SYSTEM ANALYZER

Rate My PC: Intel Core i5-12600KF + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090

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

92 / 100
ULTIMATE READY

Apex Performer

Top 8% 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%
VS
GPU
97%
PROCESSOR

Intel Core i5-12600KF

27,799 Benchmark Score
Top 12% Market Ranking
View Full Specs →
GRAPHICS CARD

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090

60,347 Benchmark Score
Top 3% 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
View All Games →

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

The Intel Core i5-12600KF paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is a desktop combination that places raw, high-resolution rendering power ahead of the CPU’s mid-range compute ceiling. The data shows a pairing where the GPU is the dominant force in almost every measurable scenario, yet the CPU’s 10-core hybrid design ensures that no modern workload leaves performance on the table. This is not a balanced duo; it is a GPU-first build with a capable supporting processor that excels in specific, heavily threaded tasks.

The combined benchmark percentile for this pair sits at 84, with the CPU landing in the 79th percentile among all processors and the GPU in the 88th percentile among all graphics cards. The measured average FPS across all tested games is 220.7, placing this pairing at rank 92 out of 3732 pairs, which is the top 2.5% of all recorded system combinations. This data indicates a system built for maximum frame delivery at any resolution, but the CPU’s lower percentile relative to the GPU signals a potential bottleneck in specific, CPU-intensive scenarios.

CPU Analysis

The Intel Core i5-12600KF is a 10-core, 16-thread processor built on the Alder Lake architecture using Intel’s 10 nm process. It features a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 4.90 GHz, with a TDP of 125 W. The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 1.25 MB of L2 per core, and a 20 MB shared L3 cache. The processor supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory in dual-channel mode and provides 20 PCIe Gen 4 lanes from the CPU. Its unlocked multiplier allows for overclocking, and it is designed for the Intel Socket 1700 platform.

Benchmark results show a processor that scales well with thread count. The 3DMark scores progress from 1016 in single-thread to 7956 in 16-thread tests, with a max-thread score of 7952 that is nearly identical to the 16-thread result. This indicates that the 10-core, 16-thread configuration is fully utilized by the 16-thread workload, but adding more threads beyond that yields no additional performance, as the max-thread score of 7952 is slightly lower than the 16-thread score of 7956. In Cinebench R23, the processor achieves 3302 points in single-core and 23391 points in multi-core, showing a strong single-core capability that is typical for gaming performance.

The PassMark multithread score of 27575 and the Geekbench multicore score of 12137 place this CPU in direct competition with several high-end processors from the previous generation. The nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D, has an average score of 27896, which is only 0.3% higher than the i5-12600KF’s average of 27799. The Intel Core i9-10900K scores 27872, a negligible 0.3% difference. This data shows that the i5-12600KF delivers compute performance that is statistically indistinguishable from the Ryzen 7 5800X3D, a processor with a large 3D V-Cache, and the i9-10900K, a 10-core part from the prior generation.

For real workloads, the single-thread performance of 3302 in Cinebench R23 and 3925 in PassMark single-thread indicates excellent responsiveness in lightly threaded applications like web browsing and office productivity. The multi-core scores, particularly the 23391 in Cinebench R23, make this CPU suitable for video editing and 3D rendering tasks, though it will not match the throughput of higher-core-count processors in the same generation. The data shows a processor that is a strong all-rounder, with the 79th percentile ranking confirming that it outperforms roughly 79% of all CPUs in the database.

Benchmark Performance

The CPU’s average benchmark score is 27799, which places it in the 79th percentile of all CPUs. This score is nearly identical to the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D’s average of 27896, with a delta of -0.3%, meaning the i5-12600KF is effectively tied with that processor. The Intel Core i9-10900K also sits within 0.3% of the i5-12600KF, making these three processors essentially equivalent in average compute performance. The AMD Ryzen 5 8500GE and AMD Ryzen 7 6800U are also within 0.3% of the i5-12600KF, showing a tight cluster of mid-range and previous-generation high-end CPUs.

The GPU’s average benchmark score is 60347, placing it in the 88th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the Intel Arc Pro A60, has an average score of 60326, a 0% delta, indicating identical average compute performance. The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 scores 60140, just 0.3% lower, while the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M scores 61896, which is 2.5% higher. The AMD Radeon PRO V710 scores 58657, 2.9% lower. This data shows that the RTX 4090’s average compute score is competitive with professional workstation cards, though the specific gaming-oriented tests show a different picture.

In gaming, the measured FPS at ultra settings reveals a GPU that excels at high refresh rates. At 1920x1080, the pair achieves 359 FPS in Counter-Strike 2 and 427 FPS in Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege. At 2560x1440, these numbers drop to 238 FPS and 280 FPS respectively, still far above the 144 Hz threshold. At 3840x2160, the pair maintains 133 FPS in Counter-Strike 2 and 154 FPS in Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege. The combined picture is that of a system capable of exceeding 100 FPS at 4K in most competitive titles, with the average FPS across all games at 220.7.

The GPU’s raw compute benchmarks are less impressive relative to its gaming performance. The PassMark G3D score of 38194 and the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 9223 show strong results, but the Geekbench Vulkan score of 271631 and OpenCL score of 255416 indicate the card’s compute capabilities are high but not exceptional when compared to professional workstation GPUs. The data suggests that this pairing is optimized for gaming rather than compute-heavy professional workloads, despite the GPU’s high memory bandwidth.

FAQ

Q: How does the i5-12600KF compare to the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D in average CPU performance?

A: The i5-12600KF has an average benchmark score of 27799, while the Ryzen 7 5800X3D scores 27896. This represents a delta of -0.3%, meaning the i5-12600KF is 0.3% slower in average compute performance, which is statistically negligible.

Q: What is the combined performance percentile of this CPU+GPU pairing?

A: The combined percentile for the Intel Core i5-12600KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is 84, placing the system in the top 16% of all recorded pairings in the database.

Q: What is the average FPS across all games for this pairing?

A: The measured average FPS across all tested games is 220.7, with the pair ranking 92 out of 3732 pairs, which is the top 2.5% of all recorded system combinations.

Q: What is the CPU’s single-thread performance in Cinebench R23?

A: The i5-12600KF scores 3302 points in Cinebench R23 single-core, which is a strong result for gaming and lightly threaded applications.

Q: How much memory bandwidth does the RTX 4090 have?

A: The RTX 4090 has a memory bandwidth of 1.01 TB/s, delivered via a 384-bit bus width using 24 GB of GDDR6X memory.

Q: What is the GPU’s percentile ranking among all GPUs?

A: The RTX 4090 sits in the 88th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 60347.

Q: Does the CPU support ECC memory?

A: No, the i5-12600KF does not support ECC memory, as indicated in the specifications.

Who Should Build It

This pairing is for users who prioritize gaming at high resolutions above all else. The data shows that at 2560x1440, the system delivers over 100 FPS in most tested titles, with exceptions like Ark: Survival Ascended at 32.1 FPS and Red Dead Redemption 2 at 72.6 FPS. At 3840x2160, the system still delivers playable frame rates in most games, with Cyberpunk 2077 at 50.6 FPS and Control at 77.4 FPS. Gamers with 144 Hz or 240 Hz monitors at 1080p or 1440p will find this system capable of pushing frame rates beyond their display’s refresh rate in competitive titles.

Content creators who work with video editing software that uses multi-threaded rendering will benefit from the CPU’s Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 23391. The 10 cores and 16 threads are sufficient for 4K video editing and moderate 3D rendering tasks. However, the 79th percentile CPU ranking suggests that users who primarily do CPU-bound work might find better value in a higher-core-count processor. The GPU’s 24 GB of VRAM and 1.01 TB/s bandwidth make it suitable for GPU-accelerated rendering in applications that support CUDA or OptiX.

Students and small business users who need a system for office productivity, web browsing, and light content creation will find this pairing overkill but not problematic. The CPU’s single-thread performance of 3925 in PassMark ensures snappy application loading, while the GPU’s raw power is unused in these workloads. The data shows a system that is best suited for enthusiasts who demand the highest frame rates at any resolution, with the CPU providing sufficient compute power for mainstream workloads without being the limiting factor in gaming.

Balance and Bottleneck

The data clearly shows that the RTX 4090 is the dominant component in this pairing, with the GPU’s 88th percentile ranking far exceeding the CPU’s 79th percentile. This imbalance is evident in the FPS scaling across resolutions. At 1920x1080, the CPU is more likely to be the limiting factor in games that are not heavily GPU-bound. For example, Counter-Strike 2 achieves 359 FPS at 1080p, but this drops to 238 FPS at 1440p and 133 FPS at 4K, showing that the GPU is still the primary driver of frame rate changes.

In CPU-intensive games, the bottleneck shifts. Ark: Survival Ascended achieves only 52.8 FPS at 1080p, which is far below the average FPS of 220.7. This indicates that the game is extremely demanding on both CPU and GPU, but the low frame rate at 1080p compared to 32.1 FPS at 1440p suggests the CPU is not the primary limitation; rather, the game’s engine is inefficient. Similarly, Microsoft Flight Simulator achieves 132.4 FPS at 1080p, which is below the average, indicating a CPU-heavy workload where the i5-12600KF’s performance is adequate but not exceptional.

The GPU’s compute scores show a different bottleneck. The PassMark G3D score of 38194 is high, but the PassMark DirectX 12 score of 150 is low relative to other GPUs. This suggests that the RTX 4090’s driver and API overhead may limit performance in specific DirectX 12 workloads, though the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 9223 indicates strong raw DX12 performance. The data indicates that the CPU will bottleneck the GPU in scenarios where the game’s draw calls exceed the CPU’s single-thread throughput, but this is rare given the CPU’s 1016 3DMark single-thread score.

Usage Scenarios

High-refresh gaming: This system is built for it. At 1920x1080, the pair achieves 359 FPS in Counter-Strike 2 and 427 FPS in Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege, far exceeding 240 Hz displays. At 2560x1440, the pair still delivers 238 FPS in Counter-Strike 2 and 280 FPS in Rainbow Six Siege, making it ideal for 144 Hz or 240 Hz monitors at this resolution.

Streaming: The CPU’s 10 cores and 16 threads provide enough headroom for encoding while gaming, as evidenced by the 3DMark 16-thread score of 7956. The PassMark data compression score of 343231 indicates strong performance in compression workloads, which is relevant for stream encoding. The GPU’s NVENC encoder is not benchmarked in the data, but the GPU’s compute scores suggest it can handle encoding alongside rendering.

Video editing: The Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 23391 and the Geekbench multicore score of 12137 show a CPU capable of handling 4K video editing timelines. The PassMark integer math score of 87830 and floating-point math score of 67074 indicate strong performance in video processing tasks. The GPU’s 24 GB VRAM is sufficient for large project files and effects.

3D rendering: The CPU’s PassMark extended instructions score of 22003 and the Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 23391 make it capable of CPU-based rendering, though not at the level of higher-core-count processors. The GPU’s FP32 performance of 82.58 TFLOPS and its 128 RT cores make it exceptionally fast for GPU-based rendering in applications that support CUDA or RTX acceleration.

Software development: The CPU’s single-thread performance of 3925 in PassMark and 3302 in Cinebench R23 single-core ensures fast compilation of single-threaded code. The multi-core scores allow for parallel builds, though the 10-core count is moderate. The GPU’s compute capabilities are useful for machine learning development, as indicated by the Geekbench OpenCL score of 255416.

Student and office work: The CPU’s PassMark single-thread score of 3925 ensures snappy response in word processors, spreadsheets, and web browsers. The system’s GPU power is entirely unnecessary for this use case, but the CPU’s 79th percentile ranking means it will handle any office workload without slowdown. The data shows this is a system that will never feel slow in productivity tasks.

Upgrade Path and Platform

The i5-12600KF is built on the Intel Socket 1700 platform, which supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory. The CPU provides 20 PCIe Gen 4 lanes, which is sufficient for the RTX 4090’s PCIe 4.0 x16 interface. The GPU requires a 850 W power supply, as indicated in the suggested PSU, and the CPU has a TDP of 125 W. The combined power draw is substantial, but the data does not provide a combined wattage figure.

A sensible next upgrade for this platform would be to a higher-core-count processor on the same socket, such as a 16-core or 24-core part from the same generation. The data does not list specific alternatives, but the socket’s compatibility with multiple processor generations is well-known. The memory support for both DDR4 and DDR5 means users can choose either memory type, though the data does not specify which provides better performance.

The GPU is listed as end-of-life, with a successor in the GeForce 50 series. This means that while the RTX 4090 is currently powerful, it is at the end of its production cycle. The CPU is still listed as active production, so there is no immediate need to upgrade the platform. The PCIe 4.0 support on the CPU is sufficient for the RTX 4090, as the GPU also uses PCIe 4.0 x16. Future GPUs may use PCIe 5.0, but the data does not indicate the CPU’s support for that standard.

Build Overview

This is a desktop build that pairs a mid-range 12th-generation Intel Core i5 processor with a flagship NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card. The CPU is a 10-core, 16-thread part that scores in the 79th percentile of all CPUs, while the GPU is a 24 GB GDDR6X card with a 384-bit memory bus that scores in the 88th percentile of all GPUs. The combined percentile is 84, indicating a system that is better than 84% of all recorded CPU+GPU pairings.

The pair’s average FPS across all games is 220.7, placing it at rank 92 out of 3732 pairs. This is a top-tier gaming system that excels at high refresh rates and high resolutions. The CPU’s performance is sufficient to avoid being a bottleneck in most games, as evidenced by the FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K. The GPU is the clear driver of performance, and the system is best described as a GPU-dominant build with a capable supporting CPU.

GPU Analysis

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture using TSMC’s 5 nm process, with 76,300 million transistors on a 609 mm² die. It features 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, delivering a bandwidth of 1.01 TB/s. The GPU has 16384 shading units, 512 texture mapping units, and 176 raster operation units. It includes 128 RT cores for ray tracing and 512 tensor cores for AI workloads. The base clock is 2235 MHz with a boost clock of 2520 MHz, and the memory runs at 1313 MHz, effective 21 Gbps.

The GPU’s benchmark scores show strong compute performance. The PassMark G3D score is 38194, placing it in the 88th percentile of all GPUs. The Geekbench Vulkan score is 271631, and the OpenCL score is 255416. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score is 9223, indicating strong DirectX 12 gaming performance. The pixel rate is 443.5 GPixel/s, and the texture rate is 1,290.2 GTexel/s, with FP32 performance of 82.58 TFLOPS.

For rendering, the GPU’s 24 GB of VRAM is a significant advantage, allowing for large textures and complex scenes without running out of memory. The 1.01 TB/s bandwidth ensures that texture streaming is not a bottleneck. The 128 RT cores accelerate ray-traced workloads, and the 512 tensor cores enable DLSS and other AI-based features. The data shows that this GPU is designed for maximum rasterization and ray tracing performance, making it ideal for 4K gaming and professional visualization.

The GPU’s PassMark DirectX 12 score of 150 is notably low compared to its G3D score, which suggests that the specific test conditions may not fully utilize the GPU’s architecture. However, the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 9223 confirms that the GPU excels in modern DX12 games. The GPU is triple-slot in width, 304 mm long, and requires a 1x 16-pin power connector, with a TDP of 450 W. The suggested PSU is 850 W, which provides enough headroom for the CPU and GPU when overclocked, though the data does not specify exact power draw under load.