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A not-so-special performance

By now, there isn't anything that we don't know about Intel's forthcoming Core i9-12900KS processor. The special edition Alder Lake chip poses to take the crown from the Core i9-12900K as the best CPU for high-performance gaming.

The Core i9-12900KS has a 3.4 GHz base clock and a 5.2 GHz all-core boost clock on the P-cores. Therefore, it has a 200 MHz higher base and boost clocks compared to the regular Core i9-12900K. However, the slight uplift in clock speeds hints that the Core i9-12900KS probably won't wipe the floor with the Core i9-12900K. The Core i9-12900KS (via Benchleaks) popped up in Geekbench 5's database today three times, giving us a small preview of the type of performance that we can expect from it. Nonetheless, we recommend the usual dosage of salt regarding leaked benchmarks.

The Core i9-12900KS put up single-core scores between 2,080 and 2,101 points and multi-core scores ranging from 18,962 to 19,010. The scores were within the margin of error since it's the same system that submitted the three entries. The testing was done on an Asus ROG Strix Z690-F Gaming WiFi motherboard and 32GB of DDR5-4800 memory on a 64-bit version of Windows 11 Home.

Scores for the Core i9-12900K and Ryzen 9 5950X are from Geekbench 5's processor database.

In single-core performance, the Core i9-12900KS was up to 4.1% faster than the Core i9-12900K. The Alder Lake chip also outperformed the Ryzen 9 5950X by 23.4%.

When it came to multi-core performance, the Core i9-12900KS beat the Core i9-12900K by 11%. The margin was slightly more significant with the Ryzen 9 5950X, where the Core i9-12900KS surpassed the Zen 3 flagship chip by 14.7%. The Core i9-12900K was very close to catching up to AMD's Ryzen Threadripper 3960X processor. The 24-core monster (19,878 points) outshined the Core i9-12900KS by 4.6% in multi-core performance.

If an early retailer listing is accurate, the Core i9-12900KS could cost upwards of $800. Bottom Line Telecommunications had posted the retail version of the Core i9-12900KS (BX8071512900KSP5) for $791.74. The store currently sells the Core i9-12900K up for $628.05, whereas the Core i9-12900KS represented a 26% increase in pricing. It's a significant premium for just an 11% jump multi-core performance in Geekbench 5. It remains to be seen whether the Core i9-12900KS can provide the same level of performance in other workloads.
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