SYSTEM ANALYZER

Rate My PC: Intel Core i5-12600K + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090

Get a comprehensive performance analysis of your gaming rig with detailed benchmarks, bottleneck detection, and upgrade recommendations

Build Configuration

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PROCESSOR (CPU)

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GRAPHICS CARD (GPU)

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93 Score

Top 7% Ranking

93 / 100

ULTIMATE READY

Apex Performer

Top 7% of systems. Capable of 4K Ultra gaming and advanced rendering.

4K 60+ FPSVR ReadyRay Tracing

System Balance Analysis

CPU vs GPU performance ratio

Well Balanced

CPU

88%

GPU

98%

PROCESSOR

Intel Core i5-12600K

27,578 Benchmark Score

Top 12% Market Ranking

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GRAPHICS CARD

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090

79,842 Benchmark Score

Top 2% Market Ranking

View Full Specs →

Market Position

How your build compares to others

Budget

0-30

Mid-Range

30-60

High-End

60-85

Enthusiast

85-100

Your Build

Game Performance Benchmarks

Real-world 4K FPS in popular titles

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Performance Insights

Tips to maximize your system

Optimal Performance

Your system is in the top tier. You can run any modern game at maximum settings.

4K Gaming Ready

Consider a 4K 144Hz monitor to fully utilize your hardware capabilities.

Compatible Games See what you can play Compare CPUs Find upgrades Compare GPUs Find upgrades

Performance Tiers Explained

90-100

Ultimate

4K Ultra gaming, VR ready, ray tracing enabled, professional workloads

4K 60+ FPS VR Ready

70-89

High-End

1440p Ultra or 4K High settings, excellent for modern AAA titles

1440p Ultra 4K High

50-69

Mid-Range

1080p Ultra or 1440p Medium, great value for most gamers

1080p Ultra 1440p Med

30-49

Entry Level

1080p Medium settings, suitable for eSports and older titles

1080p Med eSports

0-29

Legacy

Basic gaming, older titles, consider upgrading for modern games

720p-1080p Low Older Games

# Performance Analysis: Intel Core i5-12600K + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090

This pairing combines Intel's 12th-generation Alder Lake mid-range desktop processor with NVIDIA's flagship Blackwell-architecture graphics card, creating a desktop build that occupies an unusual performance tier. The data set for this combination contains no measured FPS rows — the FACT PACK lists an empty `measuredFpsUltraByGame` object — so all frame-rate discussion below is estimated from the benchmark scores of each component rather than from direct gameplay testing. The CPU sits at the 79th percentile among all processors, while the GPU reaches the 92nd percentile among all graphics cards, and the combined build lands at the 86th percentile overall. This is a system where the graphics card is dramatically more powerful than the processor in relative terms, and the benchmark data reflects that imbalance clearly.

Gaming Performance

Because no measured FPS data exists for this exact CPU+GPU combination, frame rates must be inferred from the underlying benchmark scores. The RTX 5090's raw compute capabilities — 104.8 TFLOPS of FP32 throughput, 1.79 TB/s of memory bandwidth, and 32 GB of GDDR7 VRAM — place it in a class that can drive even the most demanding titles at maximum settings. The GPU's 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 18355 and its Passmark G3D score of 39650 indicate exceptional rasterization performance, while the Geekbench Vulkan score of 376728 suggests strong API-level efficiency.

For 1080p gaming, the bottleneck will almost certainly be the CPU. The i5-12600K's single-thread score of 1016 in 3DMark and 1907 in Cinebench R23 single-core are respectable for a mid-range desktop chip, but they are not at the level needed to fully feed a GPU of this caliber at lower resolutions. Expect high frame rates, but with the CPU limiting peak FPS in esports titles and other CPU-bound scenarios. At 1440p, the balance shifts slightly toward the GPU, and at 4K the RTX 5090's massive bandwidth and shading power become the dominant factor, with the CPU rarely being the limiting component.

The estimated frame rates at ultra settings would be very high across most titles, with the GPU's 423.6 GPixel/s pixel rate and 1,636.8 GTexel/s texture rate providing ample headroom for 4K resolution with heavy post-processing effects. The 32 GB VRAM capacity means texture quality settings can be maxed out without concern for memory overflow, even in titles with extremely large texture packs. Ray tracing performance should be exceptional given the 170 RT cores and the Blackwell architecture's dedicated ray tracing hardware, though no specific ray tracing benchmark scores are present in the data to quantify this directly.

Upgrade Path and Platform

The Intel Core i5-12600K uses the LGA 1700 socket, which is the platform for Intel's 12th, 13th, and 14th generation desktop processors. This means the motherboard can accommodate a wide range of CPU upgrades without changing the board, from the current 10-core Alder Lake chip up to higher-core-count models from subsequent generations. The CPU supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory, giving builders flexibility in choosing memory technology, though the dual-channel memory bus means bandwidth is shared across two channels regardless of generation.

The PCIe interface is Gen 4 with 20 lanes from the CPU, which is sufficient for the RTX 5090's PCIe 5.0 x16 bus interface — the card will run at Gen 4 speeds, which provides adequate bandwidth for most workloads, though the theoretical maximum of the card's interface is higher. The system's power requirements are substantial: the GPU alone has a TDP of 575 W and the CPU draws 125 W, leading to a suggested PSU rating of 950 W. The GPU requires a single 16-pin power connector, and the card measures 304 mm in length, 137 mm in height, and 40 mm in width, so case compatibility must be verified.

A sensible next upgrade would be to replace the i5-12600K with a higher-core-count LGA 1700 processor from a later generation, which would better balance the system's compute capabilities against the GPU's enormous throughput. Alternatively, adding more memory or faster DDR5 modules could improve overall system responsiveness, though the CPU's dual-channel design limits the gains from additional memory channels. The platform itself is mature, with the production status of both components listed as "Active," meaning ongoing availability and driver support.

CPU Analysis

The Intel Core i5-12600K is a 10-core, 16-thread processor based on the Alder Lake architecture, built on Intel's 10 nm process node. The chip has a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 4.90 GHz, with a 125 W TDP. The core configuration uses Intel's hybrid design, combining performance and efficiency cores, though the FACT PACK does not specify the exact split. The L3 cache is 20 MB shared, with 80 KB of L1 cache per core and 1.25 MB of L2 cache per core. The die size is 215 mm², and the CPU includes integrated UHD Graphics 770, which provides basic display output without a discrete GPU.

Benchmark results show a processor that performs well in both single-threaded and multi-threaded workloads. The 3DMark scores scale from 1989 for 2 threads to 7966 for max threads, indicating reasonable multi-threading efficiency, though the jump from 8 threads (6144) to max threads (7966) shows diminishing returns beyond 8 threads. Cinebench R23 scores of 1907 single-core and 17491 multi-core confirm this pattern, with the multi-core score being roughly 9.2 times the single-core score across 16 threads. Geekbench scores of 2190 single-core and 12599 multi-core align with these results.

For real workloads, this CPU handles everyday productivity tasks with ease, as evidenced by Passmark single-thread score of 3926 and integer math score of 87776. Data compression (344071 in Passmark) and encryption (18485) performance are strong for a mid-range chip. The floating-point math score of 67217 indicates solid scientific computing capability, while the extended instructions score of 22002 shows good SIMD performance. The CPU's 79th percentile ranking places it above the median but below the top-tier processors, and it matches the AMD Ryzen 7 5700X exactly with a 0% delta, sits 0.2% above the Ryzen 7 5800, 0.2% below the Ryzen 5 7600X, and 0.3% above the Intel Core Ultra 5 125H.

Usage Scenarios

High-refresh gaming: At 1080p and 1440p, the CPU's single-thread performance (1016 in 3DMark single-thread, 3926 in Passmark single-thread) is adequate for high frame rates, but the GPU's massive throughput means the CPU will likely cap FPS in less demanding scenes. At 4K, the GPU becomes the primary driver, and the system should deliver very high frame rates in most titles, though the exact numbers are not measured.

Streaming: The 10-core, 16-thread configuration provides enough parallel processing power to handle game capture and encoding simultaneously, with a Passmark multithread score of 27608 indicating solid multitasking capability. The GPU's tensor cores (680) could also offload encoding tasks, though the data does not specify encoder capabilities.

Video editing: Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 17491 and Passmark floating-point score of 67217 suggest good performance for rendering and effects work. The 32 GB of VRAM on the GPU allows for large timelines and high-resolution previews without memory pressure, while the CPU's 20 MB L3 cache helps with sequential data processing.

3D rendering: The GPU's 104.8 TFLOPS FP32 performance and 21760 shading units make it a rendering powerhouse, with the CPU's multi-threaded scores providing adequate scene preparation and geometry processing. The combination should handle complex scenes with high polygon counts and heavy texture usage, though CPU-bound rendering tasks would benefit from a higher-core-count processor.

Software development: The CPU's balanced single-threaded and multi-threaded performance (Geekbench 2190 single, 12599 multi) supports fast compilation and code analysis, while the GPU's compute capability (Passmark GPU compute score of 26756) accelerates parallel workloads like machine learning inference and data processing.

Student and office work: This system is vastly overprovisioned for typical productivity tasks. The CPU's single-thread score of 3926 in Passmark handles document processing, spreadsheets, and web browsing effortlessly, while the GPU's power is entirely unnecessary for such workloads. The 125 W CPU TDP and 575 W GPU TDP also mean this build consumes far more power than a student or office machine would require.

Balance and Bottleneck

The data reveals a significant performance imbalance between the CPU and GPU. The CPU sits at the 79th percentile among all processors, while the GPU reaches the 92nd percentile among all graphics cards — a 13-percentage-point gap. This suggests that in many workloads, particularly gaming at lower resolutions and lightly threaded applications, the CPU will be the limiting factor. The GPU's enormous compute capacity (104.8 TFLOPS) and memory bandwidth (1.79 TB/s) are far beyond what the CPU can feed in real-time scenarios.

Evidence from benchmark scaling supports this: the CPU's 3DMark scores show a plateau from 8 threads (6144) to max threads (7966), indicating that the processor cannot effectively utilize more than 8 threads for many tasks. In gaming, where frame generation depends on the CPU's ability to submit draw calls and update game state, this limitation will cap FPS even though the GPU has ample headroom. The GPU's Passmark G3D score of 39650 is 1.44 times the CPU's avgBenchmarkScore of 27578, suggesting the GPU is roughly 44% more powerful in raw benchmark terms.

Conversely, in GPU-bound workloads like 4K gaming with maximum settings or GPU-accelerated rendering, the GPU becomes the limiting factor, and the CPU's performance is sufficient. The combined percentile of 86 indicates that the overall system outperforms the majority of builds, but the gap between component percentiles suggests that upgrading the CPU to a higher-tier LGA 1700 processor would yield better balance. The GPU's nearest rivals — the Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB (0.3% ahead), Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB (0.6% ahead), and Radeon RX 6850M XT (1.1% ahead) — are all data-center or mobile parts, indicating the RTX 5090 is in a performance class with few desktop equivalents.

GPU Analysis

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture using TSMC's 5 nm process, with a massive 92,200 million transistors on a 750 mm² die. The GPU has 21760 shading units, 680 texture mapping units, and 176 render output units, along with 170 RT cores and 680 tensor cores. The memory subsystem consists of 32 GB of GDDR7 on a 512-bit bus, delivering 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth. The base clock is 2017 MHz with a boost clock of 2407 MHz, and memory runs at 1750 MHz (28 Gbps effective).

The benchmark scores reflect the GPU's top-tier positioning. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 18355 demonstrates strong DX12 performance, while the Geekbench OpenCL score of 334370 and Vulkan score of 376728 show excellent compute and API efficiency. The Passmark G3D score of 39650 places it in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs, and the GPU compute score of 26756 indicates strong general-purpose compute capability. The DirectX 10, 11, and 12 scores (226, 341, and 185 respectively) are legacy tests that do not fully capture the card's modern performance.

For rendering workloads, the GPU's FP32 throughput of 104.8 TFLOPS and FP16 performance of 104.8 TFLOPS (1:1 ratio) provide massive compute headroom for 3D rendering, scientific simulation, and machine learning. The pixel rate of 423.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 1,636.8 GTexel/s ensure that even at 4K resolution with heavy post-processing, the GPU can maintain high fill rates. The 680 tensor cores accelerate AI workloads, and the 170 RT cores provide dedicated hardware for ray-traced rendering. The card supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, covering all modern graphics APIs.

Who Should Build It

This build targets users who prioritize GPU performance above all else and are willing to pair a mid-range CPU with a flagship graphics card. Gamers playing at 4K resolution with maximum settings will benefit most from the RTX 5090's capabilities, as the GPU's 32 GB VRAM and 1.79 TB/s bandwidth handle the most demanding textures and effects without compromise. Content creators working with large video files, high-resolution images, or 3D scenes will find the GPU's compute power invaluable, though they should be aware that CPU-bound tasks like video encoding may be limited by the i5-12600K's 10 cores.

Software developers working on GPU-accelerated applications, machine learning models, or parallel computing projects will appreciate the tensor cores and compute performance, while the CPU's solid single-threaded performance supports compilation and code analysis. Small business workstations running data analysis, financial modeling, or CAD software can leverage the GPU's compute capability, though the power requirements (575 W GPU TDP, 950 W suggested PSU) may be excessive for typical office environments.

Students in engineering, computer science, or digital arts programs could benefit from the GPU's rendering and compute performance, but the system's cost and power consumption make it impractical for most educational settings. The build is not well-suited for users who primarily run CPU-intensive workloads like software compilation, scientific computing on the CPU, or heavy multitasking, as the i5-12600K's 16 threads and 79th percentile ranking will be the limiting factor. For users who want a balanced system, upgrading the CPU to a higher-core-count LGA 1700 part would be a more sensible investment.

FAQ

Q: What is the combined percentile ranking of this CPU+GPU build?

A: The combined percentile is 86, meaning this system outperforms 86% of all builds in the benchmark database.

Q: How does the i5-12600K compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The CPU matches the AMD Ryzen 7 5700X exactly with a 0% delta, sits 0.2% above the AMD Ryzen 7 5800, 0.2% below the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X, and 0.3% above the Intel Core Ultra 5 125H.

Q: What memory types does the i5-12600K support?

A: The CPU supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration, giving builders flexibility in memory choice.

Q: What is the RTX 5090's memory bandwidth and capacity?

A: The GPU has 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, delivering 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth.

Q: What PSU wattage is suggested for this build?

A: The suggested PSU is 950 W, based on the GPU's 575 W TDP and the CPU's 125 W TDP.

Q: Does the RTX 5090 support ray tracing?

A: Yes, the GPU includes 170 RT cores dedicated to ray tracing, and it supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), which includes ray tracing features.

Q: What is the production status of both components?

A: Both the Intel Core i5-12600K and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 are listed as "Active," meaning they are currently in production and available.

Benchmark Performance

The CPU's average benchmark score is 27578, placing it at the 79th percentile of all CPUs. The most representative scores include Cinebench R23 multi-core at 17491 and single-core at 1907, Geekbench multi-core at 12599 and single-core at 2190, and 3DMark max threads at 7966. The Passmark multithread score of 27608 and single-thread score of 3926 provide additional context, showing a processor that handles both lightly threaded and heavily threaded workloads competently.

The GPU's average benchmark score is 79842, placing it at the 92nd percentile of all GPUs. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 18355 and Geekbench Vulkan score of 376728 are the most notable results, with the Passmark G3D score of 39650 confirming its top-tier positioning. The GPU compute score of 26756 indicates strong general-purpose compute performance, while the OpenCL score of 334370 shows excellent compatibility with OpenCL workloads.

The combined picture shows a system where the GPU is the dominant component, with the CPU's 79th percentile ranking being respectable but not elite. The combined percentile of 86 reflects the GPU's high standing, but the 13-percentage-point gap between component percentiles suggests that the CPU is the weak link in this pairing. In GPU-bound workloads, the system will perform exceptionally well, while in CPU-bound scenarios, the GPU's potential will be underutilized.

Build Overview

This is a desktop build pairing the Intel Core i5-12600K with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090. The CPU is a 10-core, 16-thread Alder Lake processor with a 3.70 GHz base clock and 4.90 GHz boost clock, while the GPU is a Blackwell 2.0 architecture card with 32 GB of GDDR7 memory and 104.8 TFLOPS of FP32 performance. The combined percentile of 86 places this system in the upper tier of all builds, though the component percentiles (CPU at 79, GPU at 92) reveal a significant performance imbalance.

The build class is desktop, and both components are currently in active production. The CPU was released in November 2021 with a launch MSRP of $289, while the GPU was released in January 2025 with a launch MSRP of $1,999. The system requires a 950 W PSU, uses a single 16-pin power connector for the GPU, and supports PCIe Gen 4 from the CPU (with the GPU's PCIe 5.0 interface running at Gen 4 speeds). The overall tier is high-end, driven almost entirely by the GPU's exceptional performance, with the CPU providing adequate but not exceptional support. This is a system built for GPU-intensive workloads, and it excels in those scenarios while leaving CPU-bound tasks comparatively underserved.

Rate My PC: Intel Core i5-12600K + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090

Apex Performer

System Balance Analysis

Intel Core i5-12600K

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090

Market Position

Game Performance Benchmarks

Cyberpunk 2077

Red Dead Redemption 2

Microsoft Flight Simulator

Control

Call of Duty: Warzone

Fortnite

Performance Insights

Optimal Performance

4K Gaming Ready

Performance Tiers Explained

Ultimate

High-End

Mid-Range

Entry Level

Legacy

Gaming Performance

Upgrade Path and Platform

CPU Analysis

Usage Scenarios

Balance and Bottleneck

GPU Analysis

Who Should Build It

FAQ

Benchmark Performance

Build Overview

4K Gaming Performance

Cyberpunk 2077

Red Dead Redemption 2

Microsoft Flight Simulator

Control

Call of Duty: Warzone

Fortnite

1440p Gaming Performance

Cyberpunk 2077

Red Dead Redemption 2

Microsoft Flight Simulator

Control

Call of Duty: Warzone

Fortnite

1080p Gaming Performance

Cyberpunk 2077

Red Dead Redemption 2

Microsoft Flight Simulator

Control

Call of Duty: Warzone

Fortnite

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