SYSTEM ANALYZER

Rate My PC: Intel Core i9-12900K + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090

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

Build Configuration

Select your components

PROCESSOR (CPU)

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GRAPHICS CARD (GPU)

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95 Score

Top 5% Ranking

95 / 100

ULTIMATE READY

Apex Performer

Top 5% 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

93%

GPU

98%

PROCESSOR

Intel Core i9-12900K

42,335 Benchmark Score

Top 7% 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

The Intel Core i9-12900K paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is a desktop combination that pairs a 12th-generation Alder Lake flagship processor with a current-generation Blackwell 2.0 graphics card. The data shows a combined percentile ranking of 90 across all CPU and GPU pairings, but the FACT PACK contains no measured FPS rows for this exact combination, so all gaming frame rate discussions are estimated from the benchmark scores. The CPU delivers strong multi-threaded results with a 3DMark max-threads score of 11620 and a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 26125, while the GPU posts a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 18355, positioning this build as a high-end workstation and enthusiast gaming platform.

GPU Analysis — VRAM, bandwidth, clocks, RT/tensor hardware, what the benchmark scores mean for rendering

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is built on the GB202 chip using TSMC’s 5 nm process, packing 92,200 million transistors on a 750 mm² die. The GPU features 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, delivering a memory bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s. This configuration is exceptional for rendering workloads, as the sheer memory capacity allows for large 3D scenes, high-resolution textures, and multi-layer compositing without spilling to system memory. The memory clock runs at 1750 MHz with 28 Gbps effective speed, and the base clock is 2017 MHz with a boost clock of 2407 MHz.

For compute and ray tracing, the RTX 5090 has 21,760 shading units, 680 TMUs, and 176 ROPs. It includes 170 RT cores and 680 tensor cores, which directly accelerate ray-traced rendering and AI-accelerated features like denoising and DLSS. The FP32 performance is rated at 104.8 TFLOPS, with FP16 also at 104.8 TFLOPS (1:1), meaning the GPU can handle both single-precision and half-precision workloads at similar throughput—useful for scientific simulation and machine learning inference. The pixel rate is 423.6 GPixel/s, and the texture rate is 1,636.8 GTexel/s, both of which are massive figures that translate to fast rasterization and texture-heavy scenes.

Benchmark results confirm the GPU’s dominance. In 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, the RTX 5090 scores 18355, which is a demanding next-generation test. The Geekbench OpenCL score is 334370, and the Vulkan score is 376728, indicating excellent cross-API performance. The PassMark G3D score is 39650, with a GPU compute score of 26756. When compared to its nearest rivals, the RTX 5090 sits close to the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB (deltaPct 0.3) and the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X (deltaPct -1.4), but the RTX 5090 is a consumer gaming card, not a data-center part, so its relevance lies in desktop rendering and gaming. The GPU’s percentile vs. all GPUs is 92, placing it in the top tier of available graphics hardware.

For rendering, the 32 GB VRAM and 1.79 TB/s bandwidth mean that GPU-accelerated renderers like Blender Cycles or Octane can handle scenes that would otherwise be impossible on lesser cards. The 170 RT cores accelerate path tracing, and the 680 tensor cores enable hardware-accelerated denoising, reducing render times significantly. The pixel and texture rates also support high-resolution viewport performance, making this GPU suitable for real-time previews of complex scenes.

Upgrade Path and Platform — socket, memory support, PCIe, PSU headroom from suggestedPsu/tdp, what a sensible next upgrade looks like

The Intel Core i9-12900K uses the Intel Socket 1700 platform, which is the LGA 1700 socket designed for Alder Lake architecture. This socket supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory, with a dual-channel memory bus and a memory bandwidth of 76.8 GB/s. The CPU supports ECC memory, which is a rare feature for a consumer desktop processor and may appeal to workstation users who require error-correcting memory for long-running computations. The platform includes PCIe Gen 5 with 16 lanes from the CPU, which is fully compatible with the RTX 5090’s PCIe 5.0 x16 interface, ensuring no bandwidth bottleneck between the CPU and GPU.

The CPU has a TDP of 125 W, while the GPU has a TDP of 575 W, and the suggested PSU for the GPU is 950 W. This means a sensible power supply for the entire system would need to account for the combined draw of the CPU, GPU, and other components, but the 950 W suggestion is specifically for the GPU’s power requirements. The GPU uses a single 16-pin power connector, and the card is dual-slot with dimensions of 304 mm in length, 137 mm in height, and 40 mm in width, so case compatibility requires sufficient clearance for a long dual-slot card.

Looking at the upgrade path, the Intel Core i9-12900K is an older generation CPU, but it remains compatible with the LGA 1700 socket, which also supports newer 13th and 14th generation Intel processors. However, the FACT PACK only lists the i9-12900K’s specifications, so a sensible next upgrade would be to a newer CPU within the same socket, but the data does not specify which models are available. The GPU is the newest generation in the GeForce 50-series, with a predecessor listed as GeForce 40 and a successor as GeForce 60, so the RTX 5090 is the current flagship and does not require an immediate upgrade. The platform’s DDR4 and DDR5 support means users can choose between the two memory types, but the FACT PACK does not specify which is better for performance, only that both are supported.

For PCIe, the CPU provides Gen 5 lanes, and the GPU uses PCIe 5.0 x16, so the connection is modern and future-proof. The bottleneck analysis suggests that the CPU’s 16 cores and 24 threads are sufficient to feed the RTX 5090 in most workloads, but the GPU’s massive compute power may outpace the CPU in certain single-threaded tasks, which is discussed in the Balance section.

Balance and Bottleneck — which component limits which workload, using percentiles and FPS scaling as evidence

The combined percentile for this CPU-GPU pair is 90, indicating that the system as a whole outperforms 90% of all desktop configurations in the database. However, balance is not equal across all workloads. The CPU’s percentile vs. all CPUs is 88, while the GPU’s percentile vs. all GPUs is 92, meaning the GPU is slightly stronger relative to its peers than the CPU is relative to its peers. This suggests that in GPU-bound scenarios—such as high-resolution gaming with ray tracing enabled—the RTX 5090 is the primary driver of performance, and the CPU is unlikely to be the limiting factor.

In CPU-bound workloads, such as physics simulation, data compression, or single-threaded tasks, the i9-12900K becomes the constraint. The CPU’s PassMark physics score is 2219, and its PassMark single-thread score is 4136, which are respectable but not the top-tier scores seen in newer generations. The nearest rivals for the CPU include the Intel Core i9-12950HX (deltaPct -0.4) and the AMD Ryzen 5 7400 (deltaPct 0.7), showing that the i9-12900K is competitive with mobile and newer desktop chips, but it does not decisively beat them. For example, the i9-12950HX has an average score of 42487, which is 0.4% higher than the i9-12900K’s 42335 average benchmark score, so the two are essentially tied.

For gaming, the FPS scaling is estimated from the benchmark scores because no measured FPS data exists for this exact combination. Based on the GPU’s 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 18355 and the CPU’s 3DMark 16-thread score of 9912, the system is expected to deliver high frame rates at 1080p, 1440p, and 4K resolutions, but the exact figures are not available. The CPU’s single-thread score of 1073 in 3DMark suggests that it can handle game logic and draw calls, but the GPU’s raw power will dominate in most gaming scenarios, especially at higher resolutions where the GPU is more likely to be the bottleneck.

In content creation, the balance shifts depending on the task. For video editing, the CPU’s 16 cores and 24 threads help with encoding and decoding, while the GPU’s tensor cores accelerate effects and rendering. For 3D rendering, the GPU is the clear bottleneck reliever, as its 32 GB VRAM and 104.8 TFLOPS FP32 performance are far beyond what the CPU can deliver. The data shows that the CPU’s PassMark multi-thread score is 41213, which is strong, but the GPU’s PassMark G3D score of 39650 is comparable in magnitude, indicating that both components are high-end but serve different roles.

Who Should Build It — target users and industries tied strictly to the measured performance

This build targets users who need both high-end CPU compute and top-tier GPU acceleration. Gamers at 4K resolution with ray tracing enabled will benefit from the RTX 5090’s 32 GB VRAM and 170 RT cores, as the GPU’s 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 18355 indicates it can handle demanding next-generation titles. The CPU’s 16 cores and 24 threads ensure that background tasks, such as streaming or recording, do not interfere with gaming performance, as evidenced by the 3DMark 16-thread score of 9912.

Content creators working with video editing will find the combination useful for 4K or 8K timelines, where the CPU’s Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 26125 accelerates encoding, and the GPU’s Geekbench OpenCL score of 334370 speeds up effects and color grading. 3D artists and animators are a primary audience, as the GPU’s 32 GB VRAM allows for large scene loading, and its 680 tensor cores enable AI-accelerated denoising in renderers. The CPU’s PassMark data compression score of 537341 also suggests strong performance in file archiving and data-heavy workflows.

Software developers will appreciate the CPU’s multi-threaded compile times, with a PassMark multi-thread score of 41213, and the GPU’s compute capability for running local machine learning models, given its FP16 performance of 104.8 TFLOPS. Students in engineering or computer science fields can use this build for simulation and data analysis, but the high power requirements (575 W GPU TDP) mean it is not a portable or energy-efficient option. Small business workstations that require reliable rendering or data processing would benefit, but the system is overkill for office tasks like word processing or spreadsheet work, where the CPU’s single-thread score of 1073 in 3DMark is more than sufficient but the GPU’s power is wasted.

Usage Scenarios — grounded in the scores

High-refresh gaming: The RTX 5090’s 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 18355 and PassMark G3D score of 39650 indicate that it can drive high frame rates at 1440p and 4K, but the exact FPS is estimated because no measured data exists for this combination. The CPU’s 3DMark 2-thread score of 2120 ensures that game logic does not bottleneck the GPU in fast-paced titles.

Streaming: The CPU’s 16 cores and 24 threads, with a PassMark multi-thread score of 41213, handle encoding and overlays, while the GPU’s tensor cores can accelerate broadcast effects. The combined percentile of 90 suggests that concurrent gaming and streaming workloads will not cause significant frame drops, though the 575 W GPU TDP requires a robust cooling solution.

Video editing: The CPU’s Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 26125 accelerates export times, and the GPU’s Geekbench Vulkan score of 376728 speeds up preview rendering. The 32 GB VRAM allows for editing multi-layer 4K projects without memory swaps.

3D rendering: The GPU’s 32 GB GDDR7 memory and 1.79 TB/s bandwidth are ideal for GPU-based renderers, and its 104.8 TFLOPS FP32 performance ensures fast ray tracing. The CPU’s 3DMark max-threads score of 11620 helps with scene preparation and physics simulation.

Software development: The CPU’s PassMark integer math score of 139090 and floating point math score of 105471 indicate strong compile and test performance. The GPU’s compute score of 26756 in PassMark supports local testing of compute shaders or machine learning models.

Student and office work: The CPU’s PassMark single-thread score of 4136 handles everyday tasks smoothly, and the integrated UHD Graphics 770 provides a fallback display output, but the GPU’s power is entirely unnecessary for this scenario, making the system impractical for typical student budgets.

Gaming Performance — measured FPS by game and resolution

The FACT PACK contains no measured FPS rows for this exact combination of the Intel Core i9-12900K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090. Therefore, all gaming performance figures are estimates derived from the benchmark scores. The GPU’s 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 18355 places it in the top 92nd percentile of all GPUs, indicating that it is capable of very high frame rates at 1080p and 1440p, and high frame rates at 4K in most titles. The CPU’s 3DMark single-thread score of 1073 and 8-thread score of 7596 suggest that it can keep up with the GPU in CPU-bound scenarios, but the exact FPS cannot be quoted.

At 1080p, the system is likely to be CPU-limited in some esports titles, but the CPU’s PassMark single-thread score of 4136 is above average, so the bottleneck is minimal. At 1440p, the GPU becomes more dominant, and the RTX 5090’s 32 GB VRAM ensures that texture-heavy games do not hit memory limits. At 4K, the GPU’s 1.79 TB/s bandwidth and 423.6 GPixel/s pixel rate are expected to deliver playable frame rates, but the lack of measured data means these are estimates. For ray tracing, the 170 RT cores should provide hardware acceleration, but the performance delta cannot be quantified without measured FPS.

The CPU’s nearest rival, the Intel Core i9-12950HX, has a deltaPct of -0.4, meaning the i9-12900K is slightly slower in average benchmark scores, but this difference is negligible for gaming. The GPU’s nearest rival, the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB, has a deltaPct of 0.3, but the Tesla P100 is not a gaming card, so direct gaming comparisons are not meaningful.

CPU Analysis — cores, clocks, architecture, what the benchmark scores mean for real workloads

The Intel Core i9-12900K is a 16-core, 24-thread processor based on the Alder Lake architecture, with a base clock of 3.20 GHz and a boost clock of 5.20 GHz. The CPU has a TDP of 125 W and is manufactured on Intel’s 10 nm process, with a die size of 215 mm². The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 1.25 MB of L2 per core, and 30 MB of shared L3 cache. This is a hybrid architecture, but the FACT PACK does not specify the core type split (performance vs. efficiency), so the analysis focuses on the aggregate scores.

The CPU’s benchmark scores are strong across the board. The 3DMark max-threads score is 11620, while the 16-thread score is 9912, indicating good scaling with thread count. The single-thread score is 1073, which is important for legacy applications that rely on one core. In Cinebench, the R23 multi-core score is 26125 and the single-core score is 2004.5, showing that the CPU excels in both multi-threaded and single-threaded workloads. The Geekbench multi-core score is 16378 and single-core is 2193, confirming the CPU’s capabilities in general-purpose tasks.

For real workloads, the PassMark scores provide insight. The multi-thread score of 41213 indicates strong performance in video encoding, 3D rendering, and scientific computing. The integer math score of 139090 and floating point math score of 105471 show that the CPU can handle both integer-heavy tasks like database operations and floating-point-heavy tasks like simulations. The data encryption score of 29579 and data compression score of 537341 are particularly high, making this CPU suitable for cryptography and file archiving. The extended instructions score of 33682 suggests good performance in AVX-512 workloads, though the FACT PACK does not specify the exact instruction set support.

The CPU’s production status is Active, and its launch MSRP is $599, which is stated once here. The CPU is unlocked, meaning overclocking is possible, but the FACT PACK does not provide overclocking results. The integrated UHD Graphics 770 is available for basic display output, but the RTX 5090 will be the primary GPU.

FAQ

Q: Does the Intel Core i9-12900K support DDR5 memory?

A: Yes, the CPU supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory, with a dual-channel memory bus and a memory bandwidth of 76.8 GB/s.

Q: What is the suggested power supply for the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090?

A: The suggested PSU for the RTX 5090 is 950 W, and the GPU has a TDP of 575 W, using a single 16-pin power connector.

Q: How much VRAM does the RTX 5090 have?

A: The RTX 5090 has 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, with a bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s.

Q: Is there measured FPS data for this CPU-GPU combination?

A: No, the FACT PACK contains no measured FPS rows for the Intel Core i9-12900K paired with the RTX 5090, so all gaming frame rates are estimated from benchmark scores.

Q: What is the CPU’s percentile ranking compared to all CPUs?

A: The Intel Core i9-12900K has a percentile rank of 88 versus all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 42335.

Q: Does the RTX 5090 support PCIe 5.0?

A: Yes, the GPU uses a PCIe 5.0 x16 bus interface, and the CPU provides PCIe Gen 5 with 16 lanes.

Q: What is the GPU’s FP32 performance?

A: The RTX 5090 delivers 104.8 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, with FP16 also at 104.8 TFLOPS (1:1).

Benchmark Performance — exact CPU and GPU scores, percentile positions, and the combined picture

The Intel Core i9-12900K achieves an average benchmark score of 42335, with a percentile vs. all CPUs of 88. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core i9-12950HX (avg score 42487, deltaPct -0.4), the AMD Ryzen 5 7400 (avg score 42055, deltaPct 0.7), and the AMD Ryzen 9 PRO 8945HS (avg score 41963, deltaPct 0.9). The CPU’s 3DMark scores range from a single-thread score of 1073 to a max-threads score of 11620, with the 16-thread score at 9912. In Cinebench R23, the multi-core score is 26125 and the single-core score is 2004.5. The Geekbench multi-core score is 16378, and the single-core score is 2193.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 has an average benchmark score of 79842, with a percentile vs. all GPUs of 92. Its nearest rivals are the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB (avg score 79605, deltaPct 0.3), the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X (avg score 80959, deltaPct -1.4), and the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (avg score 78940, deltaPct 1.1). The GPU’s 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score is 18355, and its Geekbench OpenCL score is 334370 with a Vulkan score of 376728. The PassMark G3D score is 39650, and the GPU compute score is 26756.

The combined picture shows a system that ranks in the 90th percentile overall, with the GPU being slightly stronger relative to its peers (92nd percentile) than the CPU (88th percentile). This means that in most workloads, the GPU is the performance driver, but the CPU is still a high-end part that will not significantly bottleneck the system. The CPU’s multi-threaded scores, such as the Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 26125, are competitive with newer mobile and desktop parts, as shown by the deltaPct values of its nearest rivals. The GPU’s scores are at the top of the consumer market, with only data-center parts like the Tesla P100 having similar average scores, but the RTX 5090 offers gaming-specific features like RT cores and tensor cores that those parts lack. Overall, this is a balanced high-end desktop build suitable for gaming, content creation, and compute-intensive tasks, but the lack of measured FPS data means that real-world gaming performance must be inferred from the benchmark scores.

Rate My PC: Intel Core i9-12900K + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090

Apex Performer

System Balance Analysis

Intel Core i9-12900K

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

GPU Analysis — VRAM, bandwidth, clocks, RT/tensor hardware, what the benchmark scores mean for rendering

Upgrade Path and Platform — socket, memory support, PCIe, PSU headroom from suggestedPsu/tdp, what a sensible next upgrade looks like

Balance and Bottleneck — which component limits which workload, using percentiles and FPS scaling as evidence

Who Should Build It — target users and industries tied strictly to the measured performance

Usage Scenarios — grounded in the scores

Gaming Performance — measured FPS by game and resolution

CPU Analysis — cores, clocks, architecture, what the benchmark scores mean for real workloads

FAQ

Benchmark Performance — exact CPU and GPU scores, percentile positions, and the combined picture

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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