Intel Core i5-9600KF vs Intel Core i7-12700K

Compare Intel 9th Generation Core i5 6 core CPU vs Intel 12th Generation Core i7 12 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

$ 269.95
$ 259.99
$ 9.96 slightly less expensive

Benchmark Score

Overall Score

A combined score of all workloads

4518 points
11540 points
155% significantly better overall score

Gaming Score

The raw gaming performance with a fast GPU

7209 points
13325 points
84% significantly better gaming score

Multitasking Score

Performance in workloads using up to 8 cores

3673 points
10952 points
198% significantly better multitasking score

Heavy Workload Score

Performance in workloads using up to 16 cores

3525 points
10812 points
206% significantly better heavy workload score

Free CPU Benchmark

Want to compare your processor against the Core i5-9600KF and the Core i7-12700K? Download our free and quick PC Performance Test.

Other Benchmarks

3DMark Physics score

3DMark Physics score

Physics simulation benchmark

4297 points
10051 points
133% significantly higher 3DMark Physics score
Blender score

Blender score

Cycles Render (Samples per minute)

88.50 points
304.26 points
243% significantly higher Blender score
Geekbench 5 (multi) score

Geekbench 5 (multi) score

Multi threaded benchmark

5456 points
13491 points
147% significantly higher Geekbench 5 (multi) score
Geekbench 5 (single) score

Geekbench 5 (single) score

Single threaded benchmark

1503 points
2487 points
65% significantly higher Geekbench 5 (single) score
Geekbench 6 (multi) score

Geekbench 6 (multi) score

Multi threaded benchmark

5909 points
13854 points
134% significantly higher Geekbench 6 (multi) score
Geekbench 6 (single) score

Geekbench 6 (single) score

Single threaded benchmark

1634 points
2554 points
56% significantly higher Geekbench 6 (single) score

Specifications

Cores

Number of physical processing units

6
12
100% significantly more cores

Threads

Number of logical processing units

6
20
233% significantly more threads

Clock Speed

Base frequency at which the chip operates

3.7 GHz
2% slightly higher clock speed
3.6 GHz

Turbo Speed

Higher frequency used for heavy workloads

4.6 GHz
5 GHz
8% slightly higher turbo speed

TDP

Thermal Design Power: Measure of heat generated by the CPU

95 W
100% significantly lower TDP
190 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
960 KiB
150% significantly more L1 cache

L3 Cache

General memory pool for all cores

9 MiB
25 MiB
177% significantly more L3 cache

Other details

Rank

Ranking in the hardwareDB database

388th of 1,089
57th of 1,089

Family

The product line

9th Generation Core i5
12th Generation Core i7

Release date

The official date of release of this chip

2019 February
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
Yes

Core i5-9600KF vs Core i7-12700K benchmarks

In our benchmarks, the Core i7-12700K beats the Core i5-9600KF in overall performance. Furthermore, our gaming benchmark shows that it also outperforms the Core i5-9600KF in all gaming tests too.

When comparing core counts for these CPUs, we notice that the Core i7-12700K has significantly more cores with 12 cores compared to the Core i5-9600KF that has 6 cores. It also has more threads than the Core i5-9600KF. With our hardware info, we find that the Core i5-9600KF has a slightly higher clock speed than the Core i7-12700K. Despite this, the Core i7-12700K has a slightly higher turbo speed. A Core i5-9600KF CPU outputs less heat than a Core i7-12700K 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 i5-9600KF has the same number of threads as cores. This means the the CPU does not support hyperthreading.

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