Intel Core i3-12100F vs Intel Core i5-12600K

Compare Intel 12th Generation Core i3 4 core CPU vs Intel 12th Generation Core i5 10 core processor, specs and benchmark score. Which is the better CPU for gaming?

CPU Comparison

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Price

The cheapest price from our partner retailers

$ 93.99
$ 90.47 significantly less expensive
$ 184.46

Benchmark Score

Overall Score

A combined score of all workloads

5223 points
9422 points
80% significantly better overall score

Gaming Score

The raw gaming performance with a fast GPU

8443 points
12057 points
42% slightly better gaming score

Multitasking Score

Performance in workloads using up to 8 cores

4270 points
8581 points
100% significantly better multitasking score

Heavy Workload Score

Performance in workloads using up to 16 cores

4098 points
8381 points
104% significantly better heavy workload score

Free CPU Benchmark

Want to compare your processor against the Core i3-12100F and the Core i5-12600K? Download our free and quick PC Performance Test.

Other Benchmarks

3DMark Physics score

3DMark Physics score

Physics simulation benchmark

4038 points
8019 points
98% significantly higher 3DMark Physics score
Blender score

Blender score

Cycles Render (Samples per minute)

106.71 points
233.94 points
119% significantly higher Blender score
Geekbench 5 (multi) score

Geekbench 5 (multi) score

Multi threaded benchmark

7143 points
11486 points
60% significantly higher Geekbench 5 (multi) score
Geekbench 5 (single) score

Geekbench 5 (single) score

Single threaded benchmark

2123 points
2357 points
11% slightly higher Geekbench 5 (single) score
Geekbench 6 (multi) score

Geekbench 6 (multi) score

Multi threaded benchmark

7384 points
11863 points
60% significantly higher Geekbench 6 (multi) score
Geekbench 6 (single) score

Geekbench 6 (single) score

Single threaded benchmark

2218 points
2478 points
11% slightly higher Geekbench 6 (single) score

Specifications

Cores

Number of physical processing units

4
10
150% significantly more cores

Threads

Number of logical processing units

8
16
100% significantly more threads

Clock Speed

Base frequency at which the chip operates

3.3 GHz
3.7 GHz
12% slightly higher clock speed

Turbo Speed

Higher frequency used for heavy workloads

4.3 GHz
4.9 GHz
13% slightly higher turbo speed

TDP

Thermal Design Power: Measure of heat generated by the CPU

58 W
158% significantly lower TDP
150 W

PCIe Lanes

Number of physical connections between the CPU and expansion slots

20
Identical
20

Memory Channels

Lanes for simultaneous memory access

2
Identical
2

Supported Memory

Maximum amount of RAM supported by this CPU

128 GiB
Identical
128 GiB

L1 Cache

Smallest embedded memory, but the fastest

320 KiB
800 KiB
150% significantly more L1 cache

L3 Cache

General memory pool for all cores

12 MiB
20 MiB
66% significantly more L3 cache

Other details

Rank

Ranking in the hardwareDB database

323rd of 1,089
102nd of 1,089

Family

The product line

12th Generation Core i3
12th Generation Core i5

Release date

The official date of release of this chip

2022 February
2021 November

Memory Type

The type of memory used by this chip

DDR5-4800
DDR5-4800

Is Unlocked

Can this CPU can be overclocked

No
Yes

Supports ECC memory

Does this CPU support error correcting memory

-
Yes

Core i3-12100F vs Core i5-12600K comparison

According to the hardwareDB Benchmark tool, the Core i5-12600K is faster than the Core i3-12100F. Furthermore, our gaming benchmark shows that it also outperforms the Core i3-12100F in all gaming tests too.

When comparing core counts for these CPUs, we notice that the Core i5-12600K has significantly more cores with 10 cores compared to the Core i3-12100F that has 4 cores. It also has more threads than the Core i3-12100F. Our comparison shows that the Core i5-12600K has a slightly higher clock speed compared to the Core i3-12100F. Also, the Core i5-12600K has a slightly higher turbo speed. A Core i3-12100F CPU outputs less heat than a Core i5-12600K CPU because of its significantly lower TDP. This measures the amount of heat they output and can be used to estimate power consumption.

The more cores a CPU has, the better the overall performance will be in parallel workloads such as multitasking. Many CPUs have more threads than cores, this means that each physical core is split into multiple logical cores, making them more efficient. Indeed, the Core i3-12100F has more threads than cores. Each physical core is split into multiple threads.

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