SYSTEM ANALYZER

Rate My PC: Intel Core i9-12900E + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 OEM

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

83 / 100
HIGH-END

Power Build

Top 17% of systems. Excellent for 1440p Ultra or 4K High gaming.

1440p Ultra4K High

System Balance Analysis

CPU vs GPU performance ratio
Well Balanced
CPU
78%
VS
GPU
89%
PROCESSOR

Intel Core i9-12900E

6,611 Benchmark Score
Top 22% Market Ranking
View Full Specs →
GRAPHICS CARD

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 OEM

15,199 Benchmark Score
Top 11% 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

Strong Performance

Excellent for 1440p gaming. Most games will run at high/ultra settings smoothly.

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 i9-12900E paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 OEM is a desktop build that combines a high-core-count Alder Lake processor with an entry-level Ampere graphics card. The CPU sits at the 62nd percentile among all processors, while the GPU ranks at the 57th percentile among all GPUs, placing the overall combination at the 60th percentile. This pairing creates a significant performance asymmetry where the processor is substantially more capable than the graphics card, making the GPU the primary constraint in most graphically intensive tasks.

Usage Scenarios

High-refresh gaming — This system is a poor match for high-refresh 1080p gaming in demanding titles. The RTX 3050 OEM’s benchmark scores, including a Geekbench OpenCL score of 60740 and a Passmark G3D score of 11857, indicate it is capable of playable frame rates, but not of pushing 144Hz or higher in modern games. The GPU’s performance is within 0.2% of the AMD Radeon RX 7600 and 0.6% below the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060, which are mid-range cards at best. The CPU is not the limiting factor here; the GPU will saturate well before the i9-12900E’s capabilities are reached.

Streaming — The CPU is the star for streaming workloads. With 16 cores and 24 threads based on Alder Lake architecture, the i9-12900E delivers a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 23529, which is 0.4% ahead of the Intel Core i5-13500E and 0.1% ahead of the Intel Core i9-10940X. This provides ample headroom for software encoding while gaming, though the GPU’s 72 tensor cores and 18 RT cores can also handle NVENC-based encoding. The 65W TDP of the CPU suggests it can sustain heavy multi-threaded loads without extreme cooling requirements, making it a solid foundation for a single-PC streaming setup where the game runs on the RTX 3050 OEM and the stream encoding is offloaded to either the CPU or the GPU’s dedicated hardware.

Video editing — Multi-core performance is excellent for video editing timelines and export workloads. The i9-12900E’s Cinebench R20 multi-core score of 9882 and Geekbench multi-core score of 10280 indicate strong parallel processing capabilities for rendering previews and final exports. However, the GPU’s 8 GB of GDDR6 memory with 224.0 GB/s bandwidth and 8.087 TFLOPS FP32 performance will slow down GPU-accelerated effects and color grading compared to faster cards. The RTX 3050 OEM’s Passmark GPU Compute score of 5779 shows it can handle acceleration tasks, but it sits 0.5% below the AMD Radeon 680M in average benchmark score, meaning effects-heavy timelines will see the GPU as a bottleneck.

3D rendering — The CPU dominates rendering workloads that are primarily CPU-bound, such as single-frame renders in Blender or V-Ray. The i9-12900E’s Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 23529 places it 0.1% above the Intel Core i9-10940X, a previous-generation HEDT chip, and 0.4% above the Core i5-13500E. For GPU-accelerated rendering, the RTX 3050 OEM is limited by its 8 GB VRAM and 128-bit memory bus, which will constrain scene complexity and texture sizes. The GPU’s 72 tensor cores can accelerate AI-based denoising, but the overall render throughput will be well below what a higher-tier GPU would provide.

Software development — The CPU’s 24 threads are excellent for compiling large codebases and running multiple virtual machines or containers simultaneously. The Geekbench single-core score of 1775 and Cinebench R20 single-core score of 1394 indicate strong per-thread performance for build tools that are not fully parallelized. The 30 MB of shared L3 cache helps with frequently accessed data in development workflows. The GPU is sufficient for basic UI rendering and running multiple monitors, but it offers little advantage over integrated graphics for most development tasks, which are CPU and memory bound.

Student and office work — This system is massively overprovisioned for typical student or office tasks like document editing, spreadsheets, and web browsing. The i9-12900E’s single-core performance is more than adequate for responsive application use, and the 16 cores ensure smooth multitasking even with dozens of browser tabs and office applications open. The RTX 3050 OEM adds no practical benefit for these workloads, and the system would consume more power than necessary compared to a more balanced build. The UHD Graphics 770 integrated GPU is present as a fallback, but the discrete card will be used for any display output.

FAQ

Q: Is the CPU or GPU stronger in this build?

A: The CPU is significantly stronger. The i9-12900E ranks at the 62nd percentile among all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 6611, while the RTX 3050 OEM ranks at the 57th percentile among all GPUs with an average score of 15199. The CPU’s closest rival, the Intel Core i5-13400E, scores 6638, which is 0.4% higher, showing the CPU is a solid mid-to-high tier part. The GPU’s closest rival, the RTX 2060, scores 15290, which is 0.6% higher, indicating the GPU is barely above average.

Q: What resolution is this GPU best suited for?

A: Based on the GPU’s benchmark scores, the RTX 3050 OEM is suited for 1080p gaming with moderate settings. Its Passmark DirectX 12 score of 58 and DirectX 11 score of 86 suggest it can handle modern titles at 1080p, but its 8 GB VRAM and 128-bit bus will limit performance at higher resolutions. No measured FPS data exists for this combination, so these are estimates derived from the GPU’s overall benchmark position.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The i9-12900E has an average benchmark score of 6611. It is 0.1% faster than the Intel Pentium Gold G6405 and Intel Core i9-10940X, both scoring 6605, and 0.4% faster than the Intel Core i5-13500E, which scores 6586. It is 0.4% slower than the Intel Core i5-13400E, which scores 6638. These deltas are negligible, meaning the CPU performs nearly identically to these four rivals in overall benchmarks.

Q: What is the GPU’s memory configuration?

A: The RTX 3050 OEM has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The memory clock is 1750 MHz, which translates to 14 Gbps effective. This configuration is typical for an entry-level card and will limit performance in VRAM-heavy applications.

Q: Does this CPU support overclocking?

A: Yes, the i9-12900E has an unlocked multiplier, as indicated by the `multiplierUnlocked` field being true. This allows users to increase the clock speed beyond the 5.00 GHz boost clock, subject to adequate cooling and motherboard support on the Intel Socket 1700 platform.

Q: What PCIe generation does the CPU support?

A: The CPU supports PCIe Gen 5 with 20 lanes from the CPU itself. The GPU uses a PCIe 4.0 x8 interface, which is compatible with the CPU’s PCIe Gen 5 slots but will run at the lower generation speed. This is unlikely to bottleneck the RTX 3050 OEM given its performance tier.

Q: What is the production status of the GPU?

A: The RTX 3050 OEM is marked as end-of-life, meaning NVIDIA has ceased production. The CPU is still marked as active in production. This suggests the GPU may be harder to find new, while the CPU remains available.

Balance and Bottleneck

The performance data clearly shows a CPU-heavy imbalance. The i9-12900E’s average benchmark score of 6611 places it at the 62nd percentile, which is solidly above average. The RTX 3050 OEM’s average score of 15199 places it at the 57th percentile. While both are above the median, the CPU is proportionally stronger relative to its peers than the GPU is relative to its peers.

In gaming workloads, the GPU is the definitive bottleneck. The RTX 3050 OEM’s Passmark G3D score of 11857 is the most relevant metric for game rendering. The GPU’s performance is 0.5% below the AMD Radeon 680M and 0.6% below the RTX 2060, which are not considered high-end cards. No measured FPS data exists for this exact combination, but based on these scores, the GPU will limit frame rates in most games. The CPU’s single-core score of 1775 in Geekbench is sufficient to feed the GPU at 1080p in most titles, but the GPU will reach its limits first.

In multi-threaded workloads like 3D rendering, video encoding, or software compilation, the CPU takes the lead role. The i9-12900E’s Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 23529 is the strongest indicator of its capability. The CPU will not be the limiting factor here; instead, the GPU’s compute performance (Passmark GPU Compute score of 5779) may slow down GPU-accelerated portions of these workloads. For pure CPU rendering, the system performs at a level comparable to the Core i9-10940X, which is 0.1% slower in average score.

For mixed workloads like gaming while streaming, the balance shifts dynamically. The CPU handles encoding and game logic, while the GPU renders frames. The 24 threads of the i9-12900E provide ample headroom for both tasks simultaneously. The potential bottleneck is the GPU’s frame rendering, which will cap the overall gaming experience. The 65W TDP of the CPU is notably low for a 16-core chip, suggesting efficient power delivery and less thermal pressure on the system as a whole.

Who Should Build It

This build is for users who prioritize CPU-heavy workloads and only need entry-level GPU capability. Content creators working on video editing or 3D rendering that is CPU-bound will benefit from the i9-12900E’s 24 threads and 23529 Cinebench R23 multi-core score. Software developers compiling large projects or running many virtual machines will find the 16 cores and 30 MB L3 cache advantageous. The GPU is sufficient for basic graphics acceleration and light gaming at 1080p, but it is not a gaming-focused part.

Gamers at 1080p with modest expectations might find this system acceptable. The RTX 3050 OEM can run esports titles and older games at playable frame rates, based on its Passmark scores. However, for 1440p or high-refresh 1080p gaming, the GPU will disappoint. The build is not suitable for 4K gaming under any circumstances.

Students and office workers should not buy this system. It is overkill for document processing and web browsing, and the GPU adds no value for these tasks. Small business workstations that run multi-threaded applications like data analysis, financial modeling, or CAD software that is CPU-intensive could be a good fit. The CPU’s 62nd percentile ranking and strong multi-core scores justify the investment. The GPU’s 57th percentile ranking is acceptable for workstation tasks that require basic GPU acceleration, like 2D CAD or simple 3D previews.

Gaming Performance

There are no measured FPS rows for the Intel Core i9-12900E + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 OEM combination in the data. All frame rate expectations are estimates derived from the GPU’s benchmark scores. The RTX 3050 OEM’s Passmark G3D score of 11857 and Geekbench Vulkan score of 57103 provide a baseline for gaming capability. The GPU is 0.2% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 7600 and 0.6% below the RTX 2060 in average benchmark score, which places it in the entry-level to lower mid-range tier.

At 1080p with ultra settings, this GPU will likely struggle with recent AAA titles, achieving frame rates in the 30-50 FPS range based on its DirectX 12 score of 58. Lowering settings to high or medium will improve playability, but the 8 GB VRAM and 128-bit memory bus will limit texture quality and resolution scaling. Esports titles like CS:GO or Valorant, which are less demanding, could run at higher frame rates, but no specific data supports this. At 1440p, the GPU will be severely constrained, and most modern games will require low settings to reach 60 FPS, which is unlikely given the GPU’s overall score.

The CPU’s single-core performance is not a limiting factor in gaming. The i9-12900E’s Geekbench single-core score of 1775 is strong, and the boost clock of 5.00 GHz ensures high responsiveness. In CPU-bound games or at low resolutions where the GPU is less stressed, the CPU will not hold back performance. However, the GPU will always be the first component to reach its limit in gaming workloads.

GPU Analysis

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 OEM is built on the Ampere architecture using the GA106 chip on an 8 nm process from Samsung. It has 12,000 million transistors on a 276 mm² die, giving a transistor density of 43.5 million per mm². The card has 2304 shading units, 72 texture mapping units, and 32 raster output units. It includes 18 RT cores and 72 tensor cores, which support ray tracing and AI-based features like DLSS. The FP32 performance is 8.087 TFLOPS, and FP16 is also 8.087 TFLOPS with a 1:1 ratio.

The memory subsystem consists of 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, yielding 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The base clock is 1515 MHz with a boost clock of 1755 MHz. The memory operates at 1750 MHz, or 14 Gbps effective. These specifications place the GPU at the 57th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 15199. Its closest rivals are the RX 7600 (0.2% faster) and the RTX 2060 (0.6% faster), both of which are older or lower-tier cards.

For rendering, the 18 RT cores provide hardware-accelerated ray tracing, but the limited 8.087 TFLOPS of compute power means ray tracing performance will be low. The Passmark DirectX 12 score of 58 and DirectX 11 score of 86 indicate the GPU can handle modern APIs, but with limited headroom. The 72 tensor cores enable DLSS, which can boost frame rates in supported games by rendering at a lower resolution and upscaling. The GPU’s pixel rate is 56.16 GPixel/s and texture rate is 126.4 GTexel/s, which are modest figures for 1080p gaming. The card’s TDP is 130W with a suggested PSU of 300W, making it power-efficient for its class. The GPU is end-of-life, meaning it is no longer in production.

CPU Analysis

The Intel Core i9-12900E is a 16-core, 24-thread processor based on the Alder Lake architecture on Intel’s 10 nm process. It has a base clock of 2.30 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz. The TDP is 65W, which is remarkably low for a 16-core chip. The CPU uses the Intel Socket 1700 and supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration. It has 80 KB of L1 cache per core, 1.25 MB of L2 cache per core, and 30 MB of shared L3 cache. It supports PCIe Gen 5 with 20 lanes from the CPU and includes UHD Graphics 770 integrated graphics. The multiplier is unlocked, allowing overclocking. The launch MSRP was $494.

Benchmark results are strong for a 65W chip. The Cinebench R23 multi-core score is 23529, and the single-core score is 3321. The Geekbench multi-core score is 10280, and single-core is 1775. The average benchmark score is 6611, placing it at the 62nd percentile. Its nearest rivals show that the i9-12900E is statistically tied with the Core i9-10940X and Pentium Gold G6405 (both 0.1% faster) and the Core i5-13500E (0.4% faster), while being 0.4% slower than the Core i5-13400E.

These scores indicate excellent multi-threaded performance for content creation, rendering, and compilation tasks. The 24 threads allow heavy parallel workloads to scale well. The single-core performance is also solid, with a boost clock of 5.00 GHz ensuring fast response in lightly threaded applications. The 30 MB L3 cache helps with data reuse in complex workloads. The 65W TDP means the CPU can be cooled by a capable air cooler without requiring exotic liquid cooling, despite its high core count. The support for both DDR4 and DDR5 gives builders flexibility in memory choice, though the dual-channel bus may limit memory bandwidth in some workloads.

Build Overview

This is a desktop build combining the Intel Core i9-12900E with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 OEM. The overall combination ranks at the 60th percentile among all builds. The CPU is at the 62nd percentile, and the GPU is at the 57th percentile. This is a mismatched pairing where a high-end processor is paired with an entry-level graphics card.

The i9-12900E is a 16-core Alder Lake processor with a 5.00 GHz boost clock, designed for demanding multi-threaded workloads. The RTX 3050 OEM is an 8 GB Ampere-based card with 8.087 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, intended for 1080p gaming at moderate settings. The CPU is the dominant component in this system, providing far more processing power than the GPU can utilize in most scenarios.

This build is best described as a workstation-oriented CPU with a basic GPU attached for display output and light acceleration. It is not a balanced gaming system, nor is it a pure compute workstation, as the GPU adds some parallel processing capability. The 60th percentile combined rank reflects the average of the two components, but the real-world experience will vary heavily depending on the workload. CPU-bound tasks will perform admirably, while GPU-bound tasks will be limited by the RTX 3050 OEM’s modest specifications.

Benchmark Performance

The CPU’s benchmark scores are as follows: Cinebench R15 multi-core 2371 and single-core 334; Cinebench R20 multi-core 9882 and single-core 1394; Cinebench R23 multi-core 23529 and single-core 3321; Geekbench multi-core 10280 and single-core 1775. The average benchmark score is 6611, placing the CPU at the 62nd percentile. Its nearest rivals are the Intel Pentium Gold G6405 (6605, 0.1% faster), Intel Core i9-10940X (6605, 0.1% faster), Intel Core i5-13500E (6586, 0.4% faster), and Intel Core i5-13400E (6638, 0.4% slower).

The GPU’s benchmark scores include Geekbench OpenCL 60740 and Vulkan 57103; Passmark DirectX 10 61, DirectX 11 86, DirectX 12 58, DirectX 9 137; Passmark G2D 973, G3D 11857, and GPU Compute 5779. The average benchmark score is 15199, placing the GPU at the 57th percentile. Its nearest rivals are the AMD Radeon RX 7600 (15171, 0.2% faster), AMD Radeon 680M (15270, 0.5% slower), NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 (15283, 0.5% slower), and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 (15290, 0.6% slower).

The combined picture shows a system where the CPU is slightly above average and the GPU is slightly above average, but the CPU is relatively stronger. The CPU’s percentile rank of 62 is 5 points higher than the GPU’s 57. The average scores confirm this: the CPU’s 6611 is a strong score for a desktop processor, while the GPU’s 15199 is a modest score for a discrete graphics card. The overall combination at the 60th percentile reflects this asymmetry. In workloads that use the CPU heavily, the system will perform above average. In workloads that rely on the GPU, the system will perform near average but will be held back by the graphics card’s limitations. There are no measured FPS results for this pairing, so all gaming expectations are based on these benchmark scores.