INTEL - CLIENT CPU CORE I7-12700KF 3.60GHZ SKTLGA1700 25.00MB CACHE BOXED

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Whatever the case may be, Intel crushes AMD in this benchmark as the 12700KF was 34% faster than the 5800X. Factorio is a new addition to our battery of benchmarks and this simulation game hasn't been included with the rest of games as we're not measuring frames per second, but rather updates per second. This automated benchmark calculates the time it takes to run 1000 updates. This is a single thread test which apparently relies heavily on cache capacity. Here's a look at power consumption for the Blender benchmark and when compared to the 12900K, the new Core i7 model looks a lot more efficient. When compared to the 5900X, the 12900K pushed total system power usage 50% higher, for just 11% greater performance. The 12700K, on the other hand, pushed total system usage 24% higher but delivered 31% more performance doing so, and was therefore more efficient than the 5800X. That's a crazy turnaround given what we saw from the Core i9 model.

For testing 12th-gen Core series processors we've used the MSI Z690 Tomahawk Wi-Fi DDR4 motherboard. The Ryzen test system uses the Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Dark Hero motherboard with the latest BIOS update, and of course, all the latest Windows updates and drivers have also been installed. Finally, the last test system note worth mentioning is that all application and gaming data has been collected using the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT graphics card. The new Core i7 processor proves to be a beast in the Corona benchmark, delivering 30% greater performance when compared to the 5800X. In fact, it was just 9% slower than the 5900X and 17% slower than the 12900K. A very solid result overall and this puts AMD in a tough position where they might be forced to slash pricing. Processors that support 64-bit computing on Intel® architecture require an Intel 64 architecture-enabled BIOS.

Here's a look at the 10 game average data and it's as expected based on what we just saw. Intel's ahead of AMD, but only by a minor 1.5% margin on the average frame rate and 3% for the 1% low.

Now, due to the hybrid core design of Alder Lake, the 12700KF along with most of the 12th-gen processors are better of running Windows 11 and its improved thread scheduler for optimal performance. Therefore we've tested this and all other CPUs using a fresh install of Windows 11. That also includes Ryzen CPUs, especially after discovering that Ryzen gaming performance is typically a little faster using the more modern operating system. Like Cinebench R23, the Chromium Code Compile results are just brutal for AMD. Here the 12700KF delivered 44% more performance than the 5800X and even managed to edge out the more expensive 5900X as it was just 12% slower than the Core i9-12900K. It's also incredible to see a 36% generational leap from the 11700K.As expected, the single core performance is very mighty, here we're measuring P-core performance and this places the 12700KF at a 23% performance advantage when compared to the 5800X. Sure, you can argue that the Ryzen 7 5800X is a year old by now, but that doesn't change the fact that the 12700KF is an impressive CPU that often destroys the 5800X in all-core workloads as seen in Cinebench, Chromium, Blender and basically any other application that leans of these CPUs hard. The new Core i7 processor was outright faster in Hitman 3, though the margins aren't extreme with the 12700KF up to 4% faster than the 5800X. Once again we're finding that despite the often massive difference in core-heavy applications, gaming performance is as close as it gets. Another fairly heavily GPU limited game is Horizon Zero Dawn. When using these high-end CPUs the 5800X took the lead, beating the new 12700KF by a 5% margin. Not exactly a devastating difference, but this one was a win for AMD.