Intel Core i5-6600K vs Intel Core i5-12600K

Core i5-6600K vs Core i5-12600K specs and performance

In our benchmarks, the Core i5-12600K beats the Core i5-6600K in overall performance. Furthermore, our gaming benchmark shows that it also outperforms the Core i5-6600K in all gaming tests too.

With info from our database, we find that the Core i5-12600K has significantly more cores with 10 cores whereas the Core i5-6600K has 4 cores. It also has more threads than the Core i5-6600K. These CPUs have different clock speeds. Indeed, the Core i5-12600K has a slightly higher clock speed compared to the Core i5-6600K. Also, the Core i5-12600K has a slightly higher turbo speed. A Core i5-6600K CPU outputs less heat than a Core i5-12600K 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. For instance, the Core i5-6600K has the same number of threads as cores. This means the the CPU does not support hyperthreading.