i9-12900K vs Pentium 987
Primary details
Comparing Pentium 987 and Core i9-12900K processor market type (desktop or notebook), architecture, sales start time and price.
| Place in the ranking | not rated | 185 |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | not in top-100 |
| Cost-effectiveness evaluation | no data | 35.72 |
| Market segment | Laptop | Desktop processor |
| Series | Intel Pentium | Intel Core i9 |
| Power efficiency | no data | 19.77 |
| Architecture codename | Sandy Bridge (2011−2013) | Alder Lake, Golden Cove, Gracemont (2021) |
| Release date | 1 February 2013 (11 years ago) | 4 November 2021 (3 years ago) |
| Launch price (MSRP) | $134 | $589 |
Cost-effectiveness evaluation
Performance per price, higher is better.
Detailed specifications
Pentium 987 and Core i9-12900K basic parameters such as number of cores, number of threads, base frequency and turbo boost clock, lithography, cache size and multiplier lock state. These parameters indirectly say of CPU speed, though for more precise assessment you have to consider their test results.
| Physical cores | 2 (Dual-core) | 16 (Hexadeca-Core) |
| Threads | 2 | 24 |
| Base clock speed | 1.5 GHz | 3.2 GHz |
| Boost clock speed | 1.5 GHz | 5.2 GHz |
| Bus type | DMI 2.0 | DMI 4.0 |
| Bus rate | 4 × 5 GT/s | 8 × 16 GT/s |
| Multiplier | 15 | 32 |
| L1 cache | 64K (per core) | 80K (per core) |
| L2 cache | 256K (per core) | 1.25 MB (per core) |
| L3 cache | 2 MB (shared) | 30 MB (shared) |
| Chip lithography | 32 nm | 10 nm |
| Die size | 131 mm2 | 215.25 mm2" |
| Maximum core temperature | 100 °C | 100 °C |
| Maximum case temperature (TCase) | no data | 72 °C |
| Number of transistors | 504 million | no data |
| 64 bit support | + | + |
| Windows 11 compatibility | - | + |
| Unlocked multiplier | - | + |
Compatibility
Information on Pentium 987 and Core i9-12900K compatibility with other computer components: motherboard (look for socket type), power supply unit (look for power consumption) etc. Useful when planning a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. Note that power consumption of some processors can well exceed their nominal TDP, even without overclocking. Some can even double their declared thermals given that the motherboard allows to tune the CPU power parameters.
| Number of CPUs in a configuration | 1 (Uniprocessor) | 1 |
| Socket | FCBGA1023 | FCLGA1700 |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 17 Watt | 125 Watt |
Technologies and extensions
Technological solutions and additional instructions supported by Pentium 987 and Core i9-12900K. You'll probably need this information if you require some particular technology.
| Instruction set extensions | Intel® SSE4.1, Intel® SSE4.2 | Intel® SSE4.1, Intel® SSE4.2, Intel® AVX2 |
| AES-NI | - | + |
| FMA | + | - |
| AVX | - | + |
| vPro | no data | + |
| Enhanced SpeedStep (EIST) | + | + |
| Speed Shift | no data | + |
| My WiFi | - | no data |
| Turbo Boost Technology | - | 2.0 |
| Hyper-Threading Technology | - | + |
| Idle States | + | + |
| Thermal Monitoring | + | + |
| Flex Memory Access | + | no data |
| SIPP | - | + |
| Demand Based Switching | - | no data |
| Turbo Boost Max 3.0 | no data | + |
| FDI | + | no data |
| Fast Memory Access | + | no data |
| Deep Learning Boost | - | + |
Security technologies
Pentium 987 and Core i9-12900K technologies aimed at improving security, for example, by protecting against hacks.
| TXT | - | + |
| EDB | + | + |
| Secure Key | no data | + |
| OS Guard | no data | + |
| Anti-Theft | - | no data |
Virtualization technologies
Virtual machine speed-up technologies supported by Pentium 987 and Core i9-12900K are enumerated here.
| VT-d | - | + |
| VT-x | - | + |
| EPT | no data | + |
Memory specs
Types, maximum amount and channel quantity of RAM supported by Pentium 987 and Core i9-12900K. Depending on the motherboard, higher memory frequencies may be supported.
| Supported memory types | DDR3 | DDR4, DDR5 |
| Maximum memory size | 16.38 GB | 128 GB |
| Max memory channels | 2 | 2 |
| Maximum memory bandwidth | 21.335 GB/s | 76.805 GB/s |
| ECC memory support | - | + |
Graphics specifications
General parameters of integrated GPUs, if any.
| Integrated graphics card | Intel® HD Graphics for 2nd Generation Intel® Processors | Intel UHD Graphics 770 |
| Quick Sync Video | - | + |
| Clear Video HD | - | + |
| Graphics max frequency | 1 GHz | 1.55 GHz |
| Execution Units | no data | 32 |
Graphics interfaces
Available interfaces and connections of Pentium 987 and Core i9-12900K integrated GPUs.
| Number of displays supported | 2 | 4 |
| eDP | + | no data |
| DisplayPort | + | - |
| HDMI | + | - |
| SDVO | + | no data |
| CRT | + | no data |
Graphics image quality
Maximum display resolutions supported by Pentium 987 and Core i9-12900K integrated GPUs, including resolutions over different interfaces.
| Max resolution over HDMI 1.4 | no data | 4096 x 2160 @ 60Hz |
| Max resolution over eDP | no data | 5120 x 3200 @ 120Hz |
| Max resolution over DisplayPort | no data | 7680 x 4320 @ 60Hz |
Graphics API support
APIs supported by Pentium 987 and Core i9-12900K integrated GPUs, sometimes API versions are included.
| DirectX | no data | 12 |
| OpenGL | no data | 4.5 |
Peripherals
Specifications and connection of peripherals supported by Pentium 987 and Core i9-12900K.
| PCIe version | 2.0 | 5.0 and 4.0 |
| PCI Express lanes | 16 | 20 |
Synthetic benchmark performance
Various benchmark results of the processors in comparison. Overall score is measured in points in 0-100 range, higher is better.
Passmark
Passmark CPU Mark is a widespread benchmark, consisting of 8 different types of workload, including integer and floating point math, extended instructions, compression, encryption and physics calculation. There is also one separate single-threaded scenario measuring single-core performance.
GeekBench 5 Single-Core
GeekBench 5 Single-Core is a cross-platform application developed in the form of CPU tests that independently recreate certain real-world tasks with which to accurately measure performance. This version uses only a single CPU core.
GeekBench 5 Multi-Core
GeekBench 5 Multi-Core is a cross-platform application developed in the form of CPU tests that independently recreate certain real-world tasks with which to accurately measure performance. This version uses all available CPU cores.
3DMark06 CPU
3DMark06 is a discontinued DirectX 9 benchmark suite from Futuremark. Its CPU part contains two scenarios, one dedicated to artificial intelligence pathfinding, another to game physics using PhysX package.
wPrime 32
wPrime 32M is a math multi-thread processor test, which calculates square roots of first 32 million integer numbers. Its result is measured in seconds, so that the less is benchmark result, the faster the processor.
Cinebench 11.5 64-bit multi-core
Cinebench Release 11.5 Multi Core is a variant of Cinebench R11.5 which uses all the processor threads. A maximum of 64 threads is supported in this version.
Cinebench 11.5 64-bit single-core
Cinebench R11.5 is an old benchmark by Maxon, authors of Cinema 4D. It was superseded by later versions of Cinebench, which use more modern variants of Cinema 4D engine. The Single Core version loads a single thread with ray tracing to render a glossy room full of crystal spheres and light sources.
TrueCrypt AES
TrueCrypt is a discontinued piece of software that was widely used for on-the-fly-encryption of disk partitions, now superseded by VeraCrypt. It contains several embedded performance tests, one of them being TrueCrypt AES, which measures data encryption speed using AES algorithm. Result is encryption speed in gigabytes per second.
WinRAR 4.0
WinRAR 4.0 is an outdated version of a popular file archiver. It contains an internal speed test, using 'Best' setting of RAR compression on large chunks of randomly generated data. Its results are measured in kilobytes per second.
Pros & cons summary
| Recency | 1 February 2013 | 4 November 2021 |
| Physical cores | 2 | 16 |
| Threads | 2 | 24 |
| Chip lithography | 32 nm | 10 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 17 Watt | 125 Watt |
Pentium 987 has 635.3% lower power consumption.
i9-12900K, on the other hand, has an age advantage of 8 years, 700% more physical cores and 1100% more threads, and a 220% more advanced lithography process.
We couldn't decide between Pentium 987 and Core i9-12900K. We've got no test results to judge.
Be aware that Pentium 987 is a notebook processor while Core i9-12900K is a desktop one.
Should you still have questions on choice between Pentium 987 and Core i9-12900K, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.
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