Intel Core i9-12900HX vs Intel Core i5-12600HX

Intel Core i9-12900HX

The Intel Core i9-12900HX is a high-end mobile CPU for laptops based on the Alder Lake architecture. It was announced in mid 2022 and offers 8 performance cores (P-cores, Golden Cove architecture) and 8 efficient cores (E-cores, Gracemont architecture). The P-cores support Hyper-Threading leading to 24 supported threads when combined with the E-cores. The clock rate ranges from 2.3 to 5 GHz on the performance cluster and 1.7 to 3.6 GHz on the efficiency cluster. The performance of the E-cores should be similar to old Skylake cores (compare with the Core i7-6920HQ). All cores can use up to 30 MB L3 cache. As a HX-variant, the CPU offers an open multiplicator and therefore the possibility to overclock the CPU cores. Compared to the similar i9-12950HX, the 12900HX does not offer vPro or ECC memory support.

Features

The integrated memory controller supports various memory types up to DDR5-4800 and DDR4-3200. The Thread Director (in hardware) can support the operating system to decide which thread to use on the performance or efficient cores for the best performance. For AI tasks, the CPU also integrates GNA 3.0 and DL Boost (via AVX2). Quick Sync in version 8 is the same as in the Rocket Lake CPUs and supports MPEG-2, AVC, VC-1 decode, JPEG, VP8 decode, VP9, HEVC, and AV1 decode in hardware. The CPU supports 48 PCIe lanes consisting of 16 Gen5 (x16 or 2x8), 20 Gen4 and 12 Gen3.

The integrated graphics adapter is based on the Xe architecture and offers 32 EUs (Execution Units) operating at up to 1.55 GHz.

Performance

The average 12900HX in our database is, perhaps a little disappointingly, in the same league as the i7-12800HX and the i7-13700HX while outshining the Ryzen 7 7745HX by a significant margin.

The Legion 7 16IAX7 is among the fastest laptops built around the 12900HX that we know of. It is able to sustain CPU power consumption of around 90 W for long periods of time for up to 20% better multi-thread performance than the slowest system featuring the same chip in our database (as of August 2023).

Power consumption

The chip's "minimum assured" power consumption sits at 45 W. Its Turbo power consumption is not supposed to go over 157 W and its Base power consumption is supposed to be around 55 W. Most laptop makers will go for a value higher than 55 W to get better performance.

This Core i9 series processor is built with Intel's 4th generation 10 nm manufacturing process marketed as Intel 7 for average, as of early 2023, energy efficiency.

Intel Core i5-12600HX

The Intel Core i5-12600HX is a upper mid-range mobile CPU for laptops based on the Alder Lake-S chip. It was announced in mid 2022 and offers 4 of the 8 performance cores (P-cores, Golden Cove architecture) and 8 efficient cores (E-cores, Gracemont architecture). The P-cores support Hyper-Threading leading to 16 supported threads when combined with the E-cores. The clock rate ranges from 2.5 to 4.6 GHz on the performance cluster and 1.8 to 3.3 GHz on the efficiency cluster. The performance of the E-cores should be similar to old Skylake cores (compare with the Core i7-6920HQ). All cores can use up to 18 MB L3 cache. The CPU supports vPro and ECC memory and is therefore a successor to the mobile Xeon CPUs.

Performance

While we have not tested a single system built around the 12600HX as of August 2023, we have tested several systems featuring the i5-12500H, a CPU with similar specs (4 P-cores mated to 8 E-cores, all running at pretty much the same clock speeds as what the 12600HX has). Based on that, expect the 12600HX to be very close to the Ryzen 9 6900HS, Ryzen 9 6900HX and also the Core i7-12650H, as far as multi-thread benchmark scores are concerned.

Your mileage may vary depending on how competent the cooling solution of your laptop is and how high the CPU power limits are.

Features

The integrated memory controller supports various memory types up to DDR5-4800 and DDR4-3200. The Thread Director (in hardware) can support the operating system to decide which thread to use on the performance or efficient cores for the best performance. For AI tasks, the CPU also integrates GNA 3.0 and DL Boost (via AVX2). Quick Sync in version 8 is the same as in the Rocket Lake CPUs and supports MPEG-2, AVC, VC-1 decode, JPEG, VP8 decode, VP9, HEVC, and AV1 decode in hardware. The CPU supports 48 PCIe lanes consisting of 16 Gen5 (x16 or 2x8), 20 Gen4 and 12 Gen3.

The integrated graphics card is based on the Xe-architecture and offers 32 EUs (Execution Units) operating at up to 1.35 GHz.

The CPU is rated at 55 W base power (157 W PL2). The SoC is manufactured on a 10nm process at Intel, which is known as Intel 7.