Intel Core i9-12900KF vs Intel Core i7-4790

Compare Intel 12th Generation Core i9 16 core CPU vs Intel 4th Generation Core i7 4 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

$ 279.99
$ 98.75
$ 181.24 significantly less expensive

Benchmark Score

Overall Score

A combined score of all workloads

12789 points
346% significantly better overall score
2865 points

Gaming Score

The raw gaming performance with a fast GPU

14030 points
213% significantly better gaming score
4473 points

Multitasking Score

Performance in workloads using up to 8 cores

12383 points
418% significantly better multitasking score
2388 points

Heavy Workload Score

Performance in workloads using up to 16 cores

12302 points
435% significantly better heavy workload score
2298 points

Free CPU Benchmark

Want to compare your processor against the Core i9-12900KF and the Core i7-4790? Download our free and quick PC Performance Test.

Other Benchmarks

3DMark Physics score

3DMark Physics score

Physics simulation benchmark

11666 points
377% significantly higher 3DMark Physics score
2441 points
Blender score

Blender score

Cycles Render (Samples per minute)

361.08 points
465% significantly higher Blender score
63.87 points
Geekbench 5 (multi) score

Geekbench 5 (multi) score

Multi threaded benchmark

14840 points
295% significantly higher Geekbench 5 (multi) score
3751 points
Geekbench 5 (single) score

Geekbench 5 (single) score

Single threaded benchmark

2507 points
113% significantly higher Geekbench 5 (single) score
1174 points
Geekbench 6 (multi) score

Geekbench 6 (multi) score

Multi threaded benchmark

14786 points
280% significantly higher Geekbench 6 (multi) score
3891 points
Geekbench 6 (single) score

Geekbench 6 (single) score

Single threaded benchmark

2584 points
108% significantly higher Geekbench 6 (single) score
1241 points

Specifications

Cores

Number of physical processing units

16
300% significantly more cores
4

Threads

Number of logical processing units

24
200% significantly more threads
8

Clock Speed

Base frequency at which the chip operates

3.2 GHz
3.60 GHz
12% slightly higher clock speed

Turbo Speed

Higher frequency used for heavy workloads

5.2 GHz
30% slightly higher turbo speed
4 GHz

TDP

Thermal Design Power: Measure of heat generated by the CPU

241 W
84 W
186% significantly lower TDP

PCIe Lanes

Number of physical connections between the CPU and expansion slots

20
25% slightly more pcie lanes
16

Memory Channels

Lanes for simultaneous memory access

2
Identical
2

Supported Memory

Maximum amount of RAM supported by this CPU

128 GiB
300% significantly more supported memory
32 GiB

L3 Cache

General memory pool for all cores

30 MiB
274% significantly more L3 cache
8 MiB

Other details

Rank

Ranking in the hardwareDB database

44th of 1,089
558th of 1,089

Family

The product line

12th Generation Core i9
4th Generation Core i7

Release date

The official date of release of this chip

2021 November
2014 May

Memory Type

The type of memory used by this chip

DDR5-4800
DDR3-1333

Is Unlocked

Can this CPU can be overclocked

Yes
-

Supports ECC memory

Does this CPU support error correcting memory

-
No

Core i9-12900KF vs Core i7-4790 comparison

In our benchmarks, the Core i9-12900KF beats the Core i7-4790 in overall performance. Furthermore, our gaming benchmark shows that it also outperforms the Core i7-4790 in all gaming tests too.

With info from our database, we find that the Core i9-12900KF has significantly more cores with 16 cores whereas the Core i7-4790 has 4 cores. It also has more threads than the Core i7-4790. These CPUs have different clock speeds. Indeed, the Core i7-4790 has a slightly higher clock speed compared to the Core i9-12900KF. Despite this, the Core i9-12900KF has a slightly higher turbo speed. The Core i7-4790 outputs less heat than Core i9-12900KF thanks to a significantly 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 i9-12900KF has more threads than cores. Each physical core is split into multiple threads.

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