Intel Core i9-12900HK benchmarks reportedly leaked, Apple M1 Max comparisons in the wild

By Robert Carnevale
published

Premature reveals are the best kind of reveals.

Intel Core i9-10900K review
Intel Core i9-10900K review (Image credit: Harish Jonnalagadda / Windows Central)

What you need to know

  • Intel's Alder Lake Mobility CPU benchmarks allegedly went live on Geekbench, showing performance results that indicate the Core i9-12900HK will outpace Apple's M1 Max.
  • Based on the same Geekbench listing, the processor has 20 threads and 14 cores.
  • This is the latest in a series of high-profile Intel processor leaks.

For those of you who are keeping a keen eye on Intel's activities in the processor space, October 2021 has provided a bountiful harvest of leaks. Recently, Intel had to deal with interested enthusiasts buying processors that had yet to be formally announced. And now, thanks to an alleged Geekbench listing, we have the scoop on Intel's Core i9-12900HK processor (via WCCF TECH).

According to the supposed leaks, Intel's new mobility CPU will beat Apple's M1 Max in single-core performance as well as multi-core performance, thanks to its single-core Geekbench score of 1,851 and multi-core score of 13,256. With these figures, Intel's upcoming offering also beats out AMD's Ryzen 5980HX by an even more sizeable margin. These scores were achieved on Windows 11, meaning the results could be different on, say, a Windows 10 device.

Intel's Core i9-12900HK processor will have 14 cores and 20 threads according to the leak, with a base clock of 2.9GHz.

It remains to be seen whether Intel's latest efforts will stack up favorably with the best CPUs for your PC. But, if the specs that allegedly appeared on Geekbench are indeed accurate and representative of what Intel has coming consumers' way, expect good news for the best Windows laptops and all other portable machines hungry for more power while maintaining the same tiny form factor.

Robert Carnevale
Robert Carnevale

Robert Carnevale is the News Editor for Windows Central. He's a big fan of Kinect (it lives on in his heart), Sonic the Hedgehog, and the legendary intersection of those two titans, Sonic Free Riders. He is the author of Cold War 2395. Have a useful tip? Send it to robert.carnevale@futurenet.com.

18 Comments
  • Of course Intel's 12 gen will beat AMD's 5000 series as W11 has been practically tuned for the 12th gen. Plus there is the scheduling issue on W11 with Ryzen which is supposedly fixed. So the question is was this a patched W11 or not. Plus there is also the 330 watt power draw for the 12900K, so you have to ask was the 12900HK running full throttle, inside a laptop chasis without any funny shenanigans? Otherwise it's another meh - I'll believe it when i actually see it. Intel have been known to pull stunts to build.up hype (which is an understatement) and then get caught out later.
  • "Plus there is the scheduling issue on W11 with Ryzen which is supposedly fixed. So the question is was this a patched W11 or not."
    While that is important to check for there is no reason to believe that it dramatically shifts performance differences away from Intel.
  • Well, anyone would expect that to be the case but... we're talking about Microsoft here lol. They no longer have a stellar track record when it comes to cumulative updates, bug fixes and feature updates etc.
  • its a COMEBACK !!! , Never Count Intel Out
  • Wait for the reviews before jumping onto the hype train lol. Especially, reviews that run on W10 not just W11. As W11 has been practical tuned for Intel 12th gen therefore Intel has a massive unfair advantage.
  • Laptops that come with 12th gen are coming with Windows 11, so why test with Windows 10? Unless it's from an investigative point of view.
  • @Goncalo Duerte1 It is indeed from an investigative point of view. People are free to buy whatever laptop they want. However, imo it's best to have all the info first before spending money but that's just me lol. Similarly, people are free to review laptops, PCs however they want. As not everyone has the time to be reinstalling o/ses, setting the o/s up etc.
  • All new laptops ship with Windows 11 except business ones where it is an option. Taking into consideration people who downgrade is not a valuable use of time. Is Windows 11 more biased towards 12th Gen? Sure is. It's that's Intel's problem or AMDs? I'll tell you that's it's definitely not mine.
  • Don't worry Dan, plenty of techtubers out there that will be doing such W10 testing lol. There's LTT, HardwareUnboxed, GamersNexus, Level1Techs etc.
  • I'll be excited whenever we can see fewer m1 posts in surface-related reddits.
  • Nah, I don't believe that. But, being optimistic, hopefully, i5 and i7 are as powerful as the new M1 Pro, since i9 is supposedly comparable with the M1 Max. Let's also hope it can last as much as the M1 Pro and Max devices on battery and that it won't suffer too much from thermal throttling on thin and light devices. When intel goes 7nm, though, then I'll believe they might be coming back from being obsolete.
  • This is what I expected, M1/Pro/ Max aren't magic and their performance isn't all that amazing, it's really good, but it's not the magic that Apple pretend it was. What's going to be great is the U varients, those varients should keep the same core configuration and therefore should destroy the regular M1. Seing benchmarks now of the M1 Max matching the RTX 3060 instead of the 3080 like Apple pretended it matched, just shows how ridiculous their claims were. Still, the M1s are great, but not magic.
  • Really excited for 12th gen Intel CPUs, AMD was what I would recommend before, but now Alder Lake and their fantastic big.little architecture looks to be way ahead of AMD.
  • Way ahead? LOL. Wait till AMD release new CPUs. Not compare new Intels with old AMDs...
  • AMD will probably have a significantly bett IGPU with their Rembrandt CPU for laptops, but power efficiency and CPU performance won't touch Intel's Alder Lake. On the desktop AMD will have 3D Cache on a few of their Zen 3 CPUs, but that won't be enough.
  • WTF? Where you live? Intel is much power hungrier in last few years then AMD. AMD have answer for anything Intel show. Just wait and see.
  • I hope this “leak” is a prelude to a flagship Surface Book “Pro” announcement. It probably will not be anywhere close to thin and light, but that’s o.k. with me. I just want the best performance possible in a Surface. That is something us Surface fans have been waiting years for. Come on Panos, you can do this!
  • I Hope this performance translates to U/H series mobile processors as well that are found in surface products & majority of consumer laptops. It doesn't matter whether it's intel or AMD or Qualcomm, for windows products current goal should be matching iPads & macs in performance per price at comparable battery life. Performance per price is key area where windows products are lacking big time eg. 329$ Ipad offers between 1.5 to 2 times the performance of Current surface go. Infact it matches 899$ surface pro x in terms of CPU performance. Imagine if intel or AMD delivers performance like that for surface go price segment , what a blockbuster product that would be. Unfortunately from Intel & amd expectations are low considering their past strategy of handicapping budget chips to sell more premium chips.
    Only Qualcomm can deliver better performance for lower end segment with it's future laptop chips under nuvia acquisition. although windows on arm is not perfect due to performance hit by emulation but still their is a hope that they will offer much better budget chips than intel or AMD for the windows platform.