Intel Alder Lake i9-12900K qualification sample hitting 5.3 GHz rumored to be 800 points faster than the AMD Ryzen 5950X in Cinebench R20 multi-core tests
Intel’s 12th gen processors codenamed Alder Lake are slated to launch later and should be the first models to offer DDR5 and PCIe 5 support. Initial rumors were claiming that the high-end i9-12900K models could reach 5.5 GHz thanks to the improved 10 nm Enhanced SuperFin production nodes. It is still unclear if these claims were based on early engineering samples, but Intel is already testing qualification samples that are very close to the final product specs, and, according to the latest leaks coming from the Chinese NGA forums, the i9-12900K will only boost to 5.3 GHz.
Despite not hitting the 5.5 GHz boost on a single core, the performance improvements still appear on track to beat the AMD Ryzen 5000 competition. The information posted on the Chinese forums comes from trusted Twitter leaker 9550pro, who reveals that the latest i9-12900K qualification sample with 8 big cores and 8 small cores can score more than 11300 points in the Cinebench R20 multi-core test. This result sees a 2000 point improvement over a previous engineering sample from a few months back. It is also around 800 points faster than AMD’s Ryzen 9 5950X. The post goes on to claim that the i7-12700K with 8 big cores and 4 small cores scores 9500+ points in C R20, while the i5-12600K with 6 big cores and 4 small cores scores 7400+.
It is important to point out that we still do not know the exact TDP range of the upcoming Alder Lake processors. For reference, the Ryzen 9 5950X is rated for 105 W, and we suspect the i9-12900K could have a slightly higher TDP that can justify the performance uplift in C R20. We also need to see if AMD’s V-Cache technology coming in early 2022 could tighten the competition.