Intel Core i7-7700 vs Intel Core i5-12600

Core i7-7700 vs Core i5-12600 specs and performance

Our benchmark analysis concludes that the Core i5-12600 performs better than the Core i7-7700. Furthermore, our gaming benchmark shows that it also outperforms the Core i7-7700 in all gaming tests too.

In terms of the number of cores of each of these CPUs, the Core i5-12600 has significantly more cores than the Core i7-7700. Indeed, the Core i5-12600 has 6 cores compared to 4 cores found in the Core i7-7700. It also has more threads than the Core i7-7700. Our comparison shows that the Core i7-7700 has a slightly higher clock speed compared to the Core i5-12600. Despite this, the Core i5-12600 has a slightly higher turbo speed. Both these chips have an identical TDP (Thermal Design Power). 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 i7-7700 has more threads than cores. Each physical core is split into multiple threads.