Intel Core i3-7100U vs Intel Core i9-12900K

Core i3-7100U vs Core i9-12900K specs and performance

In our benchmarks, the Core i9-12900K beats the Core i3-7100U in overall performance. Furthermore, our gaming benchmark shows that it also outperforms the Core i3-7100U in all gaming tests too.

In terms of the number of cores of each of these CPUs, the Core i9-12900K has significantly more cores than the Core i3-7100U. Indeed, the Core i9-12900K has 16 cores compared to 2 cores found in the Core i3-7100U. It also has more threads than the Core i3-7100U. With our hardware info, we find that the Core i9-12900K has a slightly higher clock speed than the Core i3-7100U. A Core i3-7100U CPU outputs less heat than a Core i9-12900K CPU because of its significantly lower TDP. This measures the amount of heat they output and can be used to estimate power consumption.

Most CPUs have more threads than cores. This technology, colloquially called hyperthreading, improves performance by splitting a core into multiple virtual ones. This provides more efficient utilisation of a core. Indeed, the Core i3-7100U has more threads than cores. Each physical core is split into multiple threads.