Home > CPU Comparison > Core i9 12900K or Core i7 12700K: what's better?

Intel Core i9 12900K vs i7 12700K

68 out of 100
Intel Core i9 12900K
VS
64 out of 100
Intel Core i7 12700K
Intel Core i9 12900K
Intel Core i7 12700K

We compared two desktop CPUs: the 3,2 GHz Intel Core i9 12900K with 16-cores against the 3.6 GHz i7 12700K 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 (3)

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
The "iGPU" and "Power Efficiency" have a minor impact on the DeviceFacts Score for desktop CPU.
DeviceFacts Final Score
Choose your main usage scenario to recalculate the Final Score and see which CPU suits your needs.
πŸ”Œ Usage Scenario:

Value for money (Beta)

Global average CPU prices are used by default! For better accuracy, enter your current prices and click β€œCalculate".
Currency
VS
62.2
(Average)
Value Index
75.8
(Good)

Key Differences

What are the key differences between 12700K and 12900K
Advantages of Intel Core i9 12900K
  • Has 4 more physical cores
  • Has 5 MB larger L3 cache size, helping fully utilize a high-end GPU in gaming
  • 4% higher Turbo Boost frequency (5.1 GHz vs 4.9 GHz)

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks
CPU:
Core i9 12900K
vs
Core i7 12700K

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
Cinebench 2026 (Single) - 597
Cinebench 2026 (Multi) - 4728
Cinebench Scores (63rd and 110th 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 12900K +16%
17003
Core i7 12700K
14714
File compression 1260 MB/sec 1230 MB/sec
Clang compilation 146.1 Klines/sec 122.3 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 414.2 pages/sec 382.6 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 480.2 Mpixels/sec 374.5 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 273.2 pages/sec 267.6 pages/sec
Background blur 69.4 images/sec 55.9 images/sec
Photo processing 147.8 images/sec 98.2 images/sec
Ray tracing 34.4 Mpixels/sec 29.6 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] – 461 & 731 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
Core i9 12900K +20%
41115
Core i7 12700K
34256
Integer math 139.2 GOps/sec 114.3 GOps/sec
Floating point math 105.4 GOps/sec 87.9 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 145M Primes/sec 112M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 57.1M Strings/sec 45.8M Strings/sec
Data encryption 29.5 GBytes/sec 23.4 GBytes/sec
Data compression 536.7 MBytes/sec 445.1 MBytes/sec
Physics 2203 Frames/sec 1773 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 33.6B Matrices/sec 28.8B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] – 11364 & 11963 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU
Core i9 12900K +19%
366.86
Core i7 12700K
309.16

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 12.2 PPW 9.6 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 136 PPW 117.7 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 328.9 PPW 274 PPW
Blender / Watt 2.93 PPW 2.47 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 12900K
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2025-11-12 (ElNils)Cinebench 2024114 / 1497
πŸ“˜ 2025-09-20 (Jarx)Geekbench 6 CPU2811 / 18033
πŸ“˜ 2025-05-24 (unsorted)Cinebench 2024109 / 1339
πŸ“˜ 2025-04-03 (AdKraemer)Cinebench 2024113 / 1414
πŸ“˜ 2025-03-20 (Lethal)Cinebench 2024116 / 1571
Add View all (8)
Intel Core i7 12700K
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-08-14 (Melvin Tejada)Cinebench 2026597 / 4728
πŸ“˜ 2026-07-08 (Myla)Cinebench 2026555 / 3917
πŸ“˜ 2026-05-04 (sisham)Cinebench 2024100 / 635
πŸ“˜ 2025-08-22 (Ray)Cinebench 2024115 / 1305
πŸ“˜ 2024-12-19 (Zach Jones)Cinebench 2024114 / 1231
Add View all (10)

Specifications

Full technical specification of Intel Core i9 12900K and i7 12700K

General

Vendor Intel Intel
Released October 27, 2021 October 27, 2021
Type Desktop Desktop
Instruction Set x86-64 x86-64
Codename Alder Lake Alder Lake
Model number i9-12900K i7-12700K
Integrated GPU UHD Graphics 770 UHD Graphics 770
Rival Equivalent - AMD Ryzen 9 5950X - AMD Ryzen 7 5800X
Successor - Intel Core Ultra 9 285K - Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus
Intel CPU rating (53rd and 69th place)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 8 8
P-Threads 16 16
Base Frequency (P) 3,2 GHz 3.6 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) 5.1 GHz 4.9 GHz
Efficient Cores
E-Cores 8 4
E-Threads 8 4
Base Frequency (E) 2.4 GHz 2.7 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (E) 3.9 GHz 3.8 GHz
Total
Total Cores 16 12
Total Threads 24 20
Bus Frequency 100 MHz 100 MHz
Multiplier 32x 36x
L1 Cache 64K (per core) 80K (per core)
L2 Cache 14MB (shared) 12MB (shared)
L3 Cache 30MB (shared) 25MB (shared)
Unlocked Multiplier Yes Yes

Package

Fabrication Process 10 nm 10 nm
TDP (PL1) 125 W 125 W
Max. Boost TDP (PL2) 241 W 190 W
Socket LGA-1700 LGA-1700
Peak Temperature 100Β°C 100Β°C
Desktop CPU ranking (54th and 69th place)

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Intel UHD Graphics 770 Intel UHD Graphics 770
GPU Base Clock 300 MHz 300 MHz
GPU Boost Clock 1550 MHz 1500 MHz
Shading Units 256 256
TMUs 16 16
ROPs 8 8
Execution Units 32 32
TGP 15 W 15 W
iGPU FLOPS
Core i9 12900K
0.8 TFLOPS
Core i7 12700K
0.8 TFLOPS
See: Intel UHD Graphics 770 benchmarks

Memory Support

Memory Types - DDR5-4800
- DDR4-3200		 - DDR5-4800
- DDR4-3200
Max. Memory Size 128 GB 128 GB
Memory Channels 2 2
Max. Memory Bandwidth 76.8 GB/s 76.8 GB/s
ECC Support Yes Yes

Misc

Official Site Intel Core i9 12900K official page Intel Core i7 12700K official page
PCI Express Version 5.0 5.0
PCI Express Lanes 20 20

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
227 (25.4%)
665 (74.6%)
Total votes: 892

Competitors

1. Intel Core i9 12900K vs Intel Core i5 14600K
2. Intel Core i9 12900K vs Intel Core i7 14700K
3. Intel Core i9 12900K vs Intel Core i7 13700K (9)
4. Intel Core i9 12900K vs Intel Core i9 14900K
5. Intel Core i9 12900K vs Intel Core i5 13600K (1)
6. Intel Core i7 12700K vs Intel Core i7 12700KF (2)
7. Intel Core i7 12700K vs Intel Core i5 13600K (6)
8. Intel Core i7 12700K vs Intel Core i7 12700F
9. Intel Core i7 12700K vs Intel Core i7 14700K (1)
10. Intel Core i7 12700K vs Intel Core i5 14400F
Compare other CPUs (460+)

Comments

So which CPU will you choose: Intel Core i7 12700K or i9 12900K?
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Avatar
Savitarax January 20, 2022 at 03:36 AM
While yes the 12900k may have seemingly much higher core counts. This is misleading to the vast majority of gamers and desktop users. Because the extra cores are little cores. Which have been seen to hurt gaming performance when enabled and disabling them increases performance. This is due to the little cores not being optimized yet for most games and windows. So it's also unlocking the extra cache that was to be diverted to the little cores and instead the big cores get the extra cache. So in reality. The extra 5MB of cache can easily be overcome by disabling the 4 scores and only having 8 P cores. This is only for the meantime and this result may change. But for now. Given the info I just described. The 12700k is a MUCH MUCH better option for 90% of users. If you are a high-end desktop workstation user who needs lots of multithreaded high core counts CPUs. You would be better off getting a 5950x instead since it has 16 big cores. So it will work better with heavy workloads.
+60 Reply
Avatar
pcuser August 27, 2024 at 10:12 AM
Well, Microsoft implemented the wrong settings in windows 10 and 11 for E-Cores. You can manually set the correct settings for windows CPU schedular and priority. P-Cores not prioritized over E-Cores...why microsoft dont patch this is beyond stupid. I have done it on my I7-12700K and there is no issues with them. P-Cores has priority over E-Cores now. So no need to disable them after the fix. Look at this article (explained in detail and it works) https://aloiskraus.wordpress.com/2024/02/08/hybrid-cpu-performance-on-windows-10-and-11/
0 Reply
Avatar
Hiii November 22, 2021 at 06:33 AM
i7 is the better option since it's cheaper and there's nothing from the competition that comes near it.
+34 Reply
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