Intel Core i9-12900KF vs Intel Core i7-6950X

Compare Intel 12th Generation Core i9 16 core CPU vs Intel Core X-series 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

$ 279.99
$ 478.41 significantly less expensive
$ 758.40

Benchmark Score

Overall Score

A combined score of all workloads

12789 points
132% significantly better overall score
5504 points

Gaming Score

The raw gaming performance with a fast GPU

14030 points
123% significantly better gaming score
6279 points

Multitasking Score

Performance in workloads using up to 8 cores

12383 points
135% significantly better multitasking score
5261 points

Heavy Workload Score

Performance in workloads using up to 16 cores

12302 points
135% significantly better heavy workload score
5214 points

Free CPU Benchmark

Want to compare your processor against the Core i9-12900KF and the Core i7-6950X? Download our free and quick PC Performance Test.

Other Benchmarks

3DMark Physics score

3DMark Physics score

Physics simulation benchmark

11666 points
92% significantly higher 3DMark Physics score
6073 points
Blender score

Blender score

Cycles Render (Samples per minute)

361.08 points
94% significantly higher Blender score
185.36 points
Geekbench 5 (multi) score

Geekbench 5 (multi) score

Multi threaded benchmark

14840 points
96% significantly higher Geekbench 5 (multi) score
7553 points
Geekbench 5 (single) score

Geekbench 5 (single) score

Single threaded benchmark

2507 points
110% significantly higher Geekbench 5 (single) score
1192 points
Geekbench 6 (multi) score

Geekbench 6 (multi) score

Multi threaded benchmark

14786 points
66% significantly higher Geekbench 6 (multi) score
8892 points
Geekbench 6 (single) score

Geekbench 6 (single) score

Single threaded benchmark

2584 points
88% significantly higher Geekbench 6 (single) score
1370 points

Specifications

Cores

Number of physical processing units

16
60% significantly more cores
10

Threads

Number of logical processing units

24
20% slightly more threads
20

Clock Speed

Base frequency at which the chip operates

3.2 GHz
6% slightly higher clock speed
3 GHz

Turbo Speed

Higher frequency used for heavy workloads

5.2 GHz
48% significantly higher turbo speed
3.5 GHz

TDP

Thermal Design Power: Measure of heat generated by the CPU

241 W
140 W
72% significantly lower TDP

PCIe Lanes

Number of physical connections between the CPU and expansion slots

20
40
100% significantly more pcie lanes

Memory Channels

Lanes for simultaneous memory access

2
4
100% significantly more memory channels

Supported Memory

Maximum amount of RAM supported by this CPU

128 GiB
Identical
128 GiB

L1 Cache

Smallest embedded memory, but the fastest

1280 KiB
100% significantly more L1 cache
640 KiB

L3 Cache

General memory pool for all cores

30 MiB
20% slightly more L3 cache
25 MiB

Other details

Rank

Ranking in the hardwareDB database

46th of 1,119
307th of 1,119

Family

The product line

12th Generation Core i9
Core X-series

Release date

The official date of release of this chip

2021 November
2016 May

Memory Type

The type of memory used by this chip

DDR5-4800
DDR4-2400

Is Unlocked

Can this CPU can be overclocked

Yes
No

Supports ECC memory

Does this CPU support error correcting memory

-
No

Core i9-12900KF vs Core i7-6950X specs and performance

Our benchmark analysis concludes that the Core i9-12900KF performs better than the Core i7-6950X. Furthermore, our gaming benchmark shows that it also outperforms the Core i7-6950X 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 i7-6950X has 10 cores. It also has more threads than the Core i7-6950X. These CPUs have different clock speeds. Indeed, the Core i9-12900KF has a slightly higher clock speed compared to the Core i7-6950X. Also, the Core i9-12900KF has a significantly higher turbo speed. The Core i7-6950X 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.

Modern CPUs generally have more logical cores than physical cores, this means that each core is split into multiple virtual cores, improving efficiency for parallel workloads. Indeed, the Core i9-12900KF has more threads than cores. Each physical core is split into multiple threads.

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