Intel Core i7-9700 vs Intel Core i5-12600K

Core i7-9700 vs Core i5-12600K specs and performance

In our benchmarks, the Core i5-12600K beats the Core i7-9700 in overall performance. Furthermore, our gaming benchmark shows that it also outperforms the Core i7-9700 in all gaming tests too.

In terms of the number of cores of each of these CPUs, the Core i5-12600K has slightly more cores than the Core i7-9700. Indeed, the Core i5-12600K has 10 cores compared to 8 cores found in the Core i7-9700. It also has more threads than the Core i7-9700. These CPUs have different clock speeds. Indeed, the Core i5-12600K has a slightly higher clock speed compared to the Core i7-9700. Also, the Core i5-12600K has a slightly higher turbo speed. A Core i7-9700 CPU outputs less heat than a Core i5-12600K 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. For instance, the Core i7-9700 has the same number of threads as cores. This means the the CPU does not support hyperthreading.