Intel Core i9-11900KF vs Intel Core i7-12700K

Core i9-11900KF vs Core i7-12700K benchmarks

Our benchmark analysis concludes that the Core i7-12700K performs better than the Core i9-11900KF. Furthermore, our gaming benchmark shows that it also outperforms the Core i9-11900KF in all gaming tests too.

When comparing core counts for these CPUs, we notice that the Core i7-12700K has significantly more cores with 12 cores compared to the Core i9-11900KF that has 8 cores. It also has more threads than the Core i9-11900KF. Our comparison shows that the Core i7-12700K has a slightly higher clock speed compared to the Core i9-11900KF. Despite this, the Core i9-11900KF has a slightly higher turbo speed. A Core i9-11900KF CPU outputs less heat than a Core i7-12700K 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 i9-11900KF has more threads than cores. Each physical core is split into multiple threads.