Home > CPU Comparison > Core i7 12700KF or Ryzen 9 5900X: what's better?

Intel Core i7 12700KF vs AMD Ryzen 9 5900X

66 out of 100
Intel Core i7 12700KF
VS
59 out of 100
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X
Intel Core i7 12700KF
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X

We compared two 12-core desktop CPUs: the 3.6 GHz Intel Core i7 12700KF against the 3.7 GHz AMD Ryzen 9 5900X. 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
The "iGPU" and "Power Efficiency" have a minor impact on the NanoReview Score for desktop CPU.
NanoReview 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
85.7
(Very good)
Value Index
54.4
(Average)

Key Differences

What are the key differences between 5900X and 12700KF
Advantages of Intel Core i7 12700KF
  • Around 29.12 GB/s (61%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth
  • Newer PCI Express version – 5.0
  • Newer - released 1 year and 1 month later
  • 23% faster in a single-core Geekbench v6 test - 2790 vs 2263 points
  • More than 10Β° C higher critical temperature
  • 2% higher Turbo Boost frequency (4.9 GHz vs 4.8 GHz)
Advantages of AMD Ryzen 9 5900X
  • Has 39 MB larger L3 cache size, helping fully utilize a high-end GPU in gaming
  • More modern manufacturing process – 7 versus 10 nanometers

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks
CPU:
Core i7 12700KF
vs
Ryzen 9 5900X

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
Cinebench Scores (95th and 112th 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 i7 12700KF +21%
15378
Ryzen 9 5900X
12701
File compression 1070 MB/sec 1170 MB/sec
Clang compilation 127.7 Klines/sec 126 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 352.3 pages/sec 217.8 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 458.3 Mpixels/sec 362 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 275.7 pages/sec 232 pages/sec
Background blur 70.5 images/sec 38.7 images/sec
Photo processing 126.2 images/sec 85.1 images/sec
Ray tracing 30 Mpixels/sec 31.5 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] – 718 & 441 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
Core i7 12700KF
33924
Ryzen 9 5900X +15%
38888
Integer math 113.7 GOps/sec 139.7 GOps/sec
Floating point math 87.3 GOps/sec 77.6 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 110M Primes/sec 257M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 45.1M Strings/sec 51.5M Strings/sec
Data encryption 23.1 GBytes/sec 31 GBytes/sec
Data compression 439.7 MBytes/sec 498.8 MBytes/sec
Physics 1757 Frames/sec 1984 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 28.5B Matrices/sec 33.1B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] – 6694 & 27058 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU
Core i7 12700KF
308.32
Ryzen 9 5900X +3%
316.84

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 10.3 PPW 11.4 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 123 PPW 121 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 271.4 PPW 370.4 PPW
Blender / Watt 2.47 PPW 3.02 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 i7 12700KF
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-08-31 (Felix)Cinebench 2026611 / 5155
πŸ“˜ 2025-12-03 (CJ's PC)Cinebench 2024108 / 1212
πŸ“˜ 2025-11-14 (S0l1st)Cinebench 2024112 / 1290
πŸ“˜ 2025-06-15 (Tukumo)Cinebench 2024117 / 1302
πŸ“˜ 2025-04-23 (fhd)Cinebench 2024110 / 1191
Add View all (7)
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-03-19 (D)Cinebench 202467 / 893
πŸ“˜ 2025-11-02 (Zoli)Cinebench 202493 / 1254
πŸ“˜ 2025-10-12 (Otamatone)Cinebench 202492 / 981
πŸ“˜ 2025-10-08 (aref)Cinebench 202494 / 1015
πŸ“˜ 2025-08-15 (SnakeyB)Cinebench 2024120 / 380
Add View all (12)

Specifications

Full technical specification of Intel Core i7 12700KF and AMD Ryzen 9 5900X

General

Vendor Intel Amd
Released October 27, 2021 October 8, 2020
Type Desktop Desktop
Instruction Set x86-64 x86-64
Codename Alder Lake Zen 3 (Vermeer)
Model number i7-12700KF -
Integrated GPU No No
Rival Equivalent - AMD Ryzen 7 5800X - Intel Core i9 11900K
Successor - Intel Core Ultra 7 265KF - AMD Ryzen 9 9900X
Intel CPU rating (#61st place)
AMD Ryzen CPU ranking (#70th place)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 8 12
P-Threads 16 24
Base Frequency (P) 3.6 GHz 3.7 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) 4.9 GHz 4.8 GHz
Efficient Cores
E-Cores 4 -
E-Threads 4 -
Base Frequency (E) 2.7 GHz -
Turbo Boost Frequency (E) 3.8 GHz -
Total
Total Cores 12 12
Total Threads 20 24
Bus Frequency 100 MHz 100 MHz
Multiplier 36x 37x
L1 Cache 80K (per core) 64K (per core)
L2 Cache 12MB (shared) 512K (per core)
L3 Cache 25MB (shared) 64MB (shared)
Unlocked Multiplier Yes Yes

Package

Transistors - 4.15 billions
Fabrication Process 10 nm 7 nm
TDP (PL1) 125 W 105 W
Max. Boost TDP (PL2) 190 W 142 W
Socket LGA-1700 AM4
Peak Temperature 100Β°C 90Β°C
Desktop CPU ranking (62nd and 83rd place)

Memory Support

Memory Types - DDR5-4800
- DDR4-3200		 - DDR4-3200
Max. Memory Size 128 GB 128 GB
Memory Channels 2 2
Max. Memory Bandwidth 76.8 GB/s 47.68 GB/s
ECC Support Yes Yes

Misc

Official Site Intel Core i7 12700KF official page AMD Ryzen 9 5900X official page
PCI Express Version 5.0 4.0
PCI Express Lanes 20 20

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
137 (67.2%)
67 (32.8%)
Total votes: 204

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Comments

So which CPU will you choose: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X or Intel Core i7 12700KF?
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