Smart Wizard
Get a complete build plan based on budget and goals.
Build Comparison
Compare complete builds side by side.
Part Comparison
Check specs, price, and value across parts.
Bottleneck Calculator
Measure CPU and GPU balance before you buy.
Power Calculator
Estimate wattage and PSU headroom.
Will It Run?
Test your hardware against popular games.
Smart Wizard
Get a complete build plan based on budget and goals.
Build Comparison
Compare complete builds side by side.
Part Comparison
Check specs, price, and value across parts.
Bottleneck Calculator
Measure CPU and GPU balance before you buy.
Power Calculator
Estimate wattage and PSU headroom.
Will It Run?
Test your hardware against popular games.
Smart Wizard
Get a complete build plan based on budget and goals.
Build Comparison
Compare complete builds side by side.
Part Comparison
Check specs, price, and value across parts.
Bottleneck Calculator
Measure CPU and GPU balance before you buy.
Power Calculator
Estimate wattage and PSU headroom.
Will It Run?
Test your hardware against popular games.
Intel
Detailed architecture, platform, memory, and feature data for this CPU.
Instruction Sets
| Merchant | Base | Promo | Shipping | Availability | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Walmart | $352.70 | β | FREE | In Stock | $356.71 | Buy |
Newegg | $389.99 | β | FREE | In Stock |
About This Product
The Intel Core i9-12900K is a 12th Gen Alder Lake-S desktop processor with 16 cores (8 P-cores, 8 E-cores) and 24 threads. It offers strong multi-threaded performance suitable for demanding productivity tasks and content creation. For gaming, it provides high frame rates, competitive with current-generation CPUs in its price bracket.
Verdict
βGood for users needing high multi-core performance for productivity and gaming.β
Performance Benchmarks
Scores are grouped by benchmark family so it is easy to compare raw speed, threaded output, and real-world value without mixing scales.
Render Workloads
Next-Gen Scale
Cross-Platform
Large Sample Pool
Value & Efficiency
These derived metrics use Cinebench R23 multi-core performance to keep the value calculation consistent across the catalog.
Performance per Watt
219.8 pts/W
Performance per Dollar
83.3 pts/$
Gaming Performance
These results come from real submitted gameplay sessions, so the reference GPU matters as much as the CPU itself.
Reference GPU
Minecraft
Mixed player settings
350 FPS
Smooth
Popular Comparisons
These pairings are pre-ranked from the comparison engine so readers can jump straight into the most relevant alternatives.

Multi-core 27,084 Β· $567
"tied single-core, tied multi-core, $80 more expensive"
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GPU Bottleneck & Pairing
These pairings are pre-calculated around 1440p balance so you can move quickly from CPU research to a realistic gaming build.
High-confidence pairings that stay balanced at 1440p.
Recommended GPU
Radeon RX 9070 XT
Balanced
This pairing stays very close to ideal balance for 1440p gaming.
Usage-share data is not available yet for this pairing.
Recommended GPU
Radeon RX 9070 XT
Balanced
This pairing stays very close to ideal balance for 1440p gaming.
Usage-share data is not available yet for this pairing.
Recommended GPU
Radeon RX 9070 XT
Balanced
This pairing stays very close to ideal balance for 1440p gaming.
Usage-share data is not available yet for this pairing.
Recommended GPU
Radeon RX 9070 XT
Balanced
This pairing stays very close to ideal balance for 1440p gaming.
Usage-share data is not available yet for this pairing.
Recommended GPU
Radeon RX 9070 XT
Balanced
This pairing stays very close to ideal balance for 1440p gaming.
Usage-share data is not available yet for this pairing.
Recommended GPU
Radeon RX 9070 XT
Balanced
This pairing stays very close to ideal balance for 1440p gaming.
Usage-share data is not available yet for this pairing.
Recommended GPU
Radeon RX 9070 XT
Balanced
This pairing stays very close to ideal balance for 1440p gaming.
Usage-share data is not available yet for this pairing.
Recommended GPU
Radeon RX 9070 XT
Balanced
This pairing stays very close to ideal balance for 1440p gaming.
Usage-share data is not available yet for this pairing.
Recommended GPU
Radeon RX 9070 XT
Balanced
This pairing stays very close to ideal balance for 1440p gaming.
Usage-share data is not available yet for this pairing.
Recommended GPU
Radeon RX 9070 XT
Balanced
This pairing stays very close to ideal balance for 1440p gaming.
Usage-share data is not available yet for this pairing.
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Multi-core 100,295 Β· $9,999
"4% better single-core, 73% slower multi-core, $80 more expensive"

Multi-core 24,309
"68% better single-core, 13% better multi-core, $178 cheaper"