Home > CPU Comparison > Core i9 12900H or Core i5 12500H: what's better?

Intel Core i9 12900H vs i5 12500H

55 out of 100
Intel Core i9 12900H
VS
49 out of 100
Intel Core i5 12500H
Intel Core i9 12900H
Intel Core i5 12500H

We compared two laptop CPUs: the 2.5 GHz Intel Core i9 12900H with 14-cores against the 2.5 GHz i5 12500H with 12-cores. On this page, you'll find out which processor has better performance in benchmarks, games and other useful information.

  1. Review
  2. Differences
  3. Performance
  4. Specs
  5. Comments

Review

General overview and comparison of the processors
Single-Core Performance
Performance in single-threaded apps and benchmarks
Multi-Core Performance
Measure performance when all cores are involved
Power Efficiency
The efficiency score of power consumption
Integrated Graphics
iGPU capabilities for gaming and 3D-intensive tasks
DeviceFacts Final Score
Choose your main usage scenario to recalculate the Final Score and see which CPU suits your needs.
πŸ”Œ Usage Scenario:

Key Differences

What are the key differences between 12500H and 12900H
Advantages of Intel Core i9 12900H
  • Has 6 MB larger L3 cache size, helping fully utilize a high-end GPU in gaming
  • More powerful Intel Iris Xe Graphics (96EU) integrated graphics: 2.2 vs 1.7 TFLOPS
  • Has 2 more physical cores
  • 11% higher Turbo Boost frequency (5 GHz vs 4.5 GHz)
  • 10% faster in a single-core Geekbench v6 test - 2397 vs 2180 points

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks
CPU:
Core i9 12900H
vs
Core i5 12500H

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
Cinebench Scores (#157th place)
Submit your benchmark results

GeekBench v6

The new version of this benchmark emulates common operations often used in real-world apps
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Core i9 12900H +26%
11964
Core i5 12500H
9527
File compression 898.1 MB/sec 867.4 MB/sec
Clang compilation 97.6 Klines/sec 62.8 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 270 pages/sec 235.5 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 325.3 Mpixels/sec 291 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 248.3 pages/sec 231.7 pages/sec
Background blur 52.7 images/sec 37.7 images/sec
Photo processing 94.2 images/sec 96.1 images/sec
Ray tracing 23.8 Mpixels/sec 13.4 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] – 626 & 1034 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
Core i9 12900H +31%
26596
Core i5 12500H
20249
Integer math 91.3 GOps/sec 70.7 GOps/sec
Floating point math 66 GOps/sec 51.4 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 104M Primes/sec 56M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 34.4M Strings/sec 27.7M Strings/sec
Data encryption 18 GBytes/sec 14.5 GBytes/sec
Data compression 308.2 MBytes/sec 248.2 MBytes/sec
Physics 1700 Frames/sec 1002 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 18.4B Matrices/sec 14.6B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] – 3998 & 5384 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU
Core i9 12900H +38%
210.35
Core i5 12500H
152.89

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 21.9 PPW 16.6 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 265.9 PPW 211.7 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 591 PPW 450 PPW
Blender / Watt 4.67 PPW 3.4 PPW
These are rough calculations, as most CPUs surpass PL1 TDP wattage even in multicore workloads.

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
Intel Core i9 12900H
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2025-11-21 (Robert L)Cinebench 2024104 / 765
πŸ“˜ 2025-05-02 (Toksik Vegeta)Cinebench 2024107 / 984
Add View all (2)
Intel Core i5 12500H
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-09-01 (Ryoji)Cinebench 2026516 / 2644
πŸ“˜ 2026-09-01 (Ryoji)Cinebench 202498 / 660
πŸ“˜ 2024-12-17 (Thien)Cinebench 202499 / 821
πŸ“˜ 2024-11-02 (Praheg)Cinebench 202497 / 748
πŸ“˜ 2024-09-21 (uqi)Cinebench 202492 / 527
Add View all (5)

Specifications

Full technical specification of Intel Core i9 12900H and i5 12500H

General

Vendor Intel Intel
Released January 4, 2022 January 4, 2022
Type Laptop Laptop
Instruction Set x86-64 x86-64
Codename Alder Lake Alder Lake
Model number i9-12900H i5-12500H
Integrated GPU Iris Xe Graphics (96EU) Iris Xe Graphics (80EU)
Rival Equivalent - AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS -
Successor - Intel Core Ultra 9 288V - Intel Core Ultra 5 235H
Intel CPU rating (115th and 161st place)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 6 4
P-Threads 12 8
Base Frequency (P) 2.5 GHz 2.5 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) 5 GHz 4.5 GHz
Efficient Cores
E-Cores 8 8
E-Threads 8 8
Base Frequency (E) 1.8 GHz 1.8 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (E) 3.8 GHz 3.3 GHz
Total
Total Cores 14 12
Total Threads 20 16
Bus Frequency 100 MHz 100 MHz
Multiplier 25x 25x
L1 Cache 80K (per core) 80K (per core)
L2 Cache 1280K (per core) 1280K (per core)
L3 Cache 24MB (shared) 18MB (shared)
Unlocked Multiplier No No

Package

Fabrication Process 10 nm 10 nm
TDP (PL1) 35-45 W (configurable) 35-45 W (configurable)
Max. Boost TDP (PL2) 115 W 95 W
Socket BGA-1744 BGA-1744
Peak Temperature 100Β°C 100Β°C

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Intel Iris Xe Graphics (96EU) Intel Iris Xe Graphics (80EU)
GPU Base Clock 300 MHz 300 MHz
GPU Boost Clock 1450 MHz 1300 MHz
Shading Units 768 640
TMUs 48 40
ROPs 24 20
Execution Units 96 80
TGP 15 W 15 W
iGPU FLOPS
Core i9 12900H +29%
2.2 TFLOPS
Core i5 12500H
1.7 TFLOPS
More info: Iris Xe Graphics G7 (80EU) compared to Xe Graphics G7 (96EU)

Memory Support

Memory Types - DDR5-4800
- DDR4-3200
- LPDDR5-5200
- LPDDR4x-4267		 - DDR5-4800
- DDR4-3200
- LPDDR5-5200
- LPDDR4x-4267
Max. Memory Size 64 GB 64 GB
Memory Channels 2 2
ECC Support No No

Misc

Official Site Intel Core i9 12900H official page Intel Core i5 12500H official page
PCI Express Version 4.0 4.0
PCI Express Lanes 28 28

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
47 (34.1%)
91 (65.9%)
Total votes: 138

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7. Intel Core i9 12900H vs AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS (1)
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10. Intel Core i9 12900H vs AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS
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Comments

So which CPU will you choose: Intel Core i5 12500H or i9 12900H?
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