Ryzen 5 3600 vs Intel Core i9-12900K — Specs & Performance Compared

Verdict: The Intel Core i9-12900K is ahead of the Ryzen 5 3600 on all 6 shared benchmarks on file, by 61% to 202%, including 202% in Cinebench R23 multi (27,392 vs 9,073).

Side-by-side CPU comparison of the Ryzen 5 3600 and the Intel Core i9-12900K. Specs, synthetic benchmarks, AI inference tok/s, and Amazon availability below; each column header links to that part's benchmark page.

AMD

Ryzen 5 3600

6 cores65W TDP

Full Ryzen 5 3600 benchmarks →

Intel · Alder Lake

Intel Core i9-12900K

16 cores125W TDP$589 MSRP2021

Full Intel Core i9-12900K benchmarks →

*Price sourced from Amazon.com. Price and availability subject to change.

Where to buy

A listing for each part; the current price and stock are on the retailer's page.

Specs side-by-side

Spec	Ryzen 5 3600	Intel Core i9-12900K
cores	6	16
threads	12	24
p cores	—	8
e cores	—	8
base clock ghz	3.6	3.2
boost clock ghz	4.2	—
tdp w	65	125
memory bus	Dual-channel	—
l2 cache mb	—	14
l3 cache mb	32	30
process nm	7	—
socket	AMD Socket AM4	LGA1700

Synthetic benchmarks

Each row says whether a higher or a lower number is better (ranks and times are lower-is-better). Scores come from CGDirector, GadgetVersus, Notebookcheck, TechSpot, CPU-Monkey, technical.city, Geekbench Browser, NanoReview, PassMark and HWBOT; each row links its sources, and where they differ the cell shows their median. Empty cells mean we don't yet have that benchmark on file for the SKU.

Benchmark	Ryzen 5 3600	Intel Core i9-12900K
Cinebench R23 multi (higher is better) Source: CGDirector, GadgetVersus, Notebookcheck, TechSpot, CPU-Monkey	9,073 points	27,392 points
Cinebench R23 single (higher is better) Source: CGDirector, GadgetVersus, Notebookcheck, TechSpot, CPU-Monkey	1,245 points	2,004 points
Geekbench 6 multi (higher is better) Source: technical.city, Geekbench Browser, NanoReview, CPU-Monkey	7,067 points	17,450 points
Geekbench 6 single (higher is better) Source: technical.city, Geekbench Browser, NanoReview, CPU-Monkey	1,532 points	2,715 points
PassMark CPU Mark (higher is better) Source: PassMark	17,660 points	41,122 points
PassMark single thread (higher is better) Source: PassMark	—	4,128 points
PassMark Single Thread (higher is better) Source: PassMark	2,559 points	—
PassMark Single Thread Rating (higher is better) Source: PassMark	2,558 points	4,128 points
PassMark Single-Thread (higher is better) Source: PassMark	2,558 points	—
Y-cruncher 1B (lower is better) Source: HWBOT	49 seconds	—

Quick answers

Which is faster, the Ryzen 5 3600 or the Intel Core i9-12900K?

The Intel Core i9-12900K is ahead of the Ryzen 5 3600 on all 6 shared benchmarks on file, by 61% to 202%, including 202% in Cinebench R23 multi (27,392 vs 9,073).