Intel Core i9-11900K vs Intel Core i5-12600K

Compare Intel 11th Generation Core i9 8 core CPU vs Intel 12th Generation Core i5 10 core processor, specs and benchmark score. Which is the better CPU for gaming?

CPU Comparison

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Price

The cheapest price from our partner retailers

$ 559.99
$ 184.46
$ 375.53 significantly less expensive

Benchmark Score

Overall Score

A combined score of all workloads

8281 points
9422 points
13% slightly better overall score

Gaming Score

The raw gaming performance with a fast GPU

10754 points
12057 points
12% slightly better gaming score

Multitasking Score

Performance in workloads using up to 8 cores

7475 points
8581 points
14% slightly better multitasking score

Heavy Workload Score

Performance in workloads using up to 16 cores

7270 points
8381 points
15% slightly better heavy workload score

Free CPU Benchmark

Want to compare your processor against the Core i9-11900K and the Core i5-12600K? Download our free and quick PC Performance Test.

Other Benchmarks

3DMark Physics score

3DMark Physics score

Physics simulation benchmark

8414 points
4% slightly higher 3DMark Physics score
8019 points
Blender score

Blender score

Cycles Render (Samples per minute)

212.26 points
233.94 points
10% slightly higher Blender score
Cinebench R23 score

Cinebench R23 score

Multi threaded benchmark

15519 points
17491 points
12% slightly higher Cinebench R23 score
Geekbench 5 (multi) score

Geekbench 5 (multi) score

Multi threaded benchmark

10589 points
11486 points
8% slightly higher Geekbench 5 (multi) score
Geekbench 5 (single) score

Geekbench 5 (single) score

Single threaded benchmark

2288 points
2357 points
3% slightly higher Geekbench 5 (single) score
Geekbench 6 (multi) score

Geekbench 6 (multi) score

Multi threaded benchmark

11108 points
11863 points
6% slightly higher Geekbench 6 (multi) score
Geekbench 6 (single) score

Geekbench 6 (single) score

Single threaded benchmark

2402 points
2478 points
3% slightly higher Geekbench 6 (single) score

Specifications

Cores

Number of physical processing units

8
10
25% slightly more cores

Threads

Number of logical processing units

16
Identical
16

Clock Speed

Base frequency at which the chip operates

3.5 GHz
3.7 GHz
5% slightly higher clock speed

Turbo Speed

Higher frequency used for heavy workloads

5.3 GHz
8% slightly higher turbo speed
4.9 GHz

TDP

Thermal Design Power: Measure of heat generated by the CPU

125 W
20% slightly lower TDP
150 W

PCIe Lanes

Number of physical connections between the CPU and expansion slots

20
Identical
20

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
800 KiB
25% slightly more L1 cache

L3 Cache

General memory pool for all cores

16 MiB
20 MiB
25% slightly more L3 cache

Other details

Rank

Ranking in the hardwareDB database

136th of 1,089
102nd of 1,089

Family

The product line

11th Generation Core i9
12th Generation Core i5

Release date

The official date of release of this chip

2021 February
2021 November

Memory Type

The type of memory used by this chip

DDR4-3200
DDR5-4800

Is Unlocked

Can this CPU can be overclocked

Yes
Yes

Supports ECC memory

Does this CPU support error correcting memory

No
Yes

Core i9-11900K vs Core i5-12600K specs and performance

According to the hardwareDB Benchmark tool, the Core i5-12600K is faster than the Core i9-11900K. Furthermore, our gaming benchmark shows that it also outperforms the Core i9-11900K in all gaming tests too.

With info from our database, we find that the Core i5-12600K has slightly more cores with 10 cores whereas the Core i9-11900K has 8 cores. But they both have the same number of threads. With our hardware info, we find that the Core i5-12600K has a slightly higher clock speed than the Core i9-11900K. Despite this, the Core i9-11900K has a slightly higher turbo speed. A Core i9-11900K CPU outputs less heat than a Core i5-12600K CPU because of its slightly lower TDP. This measures the amount of heat they output and can be used to estimate power consumption.

The more cores a CPU has, the better the overall performance will be in parallel workloads such as multitasking. Many CPUs have more threads than cores, this means that each physical core is split into multiple logical cores, making them more efficient. Indeed, the Core i9-11900K has more threads than cores. Each physical core is split into multiple threads.

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