Intel Core i9 12900K vs i7 14700K

We compared two desktop CPUs: the 3,2 GHz Intel Core i9 12900K with 16-cores against the 3.4 GHz i7 14700K with 20-cores. 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
Integrated Graphics
iGPU capabilities for gaming and 3D-intensive tasks
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
62.2
(Average)
Value Index
68.7
(Good)

Key Differences

What are the key differences between 14700K and 12900K
Advantages of Intel Core i7 14700K
  • Newer - released 2 years later
  • Supports up to 192 GB DDR5-5600 RAM
  • Has 4 more physical cores
  • Around 12.8 GB/s (17%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth
  • 10% higher Turbo Boost frequency (5.6 GHz vs 5.1 GHz)
  • 14% faster in a single-core Geekbench v6 test - 3012 vs 2633 points

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) - 668
Cinebench 2026 (Multi) - 7576
Cinebench Scores (63rd and 36th place)

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)
20262
File compression 1260 MB/sec 1620 MB/sec
Clang compilation 146.1 Klines/sec 189.2 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 414.2 pages/sec 483.7 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 480.2 Mpixels/sec 547.2 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 273.2 pages/sec 301.5 pages/sec
Background blur 69.4 images/sec 76.9 images/sec
Photo processing 147.8 images/sec 169.1 images/sec
Ray tracing 34.4 Mpixels/sec 43.2 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] – 461 & 1105 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
51950
Integer math 139.2 GOps/sec 181.7 GOps/sec
Floating point math 105.4 GOps/sec 133.3 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 145M Primes/sec 210M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 57.1M Strings/sec 74.5M Strings/sec
Data encryption 29.5 GBytes/sec 39.8 GBytes/sec
Data compression 536.7 MBytes/sec 688.3 MBytes/sec
Physics 2203 Frames/sec 2925 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 33.6B Matrices/sec 40.2B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] – 11364 & 8587 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU
450.16

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 12.2 PPW 14.9 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 136 PPW 162.1 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 328.9 PPW 415.6 PPW
Blender / Watt 2.93 PPW 3.6 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)GeekBench2811 / 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
Intel Core i7 14700K
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-06-02 (Harley)Cinebench 2026668 / 7576
πŸ“˜ 2026-01-10 (Lonewulf32)Cinebench 2024138 / 2162
πŸ“˜ 2026-01-05 (MrCoffee)Cinebench 2024124 / 1873
πŸ“˜ 2025-11-24 (MiMi)Cinebench 2024128 / 1892
πŸ“˜ 2025-11-15 (AdKraemer)Cinebench 2024122 / 1978

Specifications

Full technical specification of Intel Core i9 12900K and i7 14700K

General

Vendor Intel Intel
Released October 27, 2021 October 16, 2023
Type Desktop Desktop
Instruction Set x86-64 x86-64
Codename Alder Lake Raptor Lake Refresh
Model number i9-12900K i7-14700K
Integrated GPU UHD Graphics 770 UHD Graphics 770
Rival Equivalent - AMD Ryzen 9 5950X - AMD Ryzen 7 7700X
Successor - Intel Core Ultra 9 285K - Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus
Intel CPU rating (53rd and 16th place)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 8 8
P-Threads 16 16
Base Frequency (P) 3,2 GHz 3.4 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) 5.1 GHz 5.6 GHz
Efficient Cores
E-Cores 8 12
E-Threads 8 12
Base Frequency (E) 2.4 GHz 2.5 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (E) 3.9 GHz 4.3 GHz
Total
Total Cores 16 20
Total Threads 24 28
Bus Frequency 100 MHz 100 MHz
Multiplier 32x 34x
L1 Cache 64K (per core) 80K (per core)
L2 Cache 14MB (shared) 2MB (per core)
L3 Cache 30MB (shared) 33MB (shared)
Unlocked Multiplier Yes Yes

Package

Fabrication Process 10 nm 10 nm
TDP (PL1) 125 W 125 W
Max. Boost TDP (PL2) 241 W 253 W
Socket LGA-1700 LGA-1700
Peak Temperature 100Β°C 100Β°C
Desktop CPU ranking (54th and 25th place)

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Intel UHD Graphics 770 Intel UHD Graphics 770
GPU Base Clock 300 MHz 300 MHz
GPU Boost Clock 1550 MHz 1600 MHz
Shading Units 256 256
TMUs 16 16
ROPs 8 8
Execution Units 32 32
TGP 15 W 15 W
iGPU FLOPS
0.8 TFLOPS
0.8 TFLOPS

Memory Support

Memory Types - DDR5-4800
- DDR4-3200
- DDR5-5600
- DDR4-3200
Max. Memory Size 128 GB 192 GB
Memory Channels 2 2
Max. Memory Bandwidth 76.8 GB/s 89.6 GB/s
ECC Support Yes Yes

Misc

Official Site Intel Core i9 12900K official page Intel Core i7 14700K official page
PCI Express Version 5.0 5.0
PCI Express Lanes 20 20

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
29 (28.2%)
74 (71.8%)
Total votes: 103

Comments

So which CPU will you choose: Intel Core i7 14700K or i9 12900K?
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