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

Product Information

When it comes to gaming, the 5800X and 12700KF are evenly matched, and there's no true winner. I could see myself happily gaming on either of these CPUs and their supporting platforms. Therefore arguing over which is the best gaming CPU is a complete waste of energy and we'll leave that to the good men and women of Reddit to work out. 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. 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.

But it's not just multi-core applications. The mighty strong single-core performance of Alder Lake makes it a weapon for applications such as Adobe After Effects and Photoshop. Here comes our second Alder Lake review after looking at the flagship Core i9 on launch date, and this time we're testing the more mainstream Core i7-12700KF. For those of you wondering, the 12700KF and 12700K are the same CPU with the minor exception of the integrated graphics (Intel UHD 770) which are disabled in the KF version. Besides from that omission, they're exactly the same, although the KF chip will also save you some money. The Core i7-12700KF destroyed the Adobe Premiere Pro 2021 benchmark with a score of 984 points, and that made it 10% faster than even the 12900K. We're not quite sure how that's possible, perhaps the higher E-cores count of the Core i9 part is to blame here, feeding them work in favor of the faster P-cores, so this could be a simple scheduling issue as there's no reason for the 12700KF to be faster.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. See http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/architecture-and-technology/hyper-threading/hyper-threading-technology.html?wapkw=hyper+threading for more information including details on which processors support Intel® HT Technology. With a TDP of 125 W, the Core i7-12700KF consumes a lot of power, so good cooling is definitely needed. Intel's processor supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory with a dual-channel interface. For communication with other components in the computer, Core i7-12700KF uses a PCI-Express Gen 4 connection. This processor does not have integrated graphics, you will need a separate graphics card.

Cyberpunk 2077 is extremely GPU demanding so even with the dialed down quality settings that we're using here, the 12700KF matched the majority of the high-end CPUs featured in this test. 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. Max Turbo Frequency refers to the maximum single-core processor frequency that can be achieved with Intel® Turbo Boost Technology. See www.intel.com/technology/turboboost/ for more information and applicability of this technology.Intel classifications are for general, educational and planning purposes only and consist of Export Control Classification Numbers (ECCN) and Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) numbers. Any use made of Intel classifications are without recourse to Intel and shall not be construed as a representation or warranty regarding the proper ECCN or HTS. Your company as an importer and/or exporter is responsible for determining the correct classification of your transaction. As you can see, the new Core i7 performs exceptionally well relative to the 5800X and in particular its predecessor, the 11700K. Basically we're looking at a 9% performance boost over the Ryzen 7 part and then 21% over the 11700K, so another impressive round of results for Intel. The 12700KF was 17% slower than the 12900K, which is a decent margin, and this will be a result of those missing E-cores, along with the smaller L3 cache and slightly lower operating frequencies. But still an incredible result, especially given the 12700KF is a little over 30% cheaper than the 12900KF.

Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy is heavily GPU limited when running high-end CPUs so again, the 5800X and 12700KF delivered the same level of performance, which was also comparable to other high-end CPUs such as the 12900K.The 12700KF did budget ahead for the average frame rate with a 5% margin, which is still rather insignificant, and the 1% low performance was identical. So even in the relatively CPU intensive Watch Dogs Legion we're looking at comparable performance between these two processors. 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. The 12700KF also performed well in After Effects, producing a score of 2108 pts which placed it ahead of the Ryzen 9 5900X and just behind the 12900K, so a super result there and it also meant it was 8% faster than the 5800X.