Intel Core i7-9700 vs Intel Core i3-12100

Compare Intel 9th Generation Core i7 8 core CPU vs Intel 12th Generation Core i3 4 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

$ 312.95
$ 175.80
$ 137.15 significantly less expensive

Benchmark Score

Overall Score

A combined score of all workloads

53 %
1% slightly better overall score
52 %

Gaming Score

The raw gaming performance with a fast GPU

77 %
85 %
10% slightly better gaming score

Multitasking Score

Performance in workloads using up to 8 cores

45 %
7% slightly better multitasking score
42 %

Heavy Workload Score

Performance in workloads using up to 16 cores

43 %
4% slightly better heavy workload score
41 %

Free CPU Benchmark

Want to compare your processor against the Core i7-9700 and the Core i3-12100? Download our free and quick PC Performance Test.

Other Benchmarks

3DMark Physics score

3DMark Physics score

Physics simulation benchmark

7068
8% slightly higher 3DMark Physics score
6496
Blender score

Blender score

Cycles Render (Samples per minute)

118.82
123.66
4% slightly higher Blender score
Geekbench 5 (multi) score

Geekbench 5 (multi) score

Multi threaded benchmark

6174
6822
10% slightly higher Geekbench 5 (multi) score
Geekbench 5 (single) score

Geekbench 5 (single) score

Single threaded benchmark

1526
2105
37% slightly higher Geekbench 5 (single) score
Geekbench 6 (multi) score

Geekbench 6 (multi) score

Multi threaded benchmark

6174
6822
10% slightly higher Geekbench 6 (multi) score
Geekbench 6 (single) score

Geekbench 6 (single) score

Single threaded benchmark

1526
2105
37% slightly higher Geekbench 6 (single) score

Specifications

Cores

Number of physical processing units

8
100% significantly more cores
4

Threads

Number of logical processing units

8
Identical
8

Clock Speed

Base frequency at which the chip operates

3 GHz
3.3 GHz
10% slightly higher clock speed

Turbo Speed

Higher frequency used for heavy workloads

4.7 GHz
9% slightly higher turbo speed
4.3 GHz

TDP

Thermal Design Power: Measure of heat generated by the CPU

65 W
60 W
8% slightly lower TDP

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
60% significantly more L1 cache
320 KiB

L3 Cache

General memory pool for all cores

12 MiB
Identical
12 MiB

Other details

Rank

Ranking in the hardwareDB database

174th of 1,239
191st of 1,239

Family

The product line

9th Generation Core i7
12th Generation Core i3

Release date

The official date of release of this chip

May 2019
February 2022

Memory Type

The type of memory used by this chip

DDR4-2666
DDR5-4800

Is Unlocked

Can this CPU can be overclocked

No
No

Supports ECC memory

Does this CPU support error correcting memory

No
-

Core i7-9700 vs Core i3-12100 comparison

Our benchmark analysis concludes that the Core i7-9700 performs better than the Core i3-12100. Despite this, the Core i3-12100 has the advantage in our gaming benchmark.

When comparing core counts for these CPUs, we notice that the Core i7-9700 has significantly more cores with 8 cores compared to the Core i3-12100 that has 4 cores. But they both have the same number of threads. With our hardware info, we find that the Core i3-12100 has a slightly higher clock speed than the Core i7-9700. Despite this, the Core i7-9700 has a slightly higher turbo speed. The Core i3-12100 outputs less heat than Core i7-9700 thanks to a slightly 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. For instance, the Core i7-9700 has the same number of threads as cores. This means the the CPU does not support hyperthreading.

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