How 12th Gen Intel Core i9 Laptops Outperform the Competition

Why do we call the Intel® Core™ i9-12900HK “the world’s best gaming laptop processor”? Because it outperformed the AMD Ryzen™ 9 5900HX in the majority of 31 games we tested, which ranged from Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla to Grand Theft Auto V.³

In AAA games like Hitman 3: Dartmoor and Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, the difference can be dramatic: the i9-12900HK delivers 49% and 50% higher average FPS, respectively.⁴⁵

The difference comes down to the 12th Gen Intel® Core™ mobile processor performance hybrid architecture, which integrates two new core microarchitectures on a single die. Powerful Performance-cores — the most performant design in Intel’s history — work alongside flexible Efficient-cores, allowing 12th Gen CPUs to scale up to conquer demanding workloads.

Excellent single-threaded performance, driven by P-cores, means higher framerates. Versatile multithreaded performance, driven by E-cores, accelerates content creation. When you play on a system powered by an Intel® Core™ i9-12900HK, expect up to 40% better performance compared to the previous Intel generation.³⁴⁵

Let’s dive further into the numbers to see how 12th Gen Intel® Core™ i9 mobile processors stack up against the AMD Ryzen™ 9 5900HX.

How Does the Intel® Core™ i9-12900HK Compare to an AMD Ryzen™ 9 5900HX?

Featuring 14 cores and 20 threads, the Intel® Core™ i9-12900HK is built for speed. It outperforms the competition in a variety of games — from recent AAA hits to multiplayer shooters to esports powerhouses.

When playing at 1080p with High graphics settings, the i9-12900HK achieved up to 49% higher average FPS than the Ryzen™ 9 5900HX in a variety of AAA games.⁴⁵ Both processors were tested in similarly-configured laptops.

These results show higher FPS with graphics settings on the “High” preset, which reflects the settings used by most players. A higher framerate means that you’ll see smoother animations, reduced screen tearing, and less ghosting as you play.

Results were similarly dramatic in tests of esports titles: the 12th Gen Intel® Core™ H-Series excels at competitive gaming. The Intel® Core™ i9-12900HK delivers up to 66% higher FPS (in League of Legends) and an average of 40% higher FPS across the board.⁴⁵

In high-intensity shooters like CS:GO (59% higher average FPS⁴⁵), split-second reactions can mean the difference between winning and losing. With higher FPS, your screen will update more frequently (up to your monitor’s refresh rate), helping you spot enemies quickly when they peek around corners and track them more smoothly as they reposition.

The results speak for themselves. If you want to maximize your experience when playing the latest AAA action game or climbing the competitive ladder in an online title, the Intel® Core™ i9-12900HK is the best mobile CPU for the job.

How Does the Intel® Core™ i7-12700H Compare to the AMD Ryzen™ 9 5900HX?

The i9-12900HK delivers top-of-the-line results. But the Intel® Core™ i7-12700H also offers serious gaming, streaming, and content creation performance. Featuring 14 cores, 20 threads, and 4.7 GHz Max Turbo Frequency, it delivers up to a 13% gen-over-gen improvement in FPS⁴⁵ compared to the Intel® Core™ i7-11800H.

Here’s how it stacks up against the Ryzen™ 9 5900HX:

In recent AAA games like Forza Horizon 5, Far Cry 6, and Hitman 3: Dartmoor, the i7-12700H achieves up to 37% higher FPS.⁴⁵

12th Gen Systems are Built to Game and Stream

12th Gen systems are built for a future where you game, stream, and record with ease. Under the hood, the Intel® Thread Director uses machine learning-based thread telemetry to schedule tasks on the right core at the right time.⁵ This ensures that Performance-cores and Efficient-cores work in concert to crunch through multitasking workloads.

It all translates into higher framerates when you stream gameplay to your friends on Discord or your followers on Twitch.

In a complex but typical scenario for content creators — playing The Riftbreaker while streaming and recording at the same time — an i9-12900HK system achieved up to 52% higher FPS than a similarly configured Ryzen™ 9 5900HX.⁴⁵

That FPS increase translates to a more seamless gaming experience for you, a better viewing experience for your audience, and footage that looks more professional when you edit and post it later.

The Advantages of Gaming on the 12th Gen Platform

Benchmarks aren’t the only reason that we call the i9-12900HK the world’s best gaming laptop processor. 12th Gen’s unique platform features also mean it works with the newest, fastest devices for gaming and streaming.

Unique 12th Gen features include:

• Industry-first broad memory support for both DDR5 and DDR4 RAM.
• Intel® Killer™ Wi-Fi 6E (Gig+) with improved performance, reduced latency, priority for gaming traffic, and more reliable connections on busy home networks.
• Thunderbolt™ 4 connectivity with 40Gbps maximum bandwidth, support for two 4K monitors through one port, and mandatory certification of docks and other devices.
• Industry-leading PCIe 4.0 support for new GPUs, SSDs, and other devices.

Performance Hybrid Architecture Enhances Gaming

12th Gen’s new core architecture marks the biggest change in x86 architecture at Intel in more than a decade. By integrating two microarchitectures — Performance-cores and Efficient-cores — into a single die, it boosts compute efficiency and performs intelligent workload optimization that drives its superior gaming performance.

Each type of core has a different role:

• P-cores are optimized for single-threaded tasks and bursty workloads. They feature high IPC (instructions per cycle) and high turbo frequencies (up to 5 GHz for the i9-12900HK). P-cores are ideal for crunching through the heavy single-threaded work demanded by many game engines.
• E-cores are physically smaller cores designed to maximize performance-per-watt. Smaller tasks can be offloaded to E-cores — for example, handling Discord or anti-virus software — leaving P-cores free to drive gaming performance.

The Intel® Thread Director performs the behind-the-scenes magic that maximizes 12th Gen performance. Using machine learning, it predicts workloads and intelligently assigns each task to the right core.

Why is the i9-12900HK the World’s Best Gaming Laptop Processor?

When judged by average FPS across many popular games, 12th Gen laptops surge past the performance of both the previous generation and the competition.

The innovations of performance hybrid architecture — high-IPC Performance-cores, flexible Efficient-cores, and the multitasking wizardry of the Intel Thread Director — enable superior gaming performance in the Intel® Core™ i9-12900HK processor. If you’re looking for the world’s best gaming laptop processor, you can find it here.