Intel Core i7-10700K vs Intel Core i9-12900K

Compare Intel 10th Generation Core i7 8 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

$ 380.99
$ 289.00
$ 91.99 significantly less expensive

Benchmark Score

Overall Score

A combined score of all workloads

6751 points
13331 points
97% significantly better overall score

Gaming Score

The raw gaming performance with a fast GPU

8301 points
14234 points
71% significantly better gaming score

Multitasking Score

Performance in workloads using up to 8 cores

6232 points
13035 points
109% significantly better multitasking score

Heavy Workload Score

Performance in workloads using up to 16 cores

6087 points
12983 points
113% significantly better heavy workload score

Free CPU Benchmark

Want to compare your processor against the Core i7-10700K and the Core i9-12900K? Download our free and quick PC Performance Test.

Other Benchmarks

3DMark Physics score

3DMark Physics score

Physics simulation benchmark

7292 points
11701 points
60% significantly higher 3DMark Physics score
Blender score

Blender score

Cycles Render (Samples per minute)

177.76 points
364.47 points
105% significantly higher Blender score
Geekbench 5 (multi) score

Geekbench 5 (multi) score

Multi threaded benchmark

8022 points
15144 points
88% significantly higher Geekbench 5 (multi) score
Geekbench 5 (single) score

Geekbench 5 (single) score

Single threaded benchmark

1655 points
2550 points
54% significantly higher Geekbench 5 (single) score
Geekbench 6 (multi) score

Geekbench 6 (multi) score

Multi threaded benchmark

8131 points
15365 points
88% significantly higher Geekbench 6 (multi) score
Geekbench 6 (single) score

Geekbench 6 (single) score

Single threaded benchmark

1719 points
2616 points
52% significantly higher Geekbench 6 (single) score

Specifications

Cores

Number of physical processing units

8
16
100% significantly more cores

Threads

Number of logical processing units

16
24
49% significantly more threads

Clock Speed

Base frequency at which the chip operates

3.8 GHz
18% slightly higher clock speed
3.2 GHz

Turbo Speed

Higher frequency used for heavy workloads

5.1 GHz
5.2 GHz
1% slightly higher turbo speed

TDP

Thermal Design Power: Measure of heat generated by the CPU

125 W
92% 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

512 KiB
1280 KiB
150% significantly more L1 cache

L3 Cache

General memory pool for all cores

16 MiB
30 MiB
87% significantly more L3 cache

Other details

Rank

Ranking in the hardwareDB database

207th of 1,089
39th of 1,089

Family

The product line

10th Generation Core i7
12th Generation Core i9

Release date

The official date of release of this chip

2020 May
2021 November

Memory Type

The type of memory used by this chip

DDR4-2933
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 i7-10700K vs Core i9-12900K comparison

According to the hardwareDB Benchmark tool, the Core i9-12900K is faster than the Core i7-10700K. Furthermore, our gaming benchmark shows that it also outperforms the Core i7-10700K in all gaming tests too.

In terms of the number of cores of each of these CPUs, the Core i9-12900K has significantly more cores than the Core i7-10700K. Indeed, the Core i9-12900K has 16 cores compared to 8 cores found in the Core i7-10700K. It also has more threads than the Core i7-10700K. These CPUs have different clock speeds. Indeed, the Core i7-10700K has a slightly higher clock speed compared to the Core i9-12900K. Despite this, the Core i9-12900K has a slightly higher turbo speed. A Core i7-10700K CPU outputs less heat than a Core i9-12900K CPU because of its significantly lower TDP. This measures the amount of heat they output and can be used to estimate power consumption.

The more cores a CPU has, the better the overall performance will be in parallel workloads such as multitasking. Many CPUs have more threads than cores, this means that each physical core is split into multiple logical cores, making them more efficient. Indeed, the Core i7-10700K has more threads than cores. Each physical core is split into multiple threads.

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