Intel Core i9-10900 vs Intel Core i5-12600HX

Compare Intel 10th Generation Core i9 10 core CPU vs Intel 12th Generation Core i5 12 core processor, specs and benchmark score. Which is the better CPU for gaming?

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Benchmark Score

Overall Score

A combined score of all workloads

7582 points
7962 points
5% slightly better overall score

Gaming Score

The raw gaming performance with a fast GPU

8692 points
9881 points
13% slightly better gaming score

Multitasking Score

Performance in workloads using up to 8 cores

7207 points
7422 points
2% slightly better multitasking score

Heavy Workload Score

Performance in workloads using up to 16 cores

7099 points
7289 points
2% slightly better heavy workload score

Free CPU Benchmark

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Other Benchmarks

Blender score

Blender score

Cycles Render (Samples per minute)

164.66 points
164.70 points
0.02% slightly higher Blender score

Specifications

Cores

Number of physical processing units

10
12
20% slightly more cores

Threads

Number of logical processing units

20
25% slightly more threads
16

Clock Speed

Base frequency at which the chip operates

2.8 GHz
11% slightly higher clock speed
2.5 GHz

Turbo Speed

Higher frequency used for heavy workloads

5.2 GHz
13% slightly higher turbo speed
4.6 GHz

TDP

Thermal Design Power: Measure of heat generated by the CPU

65 W
55 W
18% 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

640 KiB
960 KiB
49% significantly more L1 cache

L2 Cache

Secondary embedded memory, slower than L1 cache

2.5 MiB
9 MiB
259% significantly more L2 cache

L3 Cache

General memory pool for all cores

20 MiB
11% slightly more L3 cache
18 MiB

Other details

Rank

Ranking in the hardwareDB database

167th of 1,105
157th of 1,105

Family

The product line

10th Generation Core i9
12th Generation Core i5

Release date

The official date of release of this chip

2020 May
2022 May

Memory Type

The type of memory used by this chip

DDR4-2933
DDR5-4800

Is Unlocked

Can this CPU can be overclocked

No
Yes

Supports ECC memory

Does this CPU support error correcting memory

No
Yes

Core i9-10900 vs Core i5-12600HX specs and performance

In our benchmarks, the Core i5-12600HX beats the Core i9-10900 in overall performance. Furthermore, our gaming benchmark shows that it also outperforms the Core i9-10900 in all gaming tests too.

With info from our database, we find that the Core i5-12600HX has slightly more cores with 12 cores whereas the Core i9-10900 has 10 cores. Despite this, the Core i9-10900 has more threads than the Core i5-12600HX. These CPUs have different clock speeds. Indeed, the Core i9-10900 has a slightly higher clock speed compared to the Core i5-12600HX. Also, the Core i9-10900 has a slightly higher turbo speed. The Core i5-12600HX outputs less heat than Core i9-10900 thanks to a slightly lower TDP. This measures the amount of heat they output and can be used to estimate power consumption. In terms of cache, the Core i5-12600HX has significantly more L2 cache when compared to the Core i9-10900. Despite this, the Core i9-10900 has slightly more L3 cache compared to the Core i5-12600HX.

Modern CPUs generally have more logical cores than physical cores, this means that each core is split into multiple virtual cores, improving efficiency for parallel workloads. Indeed, the Core i9-10900 has more threads than cores. Each physical core is split into multiple threads.

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