Intel’s Core i7-12700K and AMD’s Ryzen 9 5900X are both 12 core CPUs, but which is the best? I’ve compared both processors in games and applications to show you all of the differences!
Both of these CPUs are kind of 12 core parts, but there’s more to the story than that. Intel’s 12th gen processors use a hybrid architecture and introduce P cores and E cores. P cores, or performance cores, are your regular cores as we’ve had before, while the new E cores, or efficient cores, are smaller lower-powered cores that can handle less important background tasks, though as you’ll see they’re still quite capable.
Intel’s Core i7-12700K has 8 P cores that have hyperthreading, and it’s also got 4 E cores that do not have hyperthreading, meaning it’s a 12 core 20 thread chip. AMD’s Ryzen 9 5900X on the other hand has 12 cores 24 threads, so 4 additional threads along with more L3 cache, though Intel has more L2 cache.
The price difference isn’t that large either. Since Intel’s 12th gen launch the price of the 5900X has lowered to $524, however, the 12700K is still cheaper at $450, or if you don’t need integrated graphics you can save an additional $20 with the KF version. So the 5900X ends up costing $74 to $94 more compared to the Intel option based on whether or not you’re looking at the Kor KF option. But once we factor in things like motherboards and RAM, the Intel system ends up costing more, as you’ll see soon. So then the 5900X both costs more and has a higher thread count, so it’s going to win right? Surprisingly that was not the case.
DDR5 memory is another difference, as Intel’s 12th gen was the first to support it, and while the 12th gen also supports older DDR4 memory, memory support will depend on the motherboard. MSI has sent over their Z690 Carbon WiFi motherboard, which supports the two 16 gigs DDR5-5200 sticks of Fury memory that were provided by Kingston, and this is what my Intel testing has been done with.
Both processors were tested in the same system, only the motherboards and RAM were changed depending on the platform. Both processors were tested with MSI’s Core Liquid S360 AIO as this has support for both AM4 and 12th gen LGA 1700 sockets, and I’ve used Noctua NT-H2 thermal paste on both for comparable thermal results.
I’ve also used Windows 11 for all testing, because that’s what Intel recommends testing 12th gen with, as the scheduler better understands how to work with P and E cores, but that said Windows 10 does still work quite well on 12th gen, but if I was building a new 12th gen system today I’d probably just go with Windows 11. There also shouldn’t be any problems running Ryzen under Windows 11, as all of my testings were done with all updates in place that resolve early known performance issues. AMD notes that they verified performance with these updates under Windows 11, and I confirmed the results were very close to when I previously tested the 5900X under Windows 10. All right, let’s get into some benchmarks and see how both processors compare. We’ll start with productivity workloads, power draw, thermals then move into gaming and cost per frame value afterward.
Let’s start with Cinebench R23, as it’s an easy way to get a general idea of both single-threaded and multi-threaded performance. The multi-core scores aren’t too far apart here, with the 12700K scoring just 4% higher than the 5900X, however, there’s a much larger difference seen in the single-core scores, where the Intel i7 was scoring 19% higher than the Ryzen 9.
Linux kernel compilation is the only test I’ve done on Linux rather than Windows 11. This is a multi-threaded test, and this time the i7 was around 7% slower than the Ryzen 9, so it seems the higher thread count on AMD is helping it get the win here.
Blender was tested with the Open Data benchmark. This is another multithreaded workload, however, despite this, the shorter BMW test was completed a couple of seconds faster on the i7. Only a small difference and the longer Classroom test was doing better on the 5900X, so mixed results depending on the specific workload.
The V-Ray benchmark is another heavy multi-threaded rendering workload, and the i7 was about 7% slower in this one. The Corona benchmark also uses the processor to render out a scene, but this time the i7 was nearly 14% slower compared to the 5900X, so it seems that these rendering workloads better take advantage of Ryzen’s higher thread count, or perhaps the additional L3 cache.
Handbrake was used to convert one of my 4K 60 FPS laptop review videos to 1080p. This workload also relies on more cores and threads, however, the i7 was completing the task 17% faster compared to Ryzen.
Adobe Premiere was tested with the Puget Systems benchmark tool, and this tests video editing tasks like exporting playback and more. The difference was far smaller here, basically no change at all. The gap was a bit larger in DaVinci Resolve, which is another video editing workload. The i7 was scored about 10% higher than Ryzen in this test.
Now for some office tasks, this is the new PCMark. Microsoft Excel was scored 20% higher with the i7, Microsoft Word was scoring 17% higher with the i7, Microsoft PowerPoint was 15% higher with the i7, and Microsoft Outlook was 17% faster with the i7, so if you need to send some email ASAP, Intel’s the way to go.
I’ve used 7-Zip to test compression and decompression speeds, and this is an area where AMD has traditionally beat Intel, and that’s still the case here, granted the 5900x was only 5 and a half percent higher in compression. The big difference is in decompression, where the 5900X was 51% ahead, making the i7 34% slower in this workload.
AES encryption and decryption on the other hand was way faster on the i7, more than 71% ahead, the biggest difference out of all of the applications that I’ve tested.
I don’t personally rely on Geekbench scores at all, but some people want it and the i7 was reaching a 12% higher single-core score and a 7% higher multi-core score.
Here’s how Intel’s newer 12th gen Core i7-12700K compares against AMD’s Ryzen 9 5900X processor with both running at stock speeds. The results could vary a fair bit depending on the specific workload, but generally speaking, the i7 was winning in more tests than it was losing. In particular, Intel seems to have a big edge in AES operations at the top, while AMD does better at compression and decompression, as well as the rendering style workloads such as V-Ray, Corona, and Blender Classroom. Honestly, I found it impressive that the i7 could win in so many multi-threaded tests given it has a lower thread count, but at the same time, I suppose the 5900X is a year old now.
The performance increase with the i7 isn’t for nothing though, in the Blender Classroom test the system with the 12700K installed was drawing about 29% more power from the wall when compared to the 5900X, and if you recall, Blender was performing worse on the i7 in this particular test, so at least as far as Blender goes, AMD is more efficient, though this would likely be different in other tests where the i7 was ahead. More power generally equals more heat, which may help explain the warmer 12700K, granted these results aren’t directly comparable as the way both processors use sensors to report temperatures to software is different. If we instead look at the temperatures reported by the P and E cores separately, we can see that the E cores were cooler than the P cores. We can also see the E cores were topping out at 3.6GHz in this multi-threaded workload, while the P cores were sitting closer to 4.7GHz.
I haven’t bothered testing with overclocking because results are always going to vary depending on silicon lottery, and I also want to note that I usually test Adobe Photoshop but right now that just crashes when I run the benchmark on 12th gen, which is a known issue. So definitely goes to show that there are some early problems with 12th gen, but yeah I’m sure popular apps like this will be patched pretty quick. All right now let’s compare both processors in 10 different games at 3 different resolutions!
Far Cry 6 was tested with the game’s benchmark. I’ve got the 1080p results down the bottom, 1440p in the middle, and 4K up the top, with the 12700K results on top of the 5900X results. At 1080p the 12700K was reaching a 7% higher average frame rate when compared to the 5900X, however, the 1% low had a much larger 18% boost, so a more stable experience on the Intel system. The i7 also had a reasonable 7% higher average frame rate at 1440p, so there’s no difference at 4K.
Rainbow Six Siege was also tested with the game’s benchmark, and the 5900X was doing better this time, at least at the lower 1080p resolution. It’s not much of a change, but hey winning’s winning, granted at over 500 FPS this probably won’t be a difference most people would care about.
Cyberpunk 2077 was tested in little china and was just 3% higher on the i7 at the lower 1080p resolution, at least in terms of average FPS, again like Far Cry there’s a larger 13% boost seen in the 1% lows, so fewer dips on the Intel system. Again the difference is much closer together at 1440p, and then at 4K, you’re not going to be able to tell them apart while playing.
Red Dead Redemption 2 was tested in the game’s benchmark, and there’s basically no chance at all here, a 1 FPS difference in the best case, so let’s keep moving.
Control is a GPU-heavy game that I like including because it just helps demonstrate that some games aren’t going to see a difference with a CPU change, performance depends more on other components like the GPU in this game.
Microsoft Flight Simulator was tested in the Sydney landing challenge. Again nothing too different here either, a couple of FPS differences at 1440p and that’s all.
Watch Dogs Legion was tested with the game’s benchmark. The i7 had the largest win at 1080p out of all 10 games tested with a 10% higher average frame rate, and again like some others, a higher 14% gain in the 1% low.
We’re back to small differences in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, but this one had the biggest difference at the higher 4K resolution out of all 10 games tested. I admit there’s no real point testing 4K in a CPU comparison, but I like to show how little the difference is rather than just telling you about it.
F1 2021 was also tested with the game's benchmark, again no difference at 4K as we generally expect, then slightly more differences at the lower resolutions, though not much.
Just for a bit of an older game, I’ve tested Shadow of the Tomb Raider with the game’s benchmark. Again only extremely minor differences, just a 1 FPS lead by the i7 at 1080p and 1440p, margin of error stuff.
When comparing all 10 games tested at 1080p, the Intel Core i7-12700K was only two percent faster than AMD’s Ryzen 9 5900X on average. There were some outliers though, Rainbow Six Siege was the only game doing better on Ryzen, while the i7 saw up to a 10% gain in Watch Dogs Legion up the top, but once you average everything out the difference is fairly small.
Stepping up to the higher 1440p resolution and the difference gets even smaller now, with the i7 1.6% faster than Ryzen 9, so still a win for Intel, but honestly not one you’re likely to notice when using both sides by side at this resolution in most cases.
The differences get even smaller at the higher 4K resolution, which is to be expected because when you’re pushing this many pixels the GPU is taking on most of the work, so the processor selection doesn’t matter at all.
If we factor in current processor pricing at Newegg then the i7-12700KF is generally the best option, at least when only considering the processor. This makes sense, as Intel was doing a little better in gaming performance and the processor is also cheaper. Even if you need integrated graphics with Intel, it still works out as better value than AMD’s Ryzen 9 5900X - of course assuming we’re only comparing the CPU, which isn’t realistic.
Intel’s 12th gen is a new platform, so you’re required to buy a new motherboard, and right now Z690 is the only option, though there should be cheaper options in the future, you can check updated prices with the links in the video description. Ryzen ends up being better value once the entire platform cost of RAM and motherboard is also considered, all while not doing too much worse in games. The Intel platform price could be brought down a bit if we instead price in DDR4 memory, but I calculated this with DDR5 given it’s what I’ve tested with.
Purely in terms of raw CPU performance, Intel’s i7-12700K is doing quite well. I mean the fact that it’s winning most of the tests while also technically being a 20 thread part is kind of impressive, as the 5900X does have 4 more threads. Granted this isn’t always the case though, as we did see the Ryzen option did win in several tests. In particular, those 3D rendering style workloads, presumably as they take better advantage of the additional threads, and while the 5900X does appear more expensive at first glance, once you factor in the total platform costs the Intel option is currently more. And not to mention that Intel does seem to need more power to achieve its lead. The i7 was also technically better when it came to gaming, but in most of the games tested the difference wasn’t that big, so yeah depending on the workload it seems like things can kind of go either way. Honestly, I’d be perfectly happy running either of these in my machine. Considering that AMD’s 5900X is a year old now, I’m more interested in seeing their new V-Cache options in early 2022.
THANKS FOR REDING 😇
