Introduction

It seems like April is the month where manufacturers release slightly updated versions of already very capable products.

We have only just recovered from seeing the Nvidia RTX 3090 Ti when the Intel Core i9-12900KS arrived on our desk. It was the tail end of last year when we looked at the regular Core i9-12900K, and found it to be an extremely fast processor at a reasonable price, if something that ran far too hot for any cooling we had on hand.

The Core i9-12900KS promises to be quicker still, but the million dollar question is as to whether they have tamed those high temperatures, and whether the increase in clock speed on both the Performance Cores and Efficiency Cores is enough to justify the not-inconsiderable extra cost of this new flagship LGA1700 model.

Being something that is basically identical to something we've seen before, albeit refined, there is nothing new to tell you at the start, so let's get busy giving you a quick look at the specifications and very flashy packaging, before we find out how it compares to the regular Core i9-12900K.

Technical Specifications

The Core i9-12900KS is to the 12900K what the RTX 3090 Ti was to the RTX 3090. It's a refined, slightly tweaked model that is just a little bit more than the model it supersedes. It's not a revolution, but an evolution. Is that enough to keep us champing at the bit to own one?