Intel Core i9-10900K vs Intel Core i9-12900KF

Compare Intel 10th Generation Core i9 10 core CPU vs Intel 12th Generation Core i9 16 core processor, specs and benchmark score. Which is the better CPU for gaming?

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Price

The cheapest price from our partner retailers

$ 484.10
$ 279.99
$ 204.11 significantly less expensive

Benchmark Score

Overall Score

A combined score of all workloads

8226 points
12789 points
55% significantly better overall score

Gaming Score

The raw gaming performance with a fast GPU

8838 points
14030 points
58% significantly better gaming score

Multitasking Score

Performance in workloads using up to 8 cores

8007 points
12383 points
54% significantly better multitasking score

Heavy Workload Score

Performance in workloads using up to 16 cores

7938 points
12302 points
54% significantly better heavy workload score

Free CPU Benchmark

Want to compare your processor against the Core i9-10900K and the Core i9-12900KF? Download our free and quick PC Performance Test.

Other Benchmarks

3DMark Physics score

3DMark Physics score

Physics simulation benchmark

8988 points
11666 points
29% slightly higher 3DMark Physics score
Blender score

Blender score

Cycles Render (Samples per minute)

231.23 points
361.08 points
56% significantly higher Blender score
Geekbench 5 (multi) score

Geekbench 5 (multi) score

Multi threaded benchmark

9381 points
14840 points
58% significantly higher Geekbench 5 (multi) score
Geekbench 5 (single) score

Geekbench 5 (single) score

Single threaded benchmark

1723 points
2507 points
45% significantly higher Geekbench 5 (single) score
Geekbench 6 (multi) score

Geekbench 6 (multi) score

Multi threaded benchmark

9141 points
14786 points
61% significantly higher Geekbench 6 (multi) score
Geekbench 6 (single) score

Geekbench 6 (single) score

Single threaded benchmark

1778 points
2584 points
45% significantly higher Geekbench 6 (single) score

Specifications

Cores

Number of physical processing units

10
16
60% significantly more cores

Threads

Number of logical processing units

20
24
20% slightly more threads

Clock Speed

Base frequency at which the chip operates

3.7 GHz
15% slightly higher clock speed
3.2 GHz

Turbo Speed

Higher frequency used for heavy workloads

5.3 GHz
1% slightly higher turbo speed
5.2 GHz

TDP

Thermal Design Power: Measure of heat generated by the CPU

125 W
92% significantly lower TDP
241 W

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
1280 KiB
100% significantly more L1 cache

L3 Cache

General memory pool for all cores

20 MiB
30 MiB
49% significantly more L3 cache

Other details

Rank

Ranking in the hardwareDB database

138th of 1,089
44th of 1,089

Family

The product line

10th Generation Core i9
12th Generation Core i9

Release date

The official date of release of this chip

2020 May
2021 November

Memory Type

The type of memory used by this chip

DDR4-2933
DDR5-4800

Is Unlocked

Can this CPU can be overclocked

Yes
Yes

Supports ECC memory

Does this CPU support error correcting memory

No
-

Core i9-10900K vs Core i9-12900KF specs and performance

Our benchmark analysis concludes that the Core i9-12900KF performs better than the Core i9-10900K. Furthermore, our gaming benchmark shows that it also outperforms the Core i9-10900K in all gaming tests too.

In terms of the number of cores of each of these CPUs, the Core i9-12900KF has significantly more cores than the Core i9-10900K. Indeed, the Core i9-12900KF has 16 cores compared to 10 cores found in the Core i9-10900K. It also has more threads than the Core i9-10900K. Our comparison shows that the Core i9-10900K has a slightly higher clock speed compared to the Core i9-12900KF. Also, the Core i9-10900K has a slightly higher turbo speed. A Core i9-10900K CPU outputs less heat than a Core i9-12900KF 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. Indeed, the Core i9-10900K has more threads than cores. Each physical core is split into multiple threads.

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