i9-12900K vs Athlon II X3 435 - Need For Speed: Payback RTX 4080 Max-Q - Game Performance Benchmarks

Multi-Thread Performance

Single-Thread Performance

i9-12900K

• The i9-12900K has more cores. The benefit of having more cores is that the system can handle more threads. Each core can handle a separate stream of data. This architecture greatly increases the performance of a system that is running concurrent applications.
• The i9-12900K has more threads. Larger programs are divided into threads (small sections) so that the processor can execute them simultaneously to get faster execution.
• For some games, a cpu with a higher clock speed, or in a technical name IPC (Instructions per clock), has better results than other CPU's with higher core count and lower core speed.
• The i9-12900K has a smaller process size. The faster a transistor can toggle on and off, the faster it can do work. And transistors that turn on and off with less energy are more efficient, reducing the operating power, or “dynamic power consumption,” required by a processor.

Athlon II X3 435

• The Athlon II X3 435 has higher Level 2 Cache. Data/instructions which have to be processed can be loaded from the fast L2 and the CPU does not have to wait for the very slow DDR RAM
• The Athlon II X3 435 is more power efficient and generates less heat.