping up the clocks of the CPU. The base clock for the P cores has been nudged 200MHz to 3.4GHz, while the E cores took an extra 100MHz. Turbo frequencies have also been altered, 100MHz to E cores and P cores, while Turbo Boost Max gains 300MHz from 5.2GHz to 5.5GHz.

The MSRP of the Intel Core i9 12900KS comes in at $749.99.

Intel Core i9-12900KS "Alder Lake" CPU

	Today	Yesterday	7 days ago	30 days ago
	$504.99	$504.99	$502.99	$539.99	Buy
* Prices last scanned on 12/26/2022 at 9:27 pm CST - prices may not be accurate, click links above for the latest price. We may earn an affiliate commission.

Packaging and Test System

Intel Core i9-12900KS

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The KS was delivered in retail packaging, darker in appearance than the 12900K box but still includes the gold wafer.

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The 12900KS is tucked away inside the wafer above, reading material included.

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The CPU is an LGA1700 design, with branding and core markings on the IHS.

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Above, we have the default clocks and settings for the 12900KS in XTU. You will notice that 5.5GHz is reserved for two cores while all other scenarios have the P-Cores at 5.2GHz and E-Cores always at 4GHz.

We have adjusted our test platforms since the initial Alder Lake reviews in late 2021. This includes new motherboards for AMD and Intel CPU reviews alongside a switch in GPUs and Power Delivery/Cooling.

Because of this, we have retested all Alder Lake CPU samples alongside AMD Ryzen 5900X and 5800X. We have used the latest drivers as of 4/4/22 with Windows 11.

TweakTown Intel Test System

• RAM: Kingston Fury Beast DDR5-6000 CL40 (buy from Amazon)
• GPU: Sapphire Radeon RX6800XT Nitro+ (buy from Amazon)
• Cooler: BeQuiet Pure Loop 360 (buy from Amazon)
• OS Storage: Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus NVMe (buy from Amazon)
• Power Supply: BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 1200W (buy from Amazon)

TweakTown AMD Test System

• RAM: Thermaltake ToughRam DDR4 4000 CL19
• GPU: Sapphire Radeon RX6800XT Nitro+ (buy from Amazon)
• Cooler: BeQuiet Pure Loop 360 (buy from Amazon)
• OS Storage: Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus NVMe (buy from Amazon)
• Power Supply: BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 1200W (buy from Amazon)
• OS: Microsoft Windows 11 (buy from Amazon)

Cinebench R23,CrossMark and AIDA64

Cinebench

Cinebench is a long-standing render benchmark that has been heavily relied upon by both Intel and AMD to showcase their newest platforms during unveils. The benchmark has two tests, a single-core workload that will utilize one thread or 1T. There is also a multi-threaded test that uses all threads or nT of a tested CPU.

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Out of the box, 12900K was impressive, but KS takes this even further with a slightly higher 1T score of 2128 and multi-thread reaching just over 28K.

CrossMark

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In CrossMark, the KS offered a near 200-point advantage over the 12900K.

AIDA64

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AES grabbed a near 8000-point bump over the 12900K.

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SHA3 came in at 6356, about 300 points higher than K.

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Memory Throughput was identical: 93K read, 83K write, and 84K copy.

UL Benchmarks

3DMark

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CPU Profile shows a sizable gin with 12900KS. At peak, we see a score of 11177 at 16 threads, compared to 10519 for the 12900K and 8233 for the 5900X.

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Timespy gives us our first glimpse at a gaming workload. 12900KS doesn't appear to gain anything over 12900K, losing about 50 points to the K.

UL Procyon

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In Procyon, the KS SKU enjoyed a solid performance bump over the 12900K. In the Office workload, the gain was 500 points, Photo was close to 600 points, and video editing showed 200 points.

1080p Gaming Performance

Gaming Performance

Shadow of the Tomb Raider has become a staple of game performance benchmarking, but I try to test multiple game engines, so I have added Horizon and Cyberpunk 2077 to our testing. Additionally, we picked up a few Microsoft titles in Gears 5 and Forza Horizon. The GPU in use for both platforms is the Sapphire 6800XT Nitro+.

The KS picked up around 6FPS testing at low settings 1080p. This gives the most accurate results of CPU performance as it's not bound by the GPU at all. At higher quality settings, the GPU becomes more of a factor, as is the case with our testing, seen above, as Ultra settings shows 226FPS for the KS, 4FPS over the K.

Horizon showed near-identical results. Though closer overall, the KS does gain 4FPS over the K at low settings and 6FPS at Ultra.

Cyberpunk kept things very close at low settings, but the KS does gain 3FPS. High Settings showed no real gain between the KS and K or even the 12700K, for that matter.

Gears 5 showed the 12900K ahead of the KS by 7 FPS at low settings. Ultra-flipped the two CPUs, the KS grabbing a 3FPS advantage.

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With Forza Horizon 5, FPS topped at 293 for the 12900KS and 287 for the K at low settings. In Ultra settings, everything tightened up, a 4FPS advantage going to the 12900KS.

Power, Pricing and Final Thoughts

Power and Pricing

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The power draw for the 12900KS was in line with the increase in TDP. I saw 524 watts at peak for our entire system. This compares to the 12900K at 502 and 12700K at 405.

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Taking the performance from multi-threaded Cinebench R23 and crossing it with peak power draw in R23, we come away with our own performance per watt chart, seen above. In this scenario, for those who care about power, the 5900X offers a near 10 percent advantage over the closest Intel CPU.

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Using R23 once again, we take the MSRP and current market price as of today and cross it with the multi-threaded performance of each CPU. In this scenario, the 12600K comes out on top for MSRP and Market, while the 12900K and KS flank the 5900X. In market pricing, the 5900X does take the third spot due to recent price drops.

Final Thoughts

The bottom line for the 12900KS is it's a slightly higher performing variant of an Alder Lake Core i9. It outpaces the 12900K in almost every scenario, just as expected.

On the flip, I'm going to say most 12900K processors can or can get very close to running 12900KS clocks. Our media sample of the 12900K, received back in November, will run the clocks on several boards tested but running your CPU outside of Intel spec does void the warranty. So be warned, this is yet another reason for the KS SKU.

That said, this CPU will be for consumers who want the best CPU currently available on the best platform available. Comparing the 12900KS to AMD's current best offering in the 5900X, you will gain roughly 40 FPS in Tomb Raider, 30 FPS in Horizon, and 40 FPS in Cyberpunk. Gears 5 showed 30 FPS, and Forza too showed 30 FPS.