SYSTEM ANALYZER

Rate My PC: Intel Core i9-12900KS + NVIDIA Quadro RTX 4000

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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92 Score

Top 8% Ranking

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

93%

GPU

90%

PROCESSOR

Intel Core i9-12900KS

45,094 Benchmark Score

Top 7% Market Ranking

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GRAPHICS CARD

NVIDIA Quadro RTX 4000

17,789 Benchmark Score

Top 10% 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 i9-12900KS and NVIDIA Quadro RTX 4000 pairing represents a distinct desktop configuration that combines a high-end 2022 processor with a professional-grade 2018 workstation GPU. The CPU is a performance powerhouse, sitting at the 89th percentile among all processors, while the GPU, though specialized for professional tasks, rests at the 61st percentile among all GPUs. This combination yields an overall 75th percentile build, but the performance disparity between the components is significant and worth examining in detail.

FAQ

Q: What is the performance class of the Intel Core i9-12900KS processor?

A: The i9-12900KS sits in the 89th percentile of all CPUs, indicating it is a top-tier consumer processor. Its average benchmark score of 45,094 places it in close competition with the AMD EPYC 4344P, which scores 45,122, and it edges out the Intel Core i5-14600, which scores 44,889.

Q: What kind of memory does this build support?

A: The Core i9-12900KS supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory through a dual-channel memory bus. The memory bandwidth is rated at 76.8 GB/s, and the platform supports ECC memory, which is notable for professional workstation use.

Q: What is the GPU's architecture and when was it released?

A: The NVIDIA Quadro RTX 4000 is based on the Turing architecture and uses the TU104 chip. It was released on November 12, 2018, and is now marked as end-of-life in production status. It supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4 APIs.

Q: How does the Quadro RTX 4000 compare to the GeForce RTX 4060 in benchmarks?

A: The Quadro RTX 4000 has an average benchmark score of 17,789, which is only 0.9% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060's score of 17,639. This places the workstation card in the same performance tier as the mainstream GeForce card despite their different market focuses.

Q: Does the CPU have integrated graphics?

A: Yes, the Intel Core i9-12900KS includes UHD Graphics 770 as its integrated GPU. This can be useful for troubleshooting or basic display output if the discrete GPU is not present or functional.

Q: What is the power draw and PSU requirement for the GPU?

A: The Quadro RTX 4000 has a TDP of 160 W and requires a single 8-pin power connector. NVIDIA suggests a 450 W power supply for a system using this GPU. The CPU itself has a TDP of 150 W.

Q: What is the PCIe interface for the GPU?

A: The Quadro RTX 4000 uses a PCIe 3.0 x16 bus interface. Notably, the CPU supports PCIe Gen 5 with 16 lanes, meaning the GPU slot operates at an older standard than what the processor is capable of providing.

GPU Analysis

The NVIDIA Quadro RTX 4000 is a professional workstation card built on the Turing architecture with a 12 nm process node from TSMC. It has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering 416.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU clocks are modest by modern standards, with a base clock of 1005 MHz and a boost clock of 1545 MHz, while the memory runs at an effective 13 Gbps. The chip contains 13,600 million transistors on a 545 mm² die.

For compute capabilities, the Quadro RTX 4000 provides 7.119 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 14.24 TFLOPS of FP16 performance via a 2:1 ratio. It has 2,304 shading units, 144 texture mapping units, and 64 raster operation pipelines. The card also includes 36 RT cores and 288 tensor cores, making it capable of hardware-accelerated ray tracing and AI workloads, which were notable features at its 2018 launch. The pixel rate reaches 98.88 GPixel/s, and the texture rate is 222.5 GTexel/s.

In synthetic benchmarks, the GPU scores 1,873 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12. Its Geekbench compute scores are 74,540 for OpenCL and 78,844 for Vulkan. The Passmark suite shows 15,117 for G3D and 6,176 for GPU compute. These scores place the card at the 61st percentile of all GPUs. The nearest rival is the AMD Radeon HD 7790 with an average score of 17,666, which is only 0.7% different. Interestingly, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 scores 17,639, just 0.9% lower, indicating that the professional card's raw performance aligns closely with a modern mainstream gaming GPU, though the Quadro's driver optimization and feature set target professional applications like CAD and scientific visualization.

The card's display outputs include 3x DisplayPort 1.4a and 1x USB Type-C, making it versatile for multi-monitor professional setups. It is a single-slot card measuring 241 mm in length, which is compact for a workstation GPU.

Benchmark Performance

The Intel Core i9-12900KS delivers exceptional multi-threaded performance. In Cinebench R23, it scores 36,859 in multi-core and 5,203 in single-core. Geekbench results show 18,538 multi-core and 2,408 single-core. The 3DMark thread tests reveal strong scaling: 1,121 for single-thread, 2,212 for two threads, 4,320 for four threads, 7,872 for eight threads, 10,316 for sixteen threads, and 11,897 for max threads. Passmark scores include 43,698 for multithread and 4,330 for single-thread. The CPU holds the 89th percentile position among all processors with an average benchmark score of 45,094, placing it just 0.1% behind the AMD EPYC 4344P and 0.5% ahead of the Intel Core i5-14600.

The GPU's performance is markedly lower in relative terms. Its average benchmark score of 17,789 places it at the 61st percentile, with the nearest rival being the AMD Radeon HD 7790 at 17,666. The combined system percentile is 75, reflecting the CPU's strength dominating the overall figure while the GPU drags it down from what a top-tier CPU alone might suggest.

The combined picture shows a system that is heavily CPU-bound in most workloads. The CPU's 89th percentile ranking versus the GPU's 61st percentile creates a significant imbalance. For tasks that leverage the CPU heavily—compilation, rendering, scientific computing—this system performs at a high level. For GPU-accelerated workloads, the performance is more modest, roughly equivalent to a mid-range gaming card from the same era.

Balance and Bottleneck

The data indicates a clear bottleneck scenario: the GPU is the limiting factor in graphics-intensive workloads. The CPU, with its 89th percentile standing, vastly outperforms the GPU's 61st percentile in their respective markets. In gaming scenarios, the Quadro RTX 4000 will likely cap frame rates well before the i9-12900KS reaches its limits, especially at higher resolutions where GPU load increases.

The CPU's 3DMark max threads score of 11,897 versus the GPU's 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 1,873 illustrates the performance gap in raw compute terms. In CPU-bound tasks like data compression (Passmark score of 563,709) or integer math (147,575), the system excels. However, in GPU-bound tasks like DirectX 12 rendering, the Passmark score of just 52 for the GPU shows that modern graphics APIs are not this card's strong suit, likely due to its age and driver maturity relative to newer architectures.

The memory bandwidth figures also show an imbalance. The CPU has access to 76.8 GB/s of system memory bandwidth, while the GPU has 416.0 GB/s of dedicated VRAM bandwidth. This is typical, but the GPU's 8 GB VRAM capacity may be limiting for large datasets or high-resolution textures, especially in professional visualization contexts.

The single-thread performance of the CPU (Passmark 4,330, Geekbench 2,408, Cinebench R23 5,203) is strong, meaning lightly-threaded applications will run well. But the GPU's modest compute capabilities mean that any workload relying heavily on the GPU, such as real-time 3D rendering or machine learning inference, will not fully utilize the CPU's potential.

Who Should Build It

This system targets users who need exceptional CPU performance for professional or creative work but have modest GPU requirements. The i9-12900KS's 16 cores and 24 threads, combined with its high single-thread performance, make it ideal for software developers compiling large codebases, researchers running simulations, or analysts processing large datasets. The Passmark data encryption score of 31,403 and extended instructions score of 35,089 indicate strong performance in security and scientific workloads.

Content creators who work primarily in CPU-bound applications like video encoding or 3D scene rendering would benefit from this CPU. The Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 36,859 demonstrates substantial rendering throughput. However, those who rely heavily on GPU acceleration in creative suites might find the Quadro RTX 4000 sufficient but not exceptional; its 7.119 TFLOPS FP32 performance is adequate for many professional applications but lags behind newer workstation cards.

Students and small business workstations that require heavy multithreading for engineering simulations or financial modeling would benefit. The CPU's ECC memory support adds reliability for long-running computations. Gamers at 1080p or 1440p with moderate settings would find this system workable, but the GPU's age means it is not optimized for the latest titles. The build is less suitable for those prioritizing high-refresh-rate gaming or state-of-the-art GPU compute.

Gaming Performance

No measured FPS data exists for this exact CPU+GPU combination. The FACT PACK contains no measured FPS rows, so all frame rate discussions are estimates based on the benchmark scores. The GPU's Passmark DirectX 11 score of 128 and DirectX 12 score of 52 suggest that modern gaming performance will vary widely by title. The DirectX 9 score of 205 indicates older games will run well, but newer titles leveraging DirectX 12 may struggle.

The GPU's 61st percentile ranking places it below the median of modern GPUs, meaning it will not handle ultra settings at high resolutions in recent AAA games. At 1080p with medium-to-high settings, esports titles and older games should run smoothly. At 1440p, users should expect to lower settings significantly. At 4K, the 8 GB VRAM and 416.0 GB/s bandwidth will likely be insufficient for demanding titles, and the modest FP32 throughput will cap frame rates.

The CPU will not be the limiting factor in gaming; its 89th percentile ranking ensures it can feed frames quickly. The GPU's performance relative to the GeForce RTX 4060, which scores just 0.9% lower, gives a rough reference point: the Quadro RTX 4000 should perform similarly to that mainstream card, though driver optimizations for gaming are less mature on the professional Quadro line. Users should treat all gaming frame rate figures as estimates, not measured results.

CPU Analysis

The Intel Core i9-12900KS is a 16-core, 24-thread processor based on the Alder Lake architecture, built on Intel's 10 nm process. It has a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.50 GHz, with a TDP of 150 W. The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 1.25 MB of L2 per core, and 30 MB of shared L3 cache. The die size is 215 mm², and the CPU supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory through a dual-channel interface, with ECC support included.

This processor is a special edition, as indicated by the "KS" suffix, offering higher clocks than standard 12th-gen parts. Its benchmark results are impressive: Passmark multithread score of 43,698, Cinebench R20 multi-core of 15,480, and 3DMark max threads of 11,897. Single-thread performance is also strong, with Cinebench R23 single-core at 5,203 and Geekbench single-core at 2,408. The Passmark integer math score of 147,575 and floating-point math of 111,429 show balanced compute capabilities.

The CPU's 89th percentile ranking means it outperforms the vast majority of processors in the database. Its nearest rival, the AMD EPYC 4344P, is essentially tied at 45,122 average score versus 45,094 for the i9-12900KS, a difference of just 0.1%. The Intel Core i5-14600 trails by 0.5%, and the AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D is 1.2% behind. This places the i9-12900KS in the upper echelon of consumer desktop processors, though it is not the absolute fastest available.

The integrated UHD Graphics 770 provides a basic fallback display output. The unlocked multiplier offers overclocking headroom for enthusiasts. The CPU uses the Intel Socket 1700 and supports PCIe Gen 5 with 16 CPU lanes, which is forward-looking even if the paired GPU only uses PCIe 3.0.

Build Overview

This is a desktop-class build that pairs a top-tier consumer CPU with a professional workstation GPU. The Intel Core i9-12900KS is a flagship 12th-gen processor, released on April 4, 2022, with a launch MSRP of $739. The NVIDIA Quadro RTX 4000 is a professional card from 2018, originally priced at 899 USD at launch, now end-of-life. The combination results in a system at the 75th overall percentile, driven primarily by the CPU's strength.

The build class is desktop, meaning full-size components in a standard chassis. The CPU's 150 W TDP and the GPU's 160 W TDP suggest a total system power draw that a quality 450 W PSU could handle, per NVIDIA's suggestion. The GPU is single-slot, which is unusual for a workstation card and allows for compact builds. The CPU's socket 1700 and support for both DDR4 and DDR5 give builders flexibility in memory choice, though the platform is now a couple of generations old.

The overall tier is above-average due to the CPU, but the GPU holds it back from being a truly high-end system by modern standards. The 61st percentile GPU means it is outperformed by roughly 39% of GPUs in the database. This is a workstation-oriented build where CPU compute matters more than GPU graphics, making it suitable for specific professional tasks rather than general-purpose high-performance computing.

Upgrade Path and Platform

The Intel Core i9-12900KS uses the LGA 1700 socket, which supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory, giving users a choice of memory technology. The platform supports PCIe Gen 5 with 16 CPU lanes, though the current GPU only uses PCIe 3.0 x16, leaving bandwidth headroom for future GPUs. The CPU has an unlocked multiplier, allowing overclocking to extract additional performance. The TDP of 150 W is manageable with a capable air cooler.

The GPU, being end-of-life and based on the older Turing architecture, is the primary candidate for an upgrade. The system's PCIe 3.0 interface on the GPU side is a limitation; upgrading to a newer GPU that supports PCIe 4.0 or 5.0 would require a motherboard that routes newer lanes, though the CPU's Gen 5 support is available. The suggested PSU of 450 W provides headroom for a modest GPU upgrade, but a more powerful GPU would likely require a higher-wattage power supply.

A sensible next upgrade would be replacing the Quadro RTX 4000 with a modern GPU that offers better raw performance and newer features. The CPU's 89th percentile ranking means it will not bottleneck most GPU upgrades, making it suitable for pairing with a significantly faster graphics card. The 8 GB VRAM of the current GPU is a limiting factor for modern workloads; a successor with more VRAM would better utilize the CPU's capabilities. The platform's support for newer PCIe generations ensures compatibility with future GPUs, though the motherboard's chipset will determine the exact lane configuration. Given the CPU's strong performance and the GPU's age, the upgrade path is clear: prioritize GPU replacement to balance the system.

Rate My PC: Intel Core i9-12900KS + NVIDIA Quadro RTX 4000

Apex Performer

System Balance Analysis

Intel Core i9-12900KS

NVIDIA Quadro RTX 4000

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

FAQ

GPU Analysis

Benchmark Performance

Balance and Bottleneck

Who Should Build It

Gaming Performance

CPU Analysis

Build Overview

Upgrade Path and Platform

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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