Intel Core i5-2500K vs Intel Core i9-12900T

Compare Intel Core 4 core CPU vs Intel 12th Generation Core i9 16 core processor, specs and benchmark score. Which is the better CPU for gaming?

CPU Comparison

Quickly search and compare processors

Benchmark Score

Overall Score

A combined score of all workloads

2325 points
6632 points
185% significantly better overall score

Gaming Score

The raw gaming performance with a fast GPU

4281 points
7128 points
66% significantly better gaming score

Multitasking Score

Performance in workloads using up to 8 cores

1776 points
6506 points
266% significantly better multitasking score

Heavy Workload Score

Performance in workloads using up to 16 cores

1704 points
6504 points
281% significantly better heavy workload score

Free CPU Benchmark

Want to compare your processor against the Core i5-2500K and the Core i9-12900T? Download our free and quick PC Performance Test.

Other Benchmarks

Blender score

Blender score

Cycles Render (Samples per minute)

34.51 points
188.94 points
447% significantly higher Blender score
Geekbench 6 (multi) score

Geekbench 6 (multi) score

Multi threaded benchmark

1910 points
11628 points
508% significantly higher Geekbench 6 (multi) score
Geekbench 6 (single) score

Geekbench 6 (single) score

Single threaded benchmark

650 points
2268 points
248% significantly higher Geekbench 6 (single) score

Specifications

Cores

Number of physical processing units

4
16
300% significantly more cores

Threads

Number of logical processing units

4
24
499% significantly more threads

Clock Speed

Base frequency at which the chip operates

3.3 GHz
138% significantly higher clock speed
1.38 GHz

Turbo Speed

Higher frequency used for heavy workloads

3.7 GHz
4.9 GHz
32% slightly higher turbo speed

TDP

Thermal Design Power: Measure of heat generated by the CPU

95 W
35 W
171% significantly lower TDP

PCIe Lanes

Number of physical connections between the CPU and expansion slots

16
20
25% slightly more pcie lanes

Memory Channels

Lanes for simultaneous memory access

2
Identical
2

Supported Memory

Maximum amount of RAM supported by this CPU

32 GiB
128 GiB
300% significantly more supported memory

Other details

Rank

Ranking in the hardwareDB database

654th of 1,089
214th of 1,089

Family

The product line

Core
12th Generation Core i9

Release date

The official date of release of this chip

2011 February
2022 February

Memory Type

The type of memory used by this chip

DDR3-1066
DDR5-4800

Is Unlocked

Can this CPU can be overclocked

-
Yes

Supports ECC memory

Does this CPU support error correcting memory

No
Yes

Core i5-2500K vs Core i9-12900T specs and performance

Our benchmark analysis concludes that the Core i9-12900T performs better than the Core i5-2500K. Despite this, the Core i5-2500K has the advantage in our gaming benchmark.

With info from our database, we find that the Core i9-12900T has significantly more cores with 16 cores whereas the Core i5-2500K has 4 cores. It also has more threads than the Core i5-2500K. Our comparison shows that the Core i5-2500K has a significantly higher clock speed compared to the Core i9-12900T. Despite this, the Core i9-12900T has a slightly higher turbo speed. The Core i9-12900T outputs less heat than Core i5-2500K thanks to a 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. For instance, the Core i5-2500K has the same number of threads as cores. This means the the CPU does not support hyperthreading.

Comments

No comments yet! Be the first to leave a comment using the form below.

Keep comments on topic and be polite. Comments are subject to moderation before they are published.

Popular CPU Comparisons