Intel Core i5-6600K vs Intel Core i3-12100F

Compare Intel 6th Generation Core i5 4 core CPU vs Intel 12th Generation Core i3 4 core processor, specs and benchmark score. Which is the better CPU for gaming?

CPU Comparison

Quickly search and compare processors

Price

The cheapest price from our partner retailers

$ 175.64
$ 93.99
$ 81.65 significantly less expensive

Benchmark Score

Overall Score

A combined score of all workloads

2754 points
5223 points
89% significantly better overall score

Gaming Score

The raw gaming performance with a fast GPU

5105 points
8443 points
65% significantly better gaming score

Multitasking Score

Performance in workloads using up to 8 cores

2098 points
4270 points
103% significantly better multitasking score

Heavy Workload Score

Performance in workloads using up to 16 cores

2013 points
4098 points
103% significantly better heavy workload score

Free CPU Benchmark

Want to compare your processor against the Core i5-6600K and the Core i3-12100F? Download our free and quick PC Performance Test.

Other Benchmarks

3DMark Physics score

3DMark Physics score

Physics simulation benchmark

2595 points
4038 points
55% significantly higher 3DMark Physics score
Blender score

Blender score

Cycles Render (Samples per minute)

55.62 points
106.71 points
91% significantly higher Blender score
Geekbench 5 (multi) score

Geekbench 5 (multi) score

Multi threaded benchmark

3989 points
7143 points
79% significantly higher Geekbench 5 (multi) score
Geekbench 5 (single) score

Geekbench 5 (single) score

Single threaded benchmark

1400 points
2123 points
51% significantly higher Geekbench 5 (single) score
Geekbench 6 (multi) score

Geekbench 6 (multi) score

Multi threaded benchmark

4043 points
7384 points
82% significantly higher Geekbench 6 (multi) score
Geekbench 6 (single) score

Geekbench 6 (single) score

Single threaded benchmark

1429 points
2218 points
55% significantly higher Geekbench 6 (single) score

Specifications

Cores

Number of physical processing units

4
Identical
4

Threads

Number of logical processing units

4
8
100% significantly more threads

Clock Speed

Base frequency at which the chip operates

3.5 GHz
6% slightly higher clock speed
3.3 GHz

Turbo Speed

Higher frequency used for heavy workloads

3.9 GHz
4.3 GHz
10% slightly higher turbo speed

TDP

Thermal Design Power: Measure of heat generated by the CPU

91 W
58 W
56% 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

64 GiB
128 GiB
100% significantly more supported memory

L1 Cache

Smallest embedded memory, but the fastest

256 KiB
320 KiB
25% slightly more L1 cache

L3 Cache

General memory pool for all cores

6 MiB
12 MiB
100% significantly more L3 cache

Other details

Rank

Ranking in the hardwareDB database

578th of 1,089
323rd of 1,089

Family

The product line

6th Generation Core i5
12th Generation Core i3

Release date

The official date of release of this chip

2015 August
2022 February

Memory Type

The type of memory used by this chip

DDR4-1866
DDR5-4800

Is Unlocked

Can this CPU can be overclocked

Yes
No

Supports ECC memory

Does this CPU support error correcting memory

No
-

Core i5-6600K vs Core i3-12100F specs and performance

Our benchmark analysis concludes that the Core i3-12100F performs better than the Core i5-6600K. Furthermore, our gaming benchmark shows that it also outperforms the Core i5-6600K in all gaming tests too.

Info from our database shows that they both have the same core count but the Core i3-12100F has more threads. Our comparison shows that the Core i5-6600K has a slightly higher clock speed compared to the Core i3-12100F. Despite this, the Core i3-12100F has a slightly higher turbo speed. The Core i3-12100F outputs less heat than Core i5-6600K thanks to a 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. For instance, the Core i5-6600K 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