Intel Core i9-11900K vs Intel Core i9-12900K

Compare Intel 11th Generation Core i9 8 core CPU vs Intel 12th Generation Core i9 16 core processor, specs and benchmark score. Which is the better CPU for gaming?

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Price

The cheapest price from our partner retailers

$ 559.99
$ 395.99
$ 164.00 significantly less expensive

Benchmark Score

Overall Score

A combined score of all workloads

85 %
134 %
57% significantly better overall score

Gaming Score

The raw gaming performance with a fast GPU

109 %
144 %
32% slightly better gaming score

Multitasking Score

Performance in workloads using up to 8 cores

77 %
131 %
70% significantly better multitasking score

Heavy Workload Score

Performance in workloads using up to 16 cores

75 %
131 %
74% significantly better heavy workload score

Free CPU Benchmark

Want to compare your processor against the Core i9-11900K and the Core i9-12900K? Download our free and quick PC Performance Test.

Other Benchmarks

3DMark Physics score

3DMark Physics score

Physics simulation benchmark

12313
18186
47% significantly higher 3DMark Physics score
Blender score

Blender score

Cycles Render (Samples per minute)

218.67
390.35
78% significantly higher Blender score
Cinebench R23 score

Cinebench R23 score

Multi threaded benchmark

15519
27005
74% significantly higher Cinebench R23 score
Geekbench 5 (multi) score

Geekbench 5 (multi) score

Multi threaded benchmark

10589
15144
43% significantly higher Geekbench 5 (multi) score
Geekbench 5 (single) score

Geekbench 5 (single) score

Single threaded benchmark

2288
2550
11% slightly higher Geekbench 5 (single) score
Geekbench 6 (multi) score

Geekbench 6 (multi) score

Multi threaded benchmark

10589
15144
43% significantly higher Geekbench 6 (multi) score
Geekbench 6 (single) score

Geekbench 6 (single) score

Single threaded benchmark

2288
2550
11% slightly higher Geekbench 6 (single) score

Specifications

Cores

Number of physical processing units

8
16
100% significantly more cores

Threads

Number of logical processing units

16
24
49% significantly more threads

Clock Speed

Base frequency at which the chip operates

3.5 GHz
9% slightly higher clock speed
3.2 GHz

Turbo Speed

Higher frequency used for heavy workloads

5.3 GHz
1% slightly higher turbo speed
5.2 GHz

TDP

Thermal Design Power: Measure of heat generated by the CPU

125 W
92% significantly lower TDP
241 W

PCIe Lanes

Number of physical connections between the CPU and expansion slots

20
Identical
20

Memory Channels

Lanes for simultaneous memory access

2
Identical
2

Supported Memory

Maximum amount of RAM supported by this CPU

128 GiB
Identical
128 GiB

L1 Cache

Smallest embedded memory, but the fastest

640 KiB
1280 KiB
100% significantly more L1 cache

L3 Cache

General memory pool for all cores

16 MiB
30 MiB
87% significantly more L3 cache

Other details

Rank

Ranking in the hardwareDB database

37th of 1,239
8th of 1,239

Family

The product line

11th Generation Core i9
12th Generation Core i9

Release date

The official date of release of this chip

February 2021
November 2021

Memory Type

The type of memory used by this chip

DDR4-3200
DDR5-4800

Is Unlocked

Can this CPU can be overclocked

Yes
Yes

Supports ECC memory

Does this CPU support error correcting memory

No
Yes

Core i9-11900K vs Core i9-12900K specs and performance

In our benchmarks, the Core i9-12900K beats the Core i9-11900K in overall performance. Furthermore, our gaming benchmark shows that it also outperforms the Core i9-11900K in all gaming tests too.

With info from our database, we find that the Core i9-12900K has significantly more cores with 16 cores whereas the Core i9-11900K has 8 cores. It also has more threads than the Core i9-11900K. Our comparison shows that the Core i9-11900K has a slightly higher clock speed compared to the Core i9-12900K. Also, the Core i9-11900K has a slightly higher turbo speed. A Core i9-11900K CPU outputs less heat than a Core i9-12900K CPU because of its significantly lower TDP. This measures the amount of heat they output and can be used to estimate power consumption.

The more cores a CPU has, the better the overall performance will be in parallel workloads such as multitasking. Many CPUs have more threads than cores, this means that each physical core is split into multiple logical cores, making them more efficient. Indeed, the Core i9-11900K has more threads than cores. Each physical core is split into multiple threads.

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