TheOverclocker Presents Intel 12th Gen core

THE OVERCLOCKER | PRESENTS 

A RETROSPECTIVE PERSPECTIVE 

It’s been eight months since INTEL unveiled the 12th Gen Core series of CPUs. 

This generation has brought hybrid CPUs, PCI Express Gen 5 and DDR5 memory 

to the desktop. While it’s possible to use a 12th Gen CPU without these supporting 

technologies. More on DDR5 later, but for now, at least for the best performance, high 

speed DDR5 is essential. This was obvious at launch, but more so today. 

THE OVERCLOCKER PRESENTS 12th GEN CORE 

Before we speak about 

performance, it’s 

important to highlight the 

hybrid nature of 12th Gen CPUs 

for obvious reasons. It’s a first 

for desktop and looks to be the 

future for INTEL, at least in 

some SKUs. At present, only 

Core i5, i7 and i9 are hybrid 

CPUs for they contain within 

them E or efficient cores. 

According to INTEL, efficient 

cores increase computing 

efficiency and deliverintelligent 

workload optimization. This 

statement, when translated 

to normal speak, means the 

E-cores where appropriate, 

take over tasks such as web 

browsing and video stream 

encoding. When called upon, 

these cores can also help 

the P-cores in highly threaded 

tasks. Performance withstanding, 

E-cores improve power efficiency 

and, as a result, lower overall 

power consumption for common 

task. 

E-cores aside, the real action 

is with performance or P-cores. 

These Golden Cove cores, in 

terms of raw performance, 

are the beating heart of 12th 

Gen CPUs and unlike E-cores, 

P-cores are available on all 

SKUs and what most of the 

excitement is about. INTEL 

delivered on the promise of 

vastly improved IPC, clock 

frequencies, and power 

consumption. Prior to launch, 

there were rumours of factory 

frequencies well above 5GHz, 

with some predictions as high 

as 5.4GHz. This turned out to be 

true and false simultaneously. 

The range topping Intel Core i9 

12900KS does indeed feature a 

5.5GHz maximum turbo 

frequency, but this SKU wasn’t 

around at launch. What was 

available, the Core i9 12900K, 

could only claim 5.2GHz as its 

maximum clock frequency. 

Overclockers and enthusiasts, 

however, often manage much 

higher frequencies, anywhere 

between 5.4 to 5.6GHz depending 

on the quality of the silicon. 

Against the previous 11th 

Generation Core CPUs, the 12th 

Gen CPUs achieve an uncontested 

victory in every test, game, and 

application imaginable. E-cores 

aside, the equivalent 12th Gen 

CPU is vastly superior not only 

in performance but in total power 

consumption. Unfortunately, 

for INTEL, the competition isn’t 

from 11th Gen Core CPUs, but 

AMD. 

12th Gen CPUs need to match


AMD’s offerings in power, 

performance and price. While 

INTEL has, over the years, kept 

the single thread performance 

crown through frequency 

advantage, it’s not enough. In 

multi-threading performance, 

power and price AMD were 

superior. 

12th Generation CPUs have 

changed this at least in two 

parts, which is price and 

performance. The range topping 

Intel Core i9 12900K against its 

most obvious 12 core counterpart 

offers greater value and superior 

performance. Where power is 

concerned, INTEL has made 

great strides, but the competition 

still has the edge. Will the power 

advantage persist against 13th 

Gen Core? We will find out in a 

in a few months, but it’s worth 

nothing that 13th Gen Core 

CPUs use the same Intel 7 

process on 12th Gen CPUs. The 

subject of power consumption 

is highly technical and it would 

be ridiculous to reduce it to a 

single value referring to absolute 

gate length. 

The move to a smaller 

manufacturing process is a 

big step for INTEL, finally free 

from criticism for repeated use 

of their 14nm process. INTEL 

has taken further advantage of 

the situation, introducing a new 

naming scheme and process 

road map. Gone is the reference 

to the actual gate length and, 

in its place, marketing friendly 

terminology. What they refer to 

as 10nm is today called INTEL 

7, and its replacement 7nm 

process; INTEL 4 (7nm). We 

can find here more information 

on future process names. 

All this aside, and almost a 

year after launch, I consider 

the 12th Gen Core CPUs a success. 

INTEL’s Core i3 and i7 offer 

phenomenal value against 

competition’s offerings and 

perhaps against the i9 itself. 

In instances such as gaming, 

the Core i7 12700K delivers 

comparable performance to 

the 12900K. Since both SKUs 

feature unlocked frequency and 

DRAM ratios, many users have 

matched and even exceeded 

12900K performance. For most 

users, the absence of four 

E-cores on the i7 makes little 

difference. 

Further down the hierarchy, 

we have the Core i5, with six 

P-Cores and four E-cores. With

...12th Gen CPU is vastly superior 

not only in performance but in total 

power consumption.... 


previous generations, this SKU 

offered the best value for money, 

but that may have changed. 

INTEL’s Core i3 12100, receives 

this honour instead. With just 

four P-cores, it outpaces the 

higher priced, previous generation 

Core i5 11400 in several common 

tasks, including gaming. At the 

time of writing, this CPU retails 

for $129. Incredible value, 

given that it outperforms 2020s 

10600K as well, despite the 

frequency and core disadvantage. 

The value provided over 11th 

Gen offerings is significant and 

one hopes this continues with 

13th Gen CPUs. 

CPU specifics aside, what 

compliments and completes 

this experience is the platform 

in its entirety. INTEL 600 series 

chipset brings several upgrades 

that make the upgrade worthwhile. 

As mentioned earlier, 

PCIe Gen 5 and DDR5 DRAM 

support are the highlights, but 

there’s more. The DMI 4.0 link 

between the CPU and Chipset 

offers four times the bandwidth 

versus DMI 3.0. Z690 specifically 

offers eight lanes instead of 

four, and each lane supports 

double the bandwidth. This 

arrangement allows exotic 

configurations of all sorts, with 

many high-end boards offering 

five M.2 sockets that mix 

Gen5, 4 and Gen3 compliance. 

INTEL 600 chipset improves 

connectivity over the 500 series 

with INTEL Wi-Fi 6E/7 AX211 

and more high-speed USB 

connections. These additions 

and enhancements mean the 

600 series offers the most 

feature rich platform right now. 

On to the fun part, overclocking. 

Things are more complicated 

with the 12th Gen CPUs and it’s 

especially true for the Core i9 

12900K. The presence of E- 

cores and the ability to disable 

HT per core offers interesting


configurations. For instance, 

I have found that disabling hyper 

threading reduces temperatures, 

while having a negligible effect 

on most applications I use. On 

previous generations, doing 

this would lead to significant 

performance losses. Fortunately, 

we have E-cores to compensate 

with as the small cores make 

up for the logical core reduction. 

Disabling hyper threading 

raises thermal headroom and 

allows higher clock frequencies. 

The CPU I used for testing 

reached 5.5GHz on a single 

core, 5.1GHz for all core loads 

and 4GHz for E-cores. For all 

this additional performance, 

the CPU saw a maximum and 

median power draw reduction 

of 20 percent. Sustained peak 

power draw (In stressful 

applications, not torture tests) 

was often below 190W. 

I have barely touched the 

surface of CPU 

overclocking and 

there’s plenty more, 

but for a thorough 

guide on tuning and 

overclocking 12th 

Gen Core CPUs, 

please check out 

SkatterBencher on YouTube. 

For extreme overclockers, 

12th Gen CPUs presents 

interesting options presented 

in unusual ways. All related to 

hardware categories on 

HWBOT. Be it you opt for the 

Core i7 or the i9 K SKU, 

8 Core (8P) category is where 

you’re competing. That should 

mean one can buy a Core i7 

12700K and compete with the i9 

CPUs, right? Sadly, the 

answer is no, as it appears 

Core i7 CPUs rarely achieve 

the same frequencies in 

extreme conditions. For the 

everyday overclocker using an 

AIO, this shouldn’t be an issue 

as differences between the i9 

and i7 will be minimal.


Conclusion 

In closing, let’s return to 2020 

and remember that 11th Gen 

Core CPUs put up a valiant 

fight, securing wins where its 

clock frequency advantage 

could assist. Unfortunately, 

these instances were far and 

few between, so we saw no 

price drops. 12th Gen, however, 

changed the lay of the land, 

forcing AMD price drops. 

Acknowledging the value 

offered by 12th Gen Core CPUs. 

In a few months, 13th Gen 

Core squares off against AMD’s 

7000 series. From rumours and 

leaked performance figures, 

INTEL could claim victory, 

at least in multi-thread loads. 

Important as it’s been ages 

since AMD and INTEL engaged 

in a straight fight for performance 

dominance. We must thank 

competition for this. 

Last, I will discuss platform 

longevity for INTEL’s 600 series 

motherboards, a contentious 

issue for many end users and 

for valid reason. Users have 

invested into platforms only 

to discover a socket change 

just 12 months later. With 600 

series boards and matching 

LGA 1700 socket, things have 

changed. Current 600 series 

motherboards can accommodate 

13th Gen CPUs. Naturally, the 

best experience comes from 

the upcoming 700 series, but 

backward compatibility certainly 

brings relief to many. Some 

600 series motherboards 

carry a $700+ retail price and it 

would be a shame if upcoming 

CPUs relegated these to EOL 

status. 

For the budget conscious, 

there’s no better time to buy 

a 12th Gen CPUs than today. 

The price of entry is cheaper 

for both motherboards and 

DDR5. This is unlike last year 

when DDR5 was slower, scarce 

and expensive, forcing DDR4 

alternatives on many users. As 

we’ve seen, the performance 

gained from high speed DDR5 

is staggering, at least where 

competitive overclocking and 

benchmarks are concerned. In 

gaming tests, we’ve also seen 

DDR5 come out ahead with 

DDR5 6000 or higher. 12900KS 

aside, the rest of the 12th Gen 

line-up offers good value, even 

today with 13th Gen Core CPUs 

imminent. Eight months ago, 

pure performance was the 

selling point, INTEL winning 

the performance crown 

convincingly over its 

competition. Today, it’s not just 

pure performance that’s notable, 

but the entire platform and 

supporting technologies that’ve 

matured, making the best 

possible case for 12th Gen 

Core CPUs.

TheOverclocker Presents Intel 12th Gen core

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