The Core i9-12900HK is Intel’s most up-to-date and quickest CPU for laptops. In this evaluate we’ll be pitting it up towards a variety of different cell merchandise, together with the beast that’s the Apple M1 Pro, so we’ll examine Intel’s daring claims of being the quickest cell CPU.
We’ll additionally examine the 12900HK to the extra mainstream Core i7-12700H, which we already checked out, and the brand new AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS, plus many others.
Next to the i7-12700H, the Core i9-12900HK is an easy clock pace enhance: identical core configuration, with 6 P-cores and eight E-cores for a complete of 20 threads, however clocks at the moment are between 100 and 300 MHz larger.
For instance, the 12900HK can hit 5.0 GHz peak on the P-cores, in comparison with 4.7 GHz with the Core i7. In the previous, we’ve seen Core i9s being barely higher binned than the Core i7s, so sustained efficiency is a bit of higher beneath the identical 45W energy restrict, however we’ll must assess that in right this moment’s testing.
The check system for right this moment is the MSI GE76 Raider. We’ve examined earlier iterations of this MSI laptop computer and it’s fairly clearly designed for high-end gaming on the go. It now consists of not solely the 12900HK but in addition Nvidia’s flagship laptop computer GPU, the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti with an influence vary of 150-175W.
Whether or not this type of system is best for you depends upon your wants, however I wouldn’t say it’s designed for portability. Being a 17-inch chassis that weighs over 6 kilos with out factoring within the enormous energy brick, the GE76 is a desktop substitute meant to be hooked as much as wall energy always, and solely moved sometimes.
It does have a 99.9 Wh battery, however battery life is fairly unhealthy and I wouldn’t wish to apply it to battery. I favor slimmer and lighter programs when shopping for a laptop computer, however clearly these machines are additionally fashionable and geared toward totally different wants than day by day portability.
As for different {hardware}, the GE76 is provided with 32GB DDR5-4800 reminiscence in a twin stick configuration, which is what we’ve seen for all 2022 gaming laptops up to now. In this configuration, there’s a 17.3-inch 1080p 360Hz show although it’s additionally out there in 1440p and 4K choices.
Our testing right this moment has been performed in two energy configurations: a long run PL1 energy restrict of 45W, Intel’s default spec for these chips, in addition to 75W, which is a standard boosted energy stage seen throughout many laptop computer distributors.
These can be in contrast apples to apples with different laptop computer chips working on the identical configuration, which supplies us the most effective take a look at how these CPUs examine in a good benchmark battle.
If we in contrast one chip at 75W to a different at 60W we’d actually solely be evaluating which particular laptop computer design can ship essentially the most energy to the CPU, not which CPU really performs higher, which is why we check like this. Boost PL2 energy is ready to Intel’s default of 115W in each cases.
Testing like this additionally offers you guys essentially the most helpful info that may be utilized to a variety of laptops. If you’re shopping for a thinner and lighter system, the 45W numbers can be most essential, whereas these after a beefier system with extra cooling energy ought to take a look at 75W.
On to the outcomes!
Application Benchmarks
In Cinebench R23 multi-threading, when the Core i9-12900HK is restricted to its default of 45W, it’s the quickest CPU within the chart, with a rating of 13400 factors. This does enable it to outperform the Apple M1 Pro, though Apple’s chip is consuming roughly 35W of package deal energy not 45W, which is a development you’ll see throughout many of the charts. Still, the 12900HK is the winner right here by 8 %, and in flip it’s additionally quicker than AMD’s new 35W CPU by 15%.
What maybe stunned me essentially the most was the margin between the 12900HK and 12700H. There actually isn’t that a lot separating these elements, only a 3 % enhance in efficiency in favor of the Core i9.
Both elements have the identical core depend and are working beneath the identical energy restrict, so the one distinction is binning and optimization, which don’t seem like enhancing efficiency considerably. With that stated, the efficiency achieve in comparison with the 11980HK from final technology is large, a really strong 23% enhance.
At 75W, we’re seeing a continuation of what was proven at 45W, nevertheless the hole between the 12900HK and 12700H has now shrunk to nothing, a minimum of with the fashions we examined. This does give the Core i9 a 16% lead over the Ryzen 9 6900HS, as Alder Lake is ready to ship larger efficiency per watt within the excessive energy vary than Rembrandt, but it surely doesn’t precisely scream to patrons that the Core i9 is an effective worth selection over the Core i7.
A bigger efficiency delta between the 12900HK and 12700H was noticed within the single-threaded check. With the 12900HK hitting 5 GHz, it’s 5 % quicker than the 12700H from a 6 % enhance clock pace distinction. That’s just about as anticipated. Alder Lake is kind of a bit quicker than the M1 Pro right here, an enormous 25% efficiency lead in single-threaded workloads like this, and 19% quicker than AMD’s Ryzen 9 6900HS. There’s no doubting that Alder Lake’s P-cores have the efficiency crown for single-thread this technology.
There’s a mix of excellent and unhealthy when trying on the Handbrake outcomes for 45W class CPUs and decrease. The 12900HK is quicker than the 12700H on this check, however solely by 2 %, which is fairly negligible. It’s solely in a position to match the Ryzen 9 6900HS as effectively, regardless of the 6900HS being a 35W CPU. However the 12900HK is clearly quicker than the M1 Pro, regardless of our M1 testing utilizing the native Apple Silicon model of Handbrake for CPU encoding. The M1 simply isn’t excellent at heavy CPU encoding like this in comparison with Intel or AMD, which supplies the 12900HK a 25 % efficiency benefit.
At 75W the outcomes are fairly just like with Cinebench in that the 12900HK and 12700H delivered mainly the identical consequence, and each are the same margin quicker than the 6900HS working on the identical energy restrict (4 % quicker). High energy configurations smoke the M1 Pro, at the price of energy consumption which is clearly a lot larger than Apple’s SoC.
Blender was a very sturdy consequence for Apple Silicon, and right here the 12900HK is ready to match that half, though at a better energy configuration, 45W vs roughly 35W.
Again we simply aren’t seeing an enormous distinction between the 12900HK and 12700H for this heavy multi-threaded check, and nothing I’ve seen up to now suggests it is sensible to purchase the Core i9 for these purposes. Even at 75W, which extra Core i9 laptops are going to be able to doing, the hole is negligible for the highest Intel Alder Lake elements.
For code compilation, our recommendation is to purchase an Alder Lake processor, as a result of they’re clearly quicker than the competitors and older choices.
The 12900HK is 32 % quicker than the 11980HK on this Chromium compile, and 24 % quicker than the 6900HS – these are large margins. But as soon as once more, a quite common theme of this evaluate up to now, the 12900HK and 12700H are neck and neck which makes upgrading to the Core i9 a bit pointless.
And then as soon as once more at 75W I used to be seeing mainly the identical outcomes with the 2 Alder Lake elements I’ve examined up to now, suggesting there isn’t a efficiency per watt benefit for the Core i9 at these larger energy ranges.
In our Matlab testing, the 12900HK and 12700H delivered the identical efficiency, which was a little bit of a stunning consequence given the brief timeframe of this workload however right here we’re, identical consequence.
Aside from the dearth of an improve going from Core i7 to Core i9, it’s nonetheless an excellent consequence given it’s 17 % quicker than the 11980HK and 23% quicker than the 6900HS. The M1 Pro is in a fairly forgettable place for this software given it must be run in an emulated mode which destroys efficiency.
In Microsoft Excel we see the identical as earlier than, the place the 12900HK and 12700H are neck and neck. Like Matlab, this benchmark is run within the enhance state, and we’ve seen beforehand that at larger energy ranges there’s actually nothing separating these two CPUs. So when each are smashing 100W plus, there’s no distinction. However Alder Lake continues to be mighty spectacular right here, mainly destroying each different half within the chart because of enhancements to cache and the improve to DDR5 reminiscence.
PCMark’s Applications workload that checks the Microsoft Office suite is likely one of the strongest outcomes for the 12900HK vs 12700H and we’re lastly seeing some separation there.
The Core i9 processor is 9 % quicker, which supplies patrons some motive to get the Core i9 as that type of margin is exterior our standard margin of calling it a “tie”. The 12900HK can be in a position to maintain useful leads over the 6900HS (15%) and the earlier 11980HK (21%).
In 7-Zip compression we could not spot a distinction between the 12900HK and 12700H. Intel is ready to maintain a efficiency lead over the M1 Pro, Apple Silicon is quick however the 12900HK is 7 % quicker, albeit at a a lot larger energy stage given that is run largely within the enhance state.
But for decompression the fats P-cores are in a position to gobble up this process properly, beating the M1 Pro by an enormous 52 % margin. There isn’t a lot separating the 12900HK and AMD’s new Ryzen 9 6900HS processor so actually all the present gen high-end chips are about equal right here.
In Acrobat PDF exporting we see the advantage of the upper single-core turbo clock the 12900HK is able to versus the 12700H, which will increase efficiency by 4 %. It’s not sufficient to take prime spot off Apple although, the 12900HK is available in 8 % slower than the M1 Pro in what is likely one of the strongest outcomes for Apple that I’ve examined.
Adobe Photoshop is one other evenly threaded workload and it’s right here the place the 12900HK is kind of spectacular, placing up the quickest rating but within the Puget Systems benchmark, 4 % quicker than the 12700H and 17 % quicker than the 6900HS. There’s an enormous motive to improve from Eleventh-gen silicon or older as effectively, because the 12900HK is a large 36 % quicker than the 11980HK.
In FL Studio the 12900HK is the quickest CPU I’ve examined as effectively, although it’s only 5 % quicker than the 12700H, and the margins between all of those elements is kind of small for exporting a monitor at top quality ranges.
Moving over now to some blended workloads, in Adobe Premiere Pro there may be undoubtedly a motive to go for a 12900HK configuration over decrease tier elements, particularly with a excessive efficiency GPU. The GE76 was about 10% quicker than the 12700H mannequin with the identical RTX 3080 Ti GPU, and this allowed for a 23 % lead on the M1 Pro. The M1 result’s extraordinarily spectacular given its general energy stage and lack of excessive efficiency discrete graphics, however for the very best efficiency this technology you have to be going with one thing Intel, particularly because the 12900HK plus 3080 Ti configuration is one thing like 60 % quicker at exporting.
In After Effects the 12900HK can be the quickest configuration examined and seven % forward of the 12700H mannequin utilizing the same GPU. That’s one of many higher outcomes we’ve seen up to now evaluating the Core i9 and Core i7 fashions.
Lastly, we’ll take a look at Agisoft Metashape photogrammetry efficiency and there’s nothing separating the Core i7 and Core i9 programs, which is in keeping with a few of our CPU-heavy workloads on this evaluate. Very quick efficiency as you’d anticipate (and need) from a excessive finish system with a robust CPU and GPU.
Power Scaling, Usage
When taking a look at CPU energy scaling there’s just one attention-grabbing remark, and that’s how the 12900HK fares in comparison with the 12700H in efficiency per watt. At least with the samples we’ve examined up to now, the 12900HK is barely a really minor enchancment in effectivity, and that effectivity hole tapers off at round 75 to 85 watts.
Given the precise silicon is actually the identical, the principle motive for the 12900HK’s improved effectivity is a greater bin on these elements, however for this technology it nonetheless seems to be just like the 12700H is receiving excellent silicon.
In distinction with the 11980HK vs 11800H, there was a extra substantial hole in effectivity throughout the facility vary – not an enormous hole, however indicative of a higher diploma of binning.
Without a bigger distinction between 12700H and 12900HK efficiency per watt, the most effective Alder Lake half isn’t fairly as environment friendly because the M1 Pro. We ought to word that beforehand we had the M1 Pro at 40W, whereas its precise package deal energy – the identical measurement used for Intel and AMD CPUs – is nearer to 35W, so we’ve corrected that right here.
The M1 Pro is simply 6 % higher at 35W and utilizing a extra superior 5nm course of node, so it’s not precisely a surprising victory for Apple in multi-thread effectivity – however it’s higher.
The 12900HK can be barely extra environment friendly than AMD’s new Ryzen 9 6900HS on the identical 35W package deal energy, although the distinction is negligible.
Where the distinction isn’t so negligible is in single-thread energy as measured on the wall.
The M1 Pro clocking as much as simply 3.2 GHz is ridiculously environment friendly compared to most different processors on this chart, and that’s the place it’s insane efficiency per watt and prolonged battery life comes from – Apple has an enormous benefit when duties are evenly threaded.
In distinction, Intel goes for the win with single-thread efficiency, and that causes a excessive stage of energy consumption, 33W when pushing 5 GHz, which is pretty larger than the 12700H regardless of only a 6 % enhance in frequency.
We had been initially going to run an enormous part on gaming efficiency for the 12900HK, however the outcomes are extraordinarily boring. In comparability to the Core i7-12700H, the 12900HK performs mainly the identical throughout our benchmark suite.
A pair factors of margins right here and there utilizing the identical RTX 3080 Ti Laptop GPU, however on the entire we’d say they carry out the identical at 1080p gaming, together with titles performed at low or aggressive settings like CS:GO and Rainbow Six Siege.
We have a extra detailed breakdown out there in our 12700H evaluate, however mainly nothing concerning the 12900HK modifications what was seen there. Alder Lake are presently the quickest laptop computer CPUs for gaming, though the precise margins compared to Eleventh-gen and Ryzen APUs differ, often as much as a 25% achieve when CPU restricted and far decrease when GPU restricted. You’ll additionally want a high-end GPU to benefit from these variations, and be taking part in at 1080p.
What We Learned
There’s two methods you may take a look at the Core i9-12900HK. On one hand, it’s simply as spectacular because the Core i7-12700H we checked out just a few weeks again and packs all the identical efficiency and platform benefits. It’s a quick processor, the quickest available on the market for multi-thread, single-thread and gaming – and it has a extremely sturdy assortment of applied sciences together with DDR5 help and PCIe 4.0.
On the opposite hand, like with the Eleventh-gen Core i9 collection, the 12900HK feels a bit pointless for many patrons. The efficiency uplift over the 12700H is just a few % normally, and might really be the identical at larger energy ranges, pointing to solely a restricted effectivity enchancment.
The largest beneficial properties had been seen in single or lightly-threaded productiveness apps the place the enhance as much as a 5.0 GHz single-core turbo clock is ready to ship a ten % efficiency achieve at finest. Of course, if you would like the most effective of the most effective, the Core i9 is that half, however like with numerous flagship elements, you’ll find yourself paying a hefty premium for a really small real-world improve.
Purely taking a look at Intel’s line-up, proper now I’d undoubtedly be taking a look at laptops that use Core i7 processors as an alternative of the Core i9-12900HK. Provided the remainder of the configuration is identical, you may find yourself saving just a few hundred {dollars}. But in fact, not each laptop computer could have a Core i7 choice. At instances the 12900HK is likely to be your solely choice, and in these conditions there isn’t something fallacious with the 12900HK. It very a lot is a quick laptop computer processor.
About that M1 Comparison
During Intel’s launch presentation, they made an enormous deal concerning the 12900HK being the “quickest cell processor ever,” displaying the slide beneath evaluating their new half to the M1 Max and older technology elements. Given the M1 Max CPU is identical because the M1 Pro we examined, we will say this slide is partially true and partially deceptive.
In this part, the place Intel compares the 12900HK to M1 Max at 35W, they present the 12900HK forward. That could be true relying on the benchmark, however there are extra cases the place the M1 is both on par or quicker on the identical energy stage in our testing.
We’re speaking small margins for essentially the most half. The Core i9-12900HK is unquestionably aggressive with Apple in efficiency per watt, however I wouldn’t go as far to say it’s clearly higher.
Where the 12900HK clearly has an edge is in general efficiency. At 45W and above, the 12900HK virtually all the time beats the M1 Pro, and after we begin pushing as much as the 75W vary, the Alder Lake Core i9 is a good quantity quicker in numerous heavy CPU workloads. So if you would like absolutely the quickest workstation laptop computer for stuff like code compilation, 3D rendering, video enhancing and so forth, the 12900HK can be offering that – particularly when geared up with a prime finish GPU.
But the way in which wherein Intel wins is thru rising energy consumption, which is barely appropriate for sure sorts of laptop computer. The MSI GE76 is a kind of programs: it’s large, it’s heavy, it’s designed to take a seat on a desk, and be plugged in more often than not. Intel received’t have the identical lead on Apple or AMD in thinner battery-oriented programs; efficiency can be aggressive, however you received’t see 15 or 20% higher efficiency for CPU heavy duties.
Which brings us the subject of battery life. We’ve seen some criticism about Alder Lake’s battery life based mostly on testing the GE76, however we don’t see a lot worth in that. The GE76 isn’t designed with lengthy battery life in thoughts.
It’s clearly bigger and heavier than one thing just like the Zephyrus G14 utilizing Ryzen 6000, and is due to this fact much less moveable and fewer probably for use on battery. I definitely wouldn’t wish to use a 3kg laptop computer on the go. So if I sit right here and say the GE76 has worse battery life – and let’s be clear, it undoubtedly does – I’m merely evaluating apples to oranges. And battery life isn’t based mostly on the CPU alone, it’s additionally based mostly on your entire platform together with the GPU, show and different elements, so making broad statements about Alder Lake battery life based mostly on a single system could be deceptive.
To pretty examine a CPU just like the Core i9-12900HK in battery life to different laptops, we would mainly want the identical laptop computer to check, or alternatively a really related type of system. Hopefully that can be potential sooner or later, but it surely isn’t proper now. All we will let you know is the MacBook Pro has wonderful battery life, the Zephyrus G14 is fairly good, and the GE76 isn’t nice. How Alder Lake gala’s in battery effectivity general will stay a thriller till we’re in a position to check programs which might be targeted on portability first.
Shopping Shortcuts
- Intel Core i9-12900HK Laptops on Amazon
- AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS Laptops on Amazon
- Intel Core i7-12700H Laptops on Amazon
- MSI GE76 Raider on MSI, Amazon
- Apple MacBook Pro M1 on Amazon
- GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Laptops on Amazon
- GeForce RTX 3060 Laptops on Amazon
- GeForce RTX 3070 Laptops on Amazon
- AMD Ryzen 7 5800H Laptops on Amazon
