Home > CPU Comparison > Core i7 6700K or Core i5 12400: what's better?

Intel Core i7 6700K vs i5 12400

31 out of 100
Intel Core i7 6700K
VS
49 out of 100
Intel Core i5 12400
Intel Core i7 6700K
Intel Core i5 12400

We compared two desktop CPUs: the 4 GHz Intel Core i7 6700K with 4-cores against the 2.5 GHz i5 12400 with 6-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
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.
๐Ÿ”Œ Usage Scenario:

Value for money (Beta)

Global average CPU prices are used by default! For better accuracy, enter your current prices and click โ€œCalculate".
Currency
VS
8.8
(Bad)
Value Index
56.0
(Average)

Key Differences

What are the key differences between 12400 and 6700K
Advantages of Intel Core i7 6700K
  • Unlocked multiplier
Advantages of Intel Core i5 12400
  • Newer - released 6 years and 6 months later
  • Has 10 MB larger L3 cache size, helping fully utilize a high-end GPU in gaming
  • Around 42.7 GB/s (125%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth
  • Supports up to 128 GB DDR5-4800 RAM
  • Newer PCI Express version โ€“ 5.0
  • Has 2 more physical cores
  • 48% faster in a single-core Geekbench v6 test - 2245 vs 1512 points
  • More modern manufacturing process โ€“ 10 versus 14 nanometers
  • 5% higher Turbo Boost frequency (4.4 GHz vs 4.2 GHz)

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks
CPU:
Core i7 6700K
vs
Core i5 12400

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
Cinebench 2026 (Single) - 295
Cinebench 2026 (Multi) - 1710
Cinebench Scores (#73rd 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)
Core i7 6700K
1512
Core i5 12400 +48%
2245
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Core i7 6700K
5072
Core i5 12400 +93%
9788
File compression 428.4 MB/sec 879.2 MB/sec
Clang compilation 35.7 Klines/sec 65.6 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 116.8 pages/sec 223.7 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 168.3 Mpixels/sec 275.6 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 152.1 pages/sec 225.9 pages/sec
Background blur 28 images/sec 49.5 images/sec
Photo processing 50.9 images/sec 81.2 images/sec
Ray tracing 6.53 Mpixels/sec 15.1 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] โ€“ 1195 & 1015 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
Core i7 6700K
2497
Core i5 12400 +39%
3464
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
Core i7 6700K
8939
Core i5 12400 +110%
18816
Integer math 28.2 GOps/sec 58.9 GOps/sec
Floating point math 17.4 GOps/sec 45.9 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 30M Primes/sec 67M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 15.8M Strings/sec 22.6M Strings/sec
Data encryption 3.1 GBytes/sec 11.5 GBytes/sec
Data compression 125.7 MBytes/sec 228 MBytes/sec
Physics 636 Frames/sec 1090 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 8.3B Matrices/sec 15.5B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] โ€“ 19003 & 6661 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU
Core i7 6700K
81.55
Core i5 12400 +104%
166.74

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 3.1 PPW 9.2 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 55.7 PPW 150.6 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 98.2 PPW 289.5 PPW
Blender / Watt 0.9 PPW 2.57 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 6700K
DateBenchmarkResult
๐Ÿ“˜ 2026-10-31 (yumanji)Cinebench 2026515 / 1399
๐Ÿ“˜ 2025-11-08 (CRSTN)Cinebench 202467 / 328
๐Ÿ“˜ 2024-09-27 (A)Cinebench 202454 / 279
Add View all (3)
Intel Core i5 12400
DateBenchmarkResult
๐Ÿ“˜ 2026-05-24 (MortalMech)Cinebench 2026295 / 1710
๐Ÿ“˜ 2024-06-27 (Renni)Cinebench 202499 / 598
Add View all (2)

Specifications

Full technical specification of Intel Core i7 6700K and i5 12400

General

Vendor Intel Intel
Released August 5, 2015 January 4, 2022
Type Desktop Desktop
Instruction Set x86-64 x86-64
Codename Skylake Alder Lake
Model number i7-6700K i5-12400
Integrated GPU HD Graphics 530 UHD Graphics 730
Successor - Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus - Intel Core Ultra 5 225
Intel CPU rating (#165th place)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 4 6
P-Threads 8 12
Base Frequency (P) 4.0 GHz 2.5 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) 4.2 GHz 4.4 GHz
Total
Total Cores 4 6
Total Threads 8 12
Bus Frequency 100 MHz 100 MHz
Multiplier 40x 25x
Bus Bandwidth 8 GT/s -
L1 Cache 64K (per core) 80K (per core)
L2 Cache 256K (per core) 1280K (per core)
L3 Cache 8MB (shared) 18MB (shared)
Unlocked Multiplier Yes No

Package

Transistors 1.75 billions -
Fabrication Process 14 nm 10 nm
TDP (PL1) 91 W 65 W
Max. Boost TDP (PL2) - 117 W
Socket LGA-1151 LGA-1700
Peak Temperature - 100ยฐC
Desktop CPU ranking (180th and 109th place)

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Intel HD Graphics 530 Intel UHD Graphics 730
GPU Base Clock - 300 MHz
GPU Boost Clock 1150 MHz 1450 MHz
Shading Units - 192
TMUs - 48
ROPs - 24
Execution Units - 24
TGP - 15 W
iGPU FLOPS
Core i7 6700K
n/a
Core i5 12400
0.6 TFLOPS
See: Intel UHD Graphics 730 benchmarks

Memory Support

Memory Types - DDR4-2133
- DDR3L-1600		 - DDR5-4800
- DDR4-3200
Max. Memory Size 64 GB 128 GB
Memory Channels 2 2
Max. Memory Bandwidth 34.1 GB/s 76.8 GB/s
ECC Support No No

Misc

Official Site Intel Core i7 6700K official page Intel Core i5 12400 official page
PCI Express Version 3.0 5.0
PCI Express Lanes 16 20

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
1 (4.5%)
21 (95.5%)
Total votes: 22

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5. Intel Core i5 12400 vs AMD Ryzen 5 5600G (6)
6. Intel Core i5 12400 vs Intel Core i3 14100
7. Intel Core i5 12400 vs Intel Core i5 12400F (4)
8. Intel Core i5 12400 vs Apple M2 Pro
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Comments

So which CPU will you choose: Intel Core i5 12400 or i7 6700K?
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