Intel Core i9-9900KF vs Intel Core i5-12600KF

Compare Intel 9th Generation Core i9 8 core CPU vs Intel 12th Generation Core i5 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

$ 399.00
$ 169.09
$ 229.91 significantly less expensive

Benchmark Score

Overall Score

A combined score of all workloads

6827 points
9948 points
45% significantly better overall score

Gaming Score

The raw gaming performance with a fast GPU

8465 points
12699 points
50% significantly better gaming score

Multitasking Score

Performance in workloads using up to 8 cores

6279 points
9060 points
44% significantly better multitasking score

Heavy Workload Score

Performance in workloads using up to 16 cores

6130 points
8845 points
44% significantly better heavy workload score

Free CPU Benchmark

Want to compare your processor against the Core i9-9900KF and the Core i5-12600KF? Download our free and quick PC Performance Test.

Other Benchmarks

3DMark Physics score

3DMark Physics score

Physics simulation benchmark

7066 points
7997 points
13% slightly higher 3DMark Physics score
Blender score

Blender score

Cycles Render (Samples per minute)

176.47 points
226.61 points
28% slightly higher Blender score
Geekbench 5 (multi) score

Geekbench 5 (multi) score

Multi threaded benchmark

8008 points
12253 points
53% significantly higher Geekbench 5 (multi) score
Geekbench 5 (single) score

Geekbench 5 (single) score

Single threaded benchmark

1647 points
2468 points
49% significantly higher Geekbench 5 (single) score
Geekbench 6 (multi) score

Geekbench 6 (multi) score

Multi threaded benchmark

8172 points
12301 points
50% significantly higher Geekbench 6 (multi) score
Geekbench 6 (single) score

Geekbench 6 (single) score

Single threaded benchmark

1723 points
2520 points
46% significantly higher Geekbench 6 (single) score

Specifications

Cores

Number of physical processing units

8
10
25% slightly more cores

Threads

Number of logical processing units

16
Identical
16

Clock Speed

Base frequency at which the chip operates

3.6 GHz
3.7 GHz
2% slightly higher clock speed

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
57% significantly lower TDP
150 W

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
800 KiB
56% significantly more L1 cache

L3 Cache

General memory pool for all cores

16 MiB
20 MiB
25% slightly more L3 cache

Other details

Rank

Ranking in the hardwareDB database

204th of 1,089
92nd of 1,089

Family

The product line

9th Generation Core i9
12th Generation Core i5

Release date

The official date of release of this chip

2019 February
2021 November

Memory Type

The type of memory used by this chip

DDR4-2666
DDR5-4800

Is Unlocked

Can this CPU can be overclocked

Yes
Yes

Supports ECC memory

Does this CPU support error correcting memory

No
-

Core i9-9900KF vs Core i5-12600KF benchmarks

Our benchmark analysis concludes that the Core i5-12600KF performs better than the Core i9-9900KF. Furthermore, our gaming benchmark shows that it also outperforms the Core i9-9900KF in all gaming tests too.

When comparing core counts for these CPUs, we notice that the Core i5-12600KF has slightly more cores with 10 cores compared to the Core i9-9900KF that has 8 cores. But they both have the same number of threads. With our hardware info, we find that the Core i5-12600KF has a slightly higher clock speed than the Core i9-9900KF. Despite this, the Core i9-9900KF has a slightly higher turbo speed. A Core i9-9900KF CPU outputs less heat than a Core i5-12600KF CPU because of its 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 i9-9900KF has more threads than cores. Each physical core is split into multiple threads.

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