Intel Core i5 12600K / Core i9 12900K "Alder Lake" Linux Performance

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Intel Core i5 12600K / Core i9 12900K "Alder Lake" Linux Performance

With the Intel 12th Gen Core processors shipping today along with the new line-up of Z690 motherboards, the review embargo lifts for talking about these Intel "Alder Lake" processors. While by now you've likely heard a lot about Intel Alder Lake on Windows and various leaked benchmarks with Windows 11, how does these processors with the new hybrid architecture work and perform on Linux? Here are the initial benchmarks and support information for Intel's Core i5 12600K and Core i9 12900K processors under Ubuntu Linux.

https://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=30653

[HEL88]

Intel has become great again* .

mostly from Windows perspective, because Linux lacks Thread Director

[acobar]

Michael,

Terrific job, as always.

On page 4, a minor glitch: "the Core i9 12900K and Core i5 11600K processors" -> "the Core i9 12900K and Core i5 12600K processors".

Cheers.

[MadCatX]

Cool! This is honestly a lot better than I expected. It will be interesting to see how much performance is left on the table once Intel lands some hybrid core handling logic. Zen 4 with DDR5 shall make things pretty interesting.

Also, thanks a lot for the excellent review Michael!

[piotrj3]

Damn, if Intel fixes the issue of thread director on linux, Intel will be extremly impressive, just many regressions/issues destroy performance in some tests, but in tests new Intel works great it is way to go. Also notice Intel idles at much lower Wattage then AMD, so when max load is higher, webrowsing is much less.

[L_A_G]

As much as I consider Intel to be the Monsanto of the semiconductor world, there's been one thing they've done very well for a long time and it's pretty uncharacteristic of them to fail so badly on bringing up Linux support before launch. Then again they've been releasing some really lackluster parts for so many years so you could also say that releasing a product this competitive is also uncharacteristic of them.

But seriously thou, this right here is why we need as much healthy competition in the CPU space as possible. We can't let Intel stagnate and turn into the rent seekers they've been for almost a decade. I'm still going to go with AMD when I replace my trusty R7 1700 next year after the Zen 4 parts release, but after that I'll be open to buying Intel (assuming they don't fall into their old ways by then).

Still, it'd be interesting to see how much of an impact the new DDR5 memory makes and it should be something you can test as Alder Lake is also compatible DDR4. Albeit not with the same motherboards so you'd need to get a DDR4 board as well.

[blacknova]

Performance is good, but power consumptions is quite high.

[alberto-pv]

I'm an AMD fan, but these bench, except power consumption, are quite impressive even without Thread Director. Competition is good, especially considering Apple M1X.

[uid313]

Michael, can you do graphics tests without a graphics card. Just with the integrated Intel Xe GPU and compare it how it performs to previous generation Intel graphics and how it compares against the integrated graphics performance on AMD, and how it compares against a real graphics card.

[birdie]

Linux looks to be terribly unprepared for Alder Lake CPUs.

All other websites and review(er)s show a massive lead for Intel both for 720p and 1080p and only on Phoronix Ryzen 5000 CPUs take the lead.