Intel Core i5-12600K vs Intel Core i9-12900K

Core i5-12600K vs Core i9-12900K benchmarks

According to the hardwareDB Benchmark tool, the Core i9-12900K is faster than the Core i5-12600K. Furthermore, our gaming benchmark shows that it also outperforms the Core i5-12600K 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 i5-12600K. Indeed, the Core i9-12900K has 16 cores compared to 10 cores found in the Core i5-12600K. It also has more threads than the Core i5-12600K. With our hardware info, we find that the Core i5-12600K has a slightly higher clock speed than the Core i9-12900K. Despite this, the Core i9-12900K has a slightly higher turbo speed. A Core i5-12600K 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 i5-12600K has more threads than cores. Each physical core is split into multiple threads.