Intel Core i7-9700K vs Intel Core i3-12100

Core i7-9700K vs Core i3-12100 benchmarks

In our benchmarks, the Core i7-9700K beats the Core i3-12100 in overall performance. Despite this, the Core i3-12100 has the advantage in our gaming benchmark.

In terms of the number of cores of each of these CPUs, the Core i7-9700K has significantly more cores than the Core i3-12100. Indeed, the Core i7-9700K has 8 cores compared to 4 cores found in the Core i3-12100. But they both have the same number of threads. With our hardware info, we find that the Core i7-9700K has a slightly higher clock speed than the Core i3-12100. Also, the Core i7-9700K has a slightly higher turbo speed. The Core i3-12100 outputs less heat than Core i7-9700K thanks to a 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 i7-9700K has the same number of threads as cores. This means the the CPU does not support hyperthreading.