Intel Core i7 8700 vs i5 12400F

We compared two 6-core desktop CPUs: the 3.2 GHz Intel Core i7 8700 against the 2.5 GHz i5 12400F. On this page, you'll find out which processor has better performance in benchmarks, games and other useful information.

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
44.7
(Average)
Value Index
66.9
(Good)

Key Differences

What are the key differences between 12400F and 8700
Advantages of Intel Core i7 8700
  • Includes an integrated GPU Intel UHD Graphics 630
  • 5% higher Turbo Boost frequency (4.6 GHz vs 4.4 GHz)
Advantages of Intel Core i5 12400F
  • Newer - released 4 years and 3 months later
  • Around 35.2 GB/s (85%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth
  • Newer PCI Express version – 5.0
  • 58% faster in a single-core Geekbench v6 test - 2300 vs 1455 points
  • Has 6 MB larger L3 cache size, helping fully utilize a high-end GPU in gaming
  • More modern manufacturing process – 10 versus 14 nanometers

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
Cinebench 2026 (Single) 394 -
Cinebench 2026 (Multi) 2122 -

GeekBench v6

The new version of this benchmark emulates common operations often used in real-world apps
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
2300
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
9477
File compression 440.7 MB/sec 789 MB/sec
Clang compilation 49.1 Klines/sec 69.9 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 137.6 pages/sec 221 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 181.5 Mpixels/sec 263.7 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 150.9 pages/sec 230 pages/sec
Background blur 33.3 images/sec 49.5 images/sec
Photo processing 51 images/sec 77.9 images/sec
Ray tracing 10.6 Mpixels/sec 16.2 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] – 1082 & 1128 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
3486
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
12746
19551
Integer math 45 GOps/sec 60.1 GOps/sec
Floating point math 27.9 GOps/sec 46.9 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 35M Primes/sec 74M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 23.9M Strings/sec 23.2M Strings/sec
Data encryption 4.5 GBytes/sec 11.7 GBytes/sec
Data compression 186.6 MBytes/sec 233.1 MBytes/sec
Physics 730 Frames/sec 1257 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 12.4B Matrices/sec 15.9B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] – 15348 & 17200 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU
109.76
161.36

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 7 PPW 9.8 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 96 PPW 145.8 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 196.1 PPW 300.8 PPW
Blender / Watt 1.69 PPW 2.48 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 8700
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-08-09 (yourtrain)Geekbench 6 CPU1681 / 6489
πŸ“˜ 2026-08-09 (yourtrain)Cinebench 2026394 / 2122
πŸ“˜ 2025-06-26 (mike)Cinebench 202472 / 540
πŸ“˜ 2025-04-16 (BattOpGrunt)Cinebench 202460 / 400
πŸ“˜ 2024-09-26 (tbone)Cinebench 202471 / 456
Intel Core i5 12400F
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-01-24 (Ecstatify)Geekbench 6 CPU2918 / 13277
πŸ“˜ 2025-08-17 (Olini)Cinebench 2024101 / 664
πŸ“˜ 2025-07-21 (Rolling Manatee)Cinebench 202495 / 640
πŸ“˜ 2025-05-12 (inoklike)Cinebench 202493 / 646
πŸ“˜ 2025-03-04 (RD)Cinebench 202488 / 620

Specifications

Full technical specification of Intel Core i7 8700 and i5 12400F

General

Vendor Intel Intel
Released October 5, 2017 January 4, 2022
Type Desktop Desktop
Instruction Set x86-64 x86-64
Codename Coffee Lake Alder Lake
Model number i7-8700 i5-12400F
Integrated GPU UHD Graphics 630 No
Rival Equivalent - AMD Ryzen 7 2700 -
Successor - Intel Core Ultra 7 265 - Intel Core Ultra 5 225F
Intel CPU rating (#163rd place)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 6 6
P-Threads 12 12
Base Frequency (P) 3.2 GHz 2.5 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) 4.6 GHz 4.4 GHz
Total
Total Cores 6 6
Total Threads 12 12
Bus Frequency 100 MHz 100 MHz
Multiplier 32x 25x
Bus Bandwidth 8 GT/s -
L1 Cache 64K (per core) 80K (per core)
L2 Cache 256K (per core) 1280K (per core)
L3 Cache 12MB (shared) 18MB (shared)
Unlocked Multiplier No No

Package

Fabrication Process 14 nm 10 nm
TDP (PL1) 65 W 65 W
Max. Boost TDP (PL2) - 117 W
Socket LGA-1151 LGA-1700
Peak Temperature 100Β°C 100Β°C
Desktop CPU ranking (163rd and 108th place)

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Intel UHD Graphics 630 -
GPU Base Clock 350 MHz -
GPU Boost Clock 1200 MHz -
Shading Units 192 -
TMUs 24 -
ROPs 3 -
Execution Units 24 -
TGP 15 W -
iGPU FLOPS
0.5 TFLOPS

Memory Support

Memory Types - DDR4-2666 - DDR5-4800
- DDR4-3200
Max. Memory Size 128 GB 128 GB
Memory Channels 2 2
Max. Memory Bandwidth 41.6 GB/s 76.8 GB/s
ECC Support No No

Misc

Official Site Intel Core i7 8700 official page Intel Core i5 12400F official page
PCI Express Version 3.0 5.0
PCI Express Lanes 16 20

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
22 (19.5%)
91 (80.5%)
Total votes: 113

Comments

So which CPU will you choose: Intel Core i5 12400F or i7 8700?
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