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Is the Intel Core I9-12900K worth the upgrade?
Francis Carroll / 01.10.2022 / Uncategorized
At the end of the last quarter of 2021, Intel released its most anticipated processor in a long time, the 12th gen Intel® Core™ i9-12900K. Doing so, Intel is bringing to desktop processors a new technology using two types of cores in each processor; the performance-cores (p-cores), and the efficient-cores (e-cores) both lead by the Intel Thread Director. For more information on the subject, you can visit our OSHKO Creator page right here, which has short description on each three components.
The 12th gen is also bringing other exciting technologies. Among them is the DDR5 memory. However, at the moment, it is very difficult for most of the common gamer to find any stock of DDR5. For that reason, we elected to compare performance with a D4 version of the Z690, which means it uses the DDR4 memory.
THE BUILD, THE GAMES, THE BENCHMARKS
OSHKO Tower Pro (buy it here):
For today’s article, we used the benchmark results from three different generations of the OSHKO Tower that we took over the past years.
– Intel Core i9-12900k, i9-11900k and i9-10900k
– 32GB (2x16GB) Corsair Vengeance 3200 MHz DDR4
– NVIDA GeForce RTX 3080 8GB by ASUS
– 2 x 1TB m.2 NVMe 750 Black by Western Digital
– 850-watt Platinum PSU by Corsair
– Windows 10 Home
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TODAY’S GAMES
The games we are comparing are the following.
– Call of Duty – Warzone
– Valorant
– Read Dead Redemption II
Finally, the benchmarks we ran are:
– Time Spy
– Port Royal
– Cinebench
Note that we have benchmarks for over 15 games. If you’d like more information on a particular game, we’ll provide them to you for free. Simply contact us on Facebook following the link below:
BENCHMARKS SUMMARIES
In-game FPS are up 21% on average VS the 11th gen Intel® Core™ i9-11900K
We are very excited when we see these numbers. For games like Valorant (27%) and RDII (23%) the increase in FPS is simply incredible for just one generation step. Even COD that is to be honest a poorly optimised game almost gets 10% in FPS increase.
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In-game FPS are up 11% on average VS the 10th gen Intel® Core™ i9-10900K
However, we are quite puzzled when looking at these numbers. We are seeing a lower increase in FPS when comparing with the 10th gen. Does that mean that the 11th gen got a decrease in FPS vs the 10th gen? Well, according to our numbers with similar configuration, it does. And to be purely transparent, most of our regular corporate customers, who used to buy the i9-10900k on ALL their builds, switch to the i7-11700k when the 11th got release.
Without going into too many details, we’ll remember that the i9-10900k was running on 10 Cores, 20 Threads, while the i9-11900k had 8 Cores, 16 Threads. And it did not resonate well with the Intel clientele.
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Benchmark scores are up 34% on average VS the 11th gen Intel® Core™ i9-11900K
Now benchmarks. It is true that they are giving less of a real-life portrait of what it feels to use your PC. And unless someone is a benchmark Youtuber, we all use our PCs to work and mostly game. However, benchmarks are useful because they consistently comparing the same things. And while games tend to adjust settings over the years and for different configurations (just think of the shaders download of COD), benchmarks offer a consistent view of the performance increase.
For the results, it is really with the rendering power that we are seeing a crazy improvement. Cinebench gives a score that is 80% higher on the 12th gen vs the 11th. That really gives us the taste for more rendering benchmarks with these two processors. If that increase is to be seen across multiple creative tools, we have a feeling that the i9-12900k will become a very popular CPU for the Canadian creators.
We are not too surprised by the fact that Port Royal (5%) and Time Spy (11%) get a less of an impressive increase in score. These benchmarks are highly GPU focus. Since all our test were made with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080, these results are logical.
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Benchmark scores are up 28% on average VS the 10th gen Intel® Core™ i9-10900K
Here again, we are seeing a decrease in score from the i9-10900k to the i9-11900k. So, it is expected to see less of an increase in performance. There is not much to say about Time Spy (5%) and Port Royal (1%) other than these two numbers are not impressive. The 75% for Cinebench makes us believe that for the creators, the upgrade is really something to consider. Even if your 10th gen PC is still working fine, that much increase in rendering performance could mean a significant increase in efficiency for you, thus an increase in revenue.
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CONCLUSION : There are few reasons to upgrade.
First, let’s admit it. We are all thrilled to see Intel back into the performance race. While 11th gen left most of us a dubitated, the 12th gen innovative technologies are showing us a bright future for performance.
However, so many things are changing right now that you might want to wait a few months to upgrade. It has been said that Windows 11 will take better advantage of the E-Core/P-Core technology. But Windows 11 is still unstable right now hence the reason why we are still recommending staying with Windows 10. (Valorant will not start on Windows 11 without a few manipulations) Also, we have yet to see how games and software will use this technology to improve in-game experience and increase productivity. Lastly, you will want to see the effect of the DDR5 on all of this. Yes, technically the speed of the memory shows to be high, but its latency has increase as well. And that is an additional thing to which studios and software companies will have to adjust.
In conclusion, we see three reasons to upgrade for now:
- You have an 11th gen i9-11900k, you like the latest and greatest, and 20% average increase in FPS is getting you excited.
- You have a 10th gen i9-10900k or an 11th gen i9-11900k and you are a creator or a producer that needs an upgrade in productivity RIGHT NOW.
- You have to possibility to take your hands on DDR5 memory, which will in a way make your PC more future proof (vs a 12th gen with DDR4)
We hope that you enjoy reading this post and that its content was useful to you. As always, you can contact us through Faceboook following the link below. Remember to leave us a comment, and to follow us for more content like this.
GLHF
Video on the subject in French
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