Intel Core i9-10980HK vs Intel Core i5-12450H

Core i9-10980HK vs Core i5-12450H specs and performance

In our benchmarks, the Core i9-10980HK beats the Core i5-12450H in overall performance. Despite this, the Core i5-12450H has the advantage in our gaming benchmark.

When comparing these CPUs we notice that they have the same number of cores but the Core i9-10980HK has more threads. Our comparison shows that the Core i9-10980HK has a slightly higher clock speed compared to the Core i5-12450H. Also, the Core i9-10980HK has a slightly higher turbo speed. Both these chips have an identical TDP (Thermal Design Power). This measures the amount of heat they output and can be used to estimate power consumption. When comparing cache sizes, these CPUs have an identical amount of L2 cache. The Core i9-10980HK also has slightly more L3 cache.

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 i9-10980HK has more threads than cores. Each physical core is split into multiple threads.