Intel Core i5-12600K vs Intel Core i9-7900X

Compare Intel 12th Generation Core i5 10 core CPU vs Intel Core X-series 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

$ 184.46
$ 505.49 significantly less expensive
$ 689.95

Benchmark Score

Overall Score

A combined score of all workloads

9422 points
34% slightly better overall score
7006 points

Gaming Score

The raw gaming performance with a fast GPU

12057 points
57% significantly better gaming score
7653 points

Multitasking Score

Performance in workloads using up to 8 cores

8581 points
26% slightly better multitasking score
6778 points

Heavy Workload Score

Performance in workloads using up to 16 cores

8381 points
24% slightly better heavy workload score
6719 points

Free CPU Benchmark

Want to compare your processor against the Core i5-12600K and the Core i9-7900X? Download our free and quick PC Performance Test.

Other Benchmarks

3DMark Physics score

3DMark Physics score

Physics simulation benchmark

8019 points
14% slightly higher 3DMark Physics score
6987 points
Blender score

Blender score

Cycles Render (Samples per minute)

233.94 points
11% slightly higher Blender score
209.19 points
Geekbench 5 (multi) score

Geekbench 5 (multi) score

Multi threaded benchmark

11486 points
26% slightly higher Geekbench 5 (multi) score
9102 points
Geekbench 5 (single) score

Geekbench 5 (single) score

Single threaded benchmark

2357 points
67% significantly higher Geekbench 5 (single) score
1406 points
Geekbench 6 (multi) score

Geekbench 6 (multi) score

Multi threaded benchmark

11863 points
34% slightly higher Geekbench 6 (multi) score
8832 points
Geekbench 6 (single) score

Geekbench 6 (single) score

Single threaded benchmark

2478 points
73% significantly higher Geekbench 6 (single) score
1432 points

Specifications

Cores

Number of physical processing units

10
Identical
10

Threads

Number of logical processing units

16
20
25% slightly more threads

Clock Speed

Base frequency at which the chip operates

3.7 GHz
12% slightly higher clock speed
3.3 GHz

Turbo Speed

Higher frequency used for heavy workloads

4.9 GHz
13% slightly higher turbo speed
4.3 GHz

TDP

Thermal Design Power: Measure of heat generated by the CPU

150 W
140 W
7% slightly lower TDP

PCIe Lanes

Number of physical connections between the CPU and expansion slots

20
44
120% significantly more pcie lanes

Memory Channels

Lanes for simultaneous memory access

2
4
100% significantly more memory channels

Supported Memory

Maximum amount of RAM supported by this CPU

128 GiB
Identical
128 GiB

L1 Cache

Smallest embedded memory, but the fastest

800 KiB
25% slightly more L1 cache
640 KiB

L3 Cache

General memory pool for all cores

20 MiB
42% many more L3 cache
14 MiB

Other details

Rank

Ranking in the hardwareDB database

102nd of 1,089
193rd of 1,089

Family

The product line

12th Generation Core i5
Core X-series

Release date

The official date of release of this chip

2021 November
2017 May

Memory Type

The type of memory used by this chip

DDR5-4800
DDR4-2666

Is Unlocked

Can this CPU can be overclocked

Yes
Yes

Supports ECC memory

Does this CPU support error correcting memory

Yes
No

Core i5-12600K vs Core i9-7900X benchmarks

In our benchmarks, the Core i5-12600K beats the Core i9-7900X in overall performance. Furthermore, our gaming benchmark shows that it also outperforms the Core i9-7900X in all gaming tests too.

Info from our database shows that they both have the same core count but the Core i9-7900X has more threads. These CPUs have different clock speeds. Indeed, the Core i5-12600K has a slightly higher clock speed compared to the Core i9-7900X. Also, the Core i5-12600K has a slightly higher turbo speed. The Core i9-7900X outputs less heat than Core i5-12600K thanks to a slightly 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 i5-12600K has more threads than cores. Each physical core is split into multiple threads.

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