Intel Core i7-6700 vs Intel Core i9-12900K

Compare Intel 6th Generation Core i7 4 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

$ 122.39
$ 166.61 significantly less expensive
$ 289.00

Benchmark Score

Overall Score

A combined score of all workloads

3117 points
13331 points
327% significantly better overall score

Gaming Score

The raw gaming performance with a fast GPU

4991 points
14234 points
185% significantly better gaming score

Multitasking Score

Performance in workloads using up to 8 cores

2559 points
13035 points
409% significantly better multitasking score

Heavy Workload Score

Performance in workloads using up to 16 cores

2457 points
12983 points
428% significantly better heavy workload score

Free CPU Benchmark

Want to compare your processor against the Core i7-6700 and the Core i9-12900K? Download our free and quick PC Performance Test.

Other Benchmarks

3DMark Physics score

3DMark Physics score

Physics simulation benchmark

2828 points
11701 points
313% significantly higher 3DMark Physics score
Blender score

Blender score

Cycles Render (Samples per minute)

69.31 points
364.47 points
425% significantly higher Blender score
Geekbench 5 (multi) score

Geekbench 5 (multi) score

Multi threaded benchmark

4052 points
15144 points
273% significantly higher Geekbench 5 (multi) score
Geekbench 5 (single) score

Geekbench 5 (single) score

Single threaded benchmark

1252 points
2550 points
103% significantly higher Geekbench 5 (single) score
Geekbench 6 (multi) score

Geekbench 6 (multi) score

Multi threaded benchmark

4207 points
15365 points
265% significantly higher Geekbench 6 (multi) score
Geekbench 6 (single) score

Geekbench 6 (single) score

Single threaded benchmark

1320 points
2616 points
98% significantly higher Geekbench 6 (single) score

Specifications

Cores

Number of physical processing units

4
16
300% significantly more cores

Threads

Number of logical processing units

8
24
200% significantly more threads

Clock Speed

Base frequency at which the chip operates

3.4 GHz
6% slightly higher clock speed
3.2 GHz

Turbo Speed

Higher frequency used for heavy workloads

4 GHz
5.2 GHz
30% slightly higher turbo speed

TDP

Thermal Design Power: Measure of heat generated by the CPU

65 W
270% 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

64 GiB
128 GiB
100% significantly more supported memory

L1 Cache

Smallest embedded memory, but the fastest

256 KiB
1280 KiB
400% significantly more L1 cache

L3 Cache

General memory pool for all cores

8 MiB
30 MiB
274% significantly more L3 cache

Other details

Rank

Ranking in the hardwareDB database

523rd of 1,089
39th of 1,089

Family

The product line

6th Generation Core i7
12th Generation Core i9

Release date

The official date of release of this chip

2015 August
2021 November

Memory Type

The type of memory used by this chip

DDR4-1866
DDR5-4800

Is Unlocked

Can this CPU can be overclocked

No
Yes

Supports ECC memory

Does this CPU support error correcting memory

No
Yes

Core i7-6700 vs Core i9-12900K benchmarks

According to the hardwareDB Benchmark tool, the Core i9-12900K is faster than the Core i7-6700. Furthermore, our gaming benchmark shows that it also outperforms the Core i7-6700 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 i7-6700. Indeed, the Core i9-12900K has 16 cores compared to 4 cores found in the Core i7-6700. It also has more threads than the Core i7-6700. Our comparison shows that the Core i7-6700 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 i7-6700 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.

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 i7-6700 has more threads than cores. Each physical core is split into multiple threads.

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