Intel Core i9-12900K vs Intel Xeon E5-1660 v3

Core i9-12900K vs Xeon E5-1660 v3 comparison

Our benchmark analysis concludes that the Core i9-12900K performs better than the Xeon E5-1660 v3. Furthermore, our gaming benchmark shows that it also outperforms the Xeon E5-1660 v3 in all gaming tests too.

In terms of the number of cores of each of these CPUs, the Core i9-12900K has significantly more cores than the Xeon E5-1660 v3. Indeed, the Core i9-12900K has 16 cores compared to 8 cores found in the Xeon E5-1660 v3. It also has more threads than the Xeon E5-1660 v3. These CPUs have different clock speeds. Indeed, the Core i9-12900K has a slightly higher clock speed compared to the Xeon E5-1660 v3. Also, the Core i9-12900K has a significantly higher turbo speed. The Xeon E5-1660 v3 outputs less heat than Core i9-12900K thanks to a 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 i9-12900K has more threads than cores. Each physical core is split into multiple threads.