Intel Core i7-6820HQ vs Intel Core i7-12700K

Core i7-6820HQ vs Core i7-12700K specs and performance

In our benchmarks, the Core i7-12700K beats the Core i7-6820HQ in overall performance. Furthermore, our gaming benchmark shows that it also outperforms the Core i7-6820HQ 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 i7-6820HQ that has 4 cores. It also has more threads than the Core i7-6820HQ. These CPUs have different clock speeds. Indeed, the Core i7-12700K has a slightly higher clock speed compared to the Core i7-6820HQ. Also, the Core i7-12700K has a slightly higher turbo speed. A Core i7-6820HQ 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.

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 i7-6820HQ has more threads than cores. Each physical core is split into multiple threads.