Intel Core i7-12700 vs Intel Core i9-9940X

Core i7-12700 vs Core i9-9940X benchmarks

In our benchmarks, the Core i7-12700 beats the Core i9-9940X in overall performance. Furthermore, our gaming benchmark shows that it also outperforms the Core i9-9940X in all gaming tests too.

In terms of the number of cores of each of these CPUs, the Core i9-9940X has slightly more cores than the Core i7-12700. Indeed, the Core i9-9940X has 14 cores compared to 12 cores found in the Core i7-12700. It also has more threads than the Core i7-12700. Both the Core i7-12700 and Core i9-9940X have the same clock speed. Despite this, the Core i7-12700 has a slightly higher turbo speed. A Core i7-12700 CPU outputs less heat than a Core i9-9940X 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. Indeed, the Core i7-12700 has more threads than cores. Each physical core is split into multiple threads.