Intel Core i9-9900K vs Intel Core i7-12700

Compare Intel 9th Generation Core i9 8 core CPU vs Intel 12th Generation Core i7 12 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

$ 350.22
$ 318.24
$ 31.98 slightly less expensive

Benchmark Score

Overall Score

A combined score of all workloads

6719 points
10390 points
54% significantly better overall score

Gaming Score

The raw gaming performance with a fast GPU

8223 points
12574 points
52% significantly better gaming score

Multitasking Score

Performance in workloads using up to 8 cores

6214 points
9694 points
56% significantly better multitasking score

Heavy Workload Score

Performance in workloads using up to 16 cores

6073 points
9533 points
56% significantly better heavy workload score

Free CPU Benchmark

Want to compare your processor against the Core i9-9900K and the Core i7-12700? Download our free and quick PC Performance Test.

Other Benchmarks

3DMark Physics score

3DMark Physics score

Physics simulation benchmark

7038 points
9515 points
35% slightly higher 3DMark Physics score
Blender score

Blender score

Cycles Render (Samples per minute)

175.64 points
259.30 points
47% significantly higher Blender score
Cinebench R23 score

Cinebench R23 score

Multi threaded benchmark

12397 points
21751 points
75% significantly higher Cinebench R23 score
Geekbench 5 (multi) score

Geekbench 5 (multi) score

Multi threaded benchmark

7957 points
9492 points
19% slightly higher Geekbench 5 (multi) score
Geekbench 5 (single) score

Geekbench 5 (single) score

Single threaded benchmark

1634 points
1788 points
9% slightly higher Geekbench 5 (single) score
Geekbench 6 (multi) score

Geekbench 6 (multi) score

Multi threaded benchmark

8053 points
10978 points
36% slightly higher Geekbench 6 (multi) score
Geekbench 6 (single) score

Geekbench 6 (single) score

Single threaded benchmark

1703 points
2375 points
39% slightly higher Geekbench 6 (single) score

Specifications

Cores

Number of physical processing units

8
12
49% significantly more cores

Threads

Number of logical processing units

16
20
25% slightly more threads

Clock Speed

Base frequency at which the chip operates

3.6 GHz
9% slightly higher clock speed
3.3 GHz

Turbo Speed

Higher frequency used for heavy workloads

5 GHz
2% slightly higher turbo speed
4.9 GHz

TDP

Thermal Design Power: Measure of heat generated by the CPU

95 W
65 W
46% significantly lower TDP

PCIe Lanes

Number of physical connections between the CPU and expansion slots

16
20
25% slightly more pcie lanes

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

512 KiB
960 KiB
87% significantly more L1 cache

L3 Cache

General memory pool for all cores

16 MiB
25 MiB
56% significantly more L3 cache

Other details

Rank

Ranking in the hardwareDB database

209th of 1,089
78th of 1,089

Family

The product line

9th Generation Core i9
12th Generation Core i7

Release date

The official date of release of this chip

2018 November
2022 February

Memory Type

The type of memory used by this chip

DDR4-2666
DDR5-4800

Is Unlocked

Can this CPU can be overclocked

Yes
No

Supports ECC memory

Does this CPU support error correcting memory

No
Yes

Core i9-9900K vs Core i7-12700 specs and performance

In our benchmarks, the Core i7-12700 beats the Core i9-9900K in overall performance. Furthermore, our gaming benchmark shows that it also outperforms the Core i9-9900K in all gaming tests too.

With info from our database, we find that the Core i7-12700 has significantly more cores with 12 cores whereas the Core i9-9900K has 8 cores. It also has more threads than the Core i9-9900K. Our comparison shows that the Core i9-9900K has a slightly higher clock speed compared to the Core i7-12700. Also, the Core i9-9900K has a slightly higher turbo speed. The Core i7-12700 outputs less heat than Core i9-9900K 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 i9-9900K has more threads than cores. Each physical core is split into multiple threads.

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