Intel Core i5-9600K vs Intel Core i9-12900KF

Compare Intel 9th Generation Core i5 6 core CPU vs Intel 12th Generation Core i9 16 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

$ 159.00
$ 120.99 significantly less expensive
$ 279.99

Benchmark Score

Overall Score

A combined score of all workloads

4450 points
12789 points
187% significantly better overall score

Gaming Score

The raw gaming performance with a fast GPU

7080 points
14030 points
98% significantly better gaming score

Multitasking Score

Performance in workloads using up to 8 cores

3627 points
12383 points
241% significantly better multitasking score

Heavy Workload Score

Performance in workloads using up to 16 cores

3488 points
12302 points
252% significantly better heavy workload score

Free CPU Benchmark

Want to compare your processor against the Core i5-9600K and the Core i9-12900KF? Download our free and quick PC Performance Test.

Other Benchmarks

3DMark Physics score

3DMark Physics score

Physics simulation benchmark

4254 points
11666 points
174% significantly higher 3DMark Physics score
Blender score

Blender score

Cycles Render (Samples per minute)

94.07 points
361.08 points
283% significantly higher Blender score
Geekbench 5 (multi) score

Geekbench 5 (multi) score

Multi threaded benchmark

5629 points
14840 points
163% significantly higher Geekbench 5 (multi) score
Geekbench 5 (single) score

Geekbench 5 (single) score

Single threaded benchmark

1529 points
2507 points
63% significantly higher Geekbench 5 (single) score
Geekbench 6 (multi) score

Geekbench 6 (multi) score

Multi threaded benchmark

6212 points
14786 points
138% significantly higher Geekbench 6 (multi) score
Geekbench 6 (single) score

Geekbench 6 (single) score

Single threaded benchmark

1679 points
2584 points
53% significantly higher Geekbench 6 (single) score

Specifications

Cores

Number of physical processing units

6
16
166% significantly more cores

Threads

Number of logical processing units

6
24
300% significantly more threads

Clock Speed

Base frequency at which the chip operates

3.7 GHz
15% slightly higher clock speed
3.2 GHz

Turbo Speed

Higher frequency used for heavy workloads

4.6 GHz
5.2 GHz
13% slightly higher turbo speed

TDP

Thermal Design Power: Measure of heat generated by the CPU

95 W
153% significantly lower TDP
241 W

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

128 GiB
Identical
128 GiB

L1 Cache

Smallest embedded memory, but the fastest

384 KiB
1280 KiB
233% significantly more L1 cache

L3 Cache

General memory pool for all cores

9 MiB
30 MiB
233% significantly more L3 cache

Other details

Rank

Ranking in the hardwareDB database

394th of 1,089
44th of 1,089

Family

The product line

9th Generation Core i5
12th Generation Core i9

Release date

The official date of release of this chip

2018 November
2021 November

Memory Type

The type of memory used by this chip

DDR4-2666
DDR5-4800

Is Unlocked

Can this CPU can be overclocked

Yes
Yes

Supports ECC memory

Does this CPU support error correcting memory

No
-

Core i5-9600K vs Core i9-12900KF benchmarks

Our benchmark analysis concludes that the Core i9-12900KF performs better than the Core i5-9600K. Furthermore, our gaming benchmark shows that it also outperforms the Core i5-9600K in all gaming tests too.

In terms of the number of cores of each of these CPUs, the Core i9-12900KF has significantly more cores than the Core i5-9600K. Indeed, the Core i9-12900KF has 16 cores compared to 6 cores found in the Core i5-9600K. It also has more threads than the Core i5-9600K. These CPUs have different clock speeds. Indeed, the Core i5-9600K has a slightly higher clock speed compared to the Core i9-12900KF. Despite this, the Core i9-12900KF has a slightly higher turbo speed. A Core i5-9600K CPU outputs less heat than a Core i9-12900KF CPU because of its significantly lower TDP. This measures the amount of heat they output and can be used to estimate power consumption.

Modern CPUs generally have more logical cores than physical cores, this means that each core is split into multiple virtual cores, improving efficiency for parallel workloads. For instance, the Core i5-9600K has the same number of threads as cores. This means the the CPU does not support hyperthreading.

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