Intel Core i5-6400 vs Intel Core i5-12600

Core i5-6400 vs Core i5-12600 specs and performance

Our benchmark analysis concludes that the Core i5-12600 performs better than the Core i5-6400. Furthermore, our gaming benchmark shows that it also outperforms the Core i5-6400 in all gaming tests too.

In terms of the number of cores of each of these CPUs, the Core i5-12600 has significantly more cores than the Core i5-6400. Indeed, the Core i5-12600 has 6 cores compared to 4 cores found in the Core i5-6400. It also has more threads than the Core i5-6400. Our comparison shows that the Core i5-12600 has a slightly higher clock speed compared to the Core i5-6400. Also, the Core i5-12600 has a significantly higher turbo speed. Both these chips have an identical TDP (Thermal Design Power). 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. For instance, the Core i5-6400 has the same number of threads as cores. This means the the CPU does not support hyperthreading.