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  1. Home
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  4. /
  5. V-Ray: Intel Core i9 12900KS Performance

V-Ray: Intel Core i9 12900KS Performance

Posted on April 5, 2022 by Kelly Shipman
Always look at the date when you read an article. Some of the content in this article is most likely out of date, as it was written on April 5, 2022. For newer information, see our more recent articles.

Table of Contents

  • Introduction
  • Test Setup
  • Benchmark Results
  • Analysis & Conclusion
  • Is the Intel Core i9 12900KS Processor Good for V-Ray?

TL;DR: Intel Core i9 12900KS performance in V-Ray

Intel’s new Core i9 12900KS provides no improvement to rendering in V-Ray over the existing i9 12900K. For most 3d artists looking for this grade of hardware, rendering performance is almost secondary to their general 3d application performance. The 12900KS still provides the amazing single-threaded performance needed for modeling and many simulation tasks. In practice, opting for the less expensive 12900k will get you identical results, or spending just a little more for AMD’s Ryzen 9 5950X will give better rendering performance.

Introduction

When Intel launched their 12th Gen Intel Core desktop processors (code-named "Alder Lake") in November of 2021, they showed a terrific performance improvement over previous generations. They also made some significant changes to how their CPUs fundamentally worked, primarily through their hybrid architecture which utilizes a mix of Performance and Efficient-cores.

Since then, the wider availability of DDR5 memory and improvements in thread scheduling has allowed them to expand their performance lead over AMD in a number of workflows. And today, Intel is launching yet another model to their 12th Intel Core lineup: the Intel Core i9 12900KS.

Intel Core i9 12900KS for V-Ray
Image
Intel Core i9 12900KS for V-Ray
Open Full Resolution

On paper, the 12900KS appears to simply be a higher binned version of the Core i9 12900K. It has the same number of cores and the same cache, but the frequency is slightly higher. The exact amount depends on which kind of core is being used as well as what type of Turbo, but at most we are looking at about a 6% increase in Turbo frequency.

To handle the higher frequency, the 12900KS has a slightly higher base power draw of 150W versus the 125W of the 12900K. Interestingly, the maximum Turbo power is the same at 241W, which means that it may not actually run much hotter under heavy load situations.

The last difference is, of course, the price. With an MSRP of $739, the 12900KS is $140 more expensive than the 12900K. This is still a bit below the $799 MSRP of the AMD Ryzen 5950X, but it certainly brings Intel and AMD closer in terms of pricing at the top of their consumer CPU lines.

CPU Model Core i9 12900K Core i9 12900KS
Total Cores/Threads 16/24 16/24
Performance Cores 8 8
Efficient Cores 8 8
Max Turbo Frequency 5.2 GHz 5.5 GHz
P-Core Max Turbo Frequency 5.1 GHz 5.2 GHz
E-Core Max Turbo Frequency 3.9 GHz 4.0 GHz
Cache 30 MB 30 MB
Processor Base Power 125 W 150 W
Maximum Turbo Power 241 W 241 W
MSRP $599 $739

In this article, we will be examining the performance of the new Intel Core i9 12900KS compared to the 12900K, as well as the AMD Ryzen 5900X and 5950X. If you are interested in how these processors compare in other applications, you can check out the summary of all our testing results – and links to more detailed analysis – in our Intel Core i9 12900KS Review Roundup article.

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Test Setup

Listed below are the specifications of the systems we will be using for our testing:

12th Gen Intel Core Test Platform
CPU Intel Core i9 12900KS 8+8 Core ($739)
Intel Core i9 12900K 8+8 Core ($589)
CPU Cooler Noctua NH-U12A
Motherboard Asus ProArt Z690-Creator WiFi
RAM 2x DDR5-4800 32GB (64GB total)
AMD Ryzen 5000 Series Test Platform
CPU AMD Ryzen 9 5950X 16 Core ($799)
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12 Core ($549)
CPU Cooler Noctua NH-U12S
Motherboard Gigabyte X570 AORUS ULTRA
RAM 4x DDR4-3200 16GB (64GB total)
Shared Hardware & Software
Video Card NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 10GB
Hard Drive Samsung 980 Pro 2TB
Software Windows 11 Pro 64-bit (2009)
V-Ray 5.01.00

*Latest drivers, OS updates, BIOS, and firmware as of March 31st, 2022

In order to see how the new Intel Core i9 12900KS performs in V-Ray, we will be comparing it to the Core i9 12900K, AMD Ryzen 5900X, and AMD Ryzen 5950X. For the test itself, we will be using the V-Ray 5.01 benchmark.

As for the test platforms, we want to point out that due to the wider availability of DDR5 RAM, all our testing is now using DDR5 on any platform that supports it (currently just Intel Z690). We try to stay within spec for memory speed whenever possible, which is why we are using 2x32GB of DDR5-4800 RAM on the Intel platform. While the move to DDR4 to DDR5 can improve performance by a decent margin, the speed of the RAM speed doesn't make a big difference in most content creation applications. If you want to read more about the impact of DDR5 RAM speed, we recommend checking out our Impact of DDR5 Speed on Content Creation Performance article.

Benchmark Results

Intel Core i9 12900KS V-Ray benchmark performance
Image
Intel Core i9 12900KS V-Ray benchmark performance
Open Full Resolution

Analysis & Conclusion

The most sure fire way to get faster V-Ray performance is to get more CPU cores. Typically the speed of those cores does also help with performance, as it allows each core to finish its task faster. However, the 12900KS comes in 1% slower than the standard 12900K after multiple runs. These scores fall within the margins of error on this test. This may be either an issue with the early BIOS we used or a shortcoming in the benchmark itself. Cinebench did see a 5% increase with the same CPU, so it is possible that V-Ray may see the same after some updates.

Is the Intel Core i9 12900KS Processor Good for V-Ray?

Intel’s new Core i9 12900KS provides no improvement to rendering in V-Ray over the existing i9 12900K. For most 3d artists looking for this grade of hardware, rendering performance is almost secondary to their general 3d application performance. The 12900KS still provides the amazing single-threaded performance needed for modeling and many simulation tasks. In practice, opting for the less expensive 12900k will get you identical results, or spending just a little more for AMD’s Ryzen 9 5950X will give better rendering performance.

Going into our testing, we were a bit worried about the higher base power draw of the 12900KS, but throughout our testing, we didn't notice any issues. Our standard 120mm Noctua heatsink was still more than enough to keep this CPU cool, and there was no noticeable increase in fan noise.

Keep in mind that the benchmark results in this article are strictly for V-Ray and that performance will vary widely in different applications. If your workflow includes other software packages (we have similar articles for a number of other applications that can be found in our Intel Core i9 12900KS Review Roundup article), you need to consider how the system will perform in those applications as well. Be sure to check our list of Hardware Articles to keep up to date on how all of these software packages – and more – perform with the latest CPUs.

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Tags: 12900KS, 5900X, 5950X, AMD Ryzen 5000 Series, i9 12900K, Intel 12th Gen, Rendering

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