Core i7-12700K vs Ryzen 5 7500F

Gaming speed, cores and clocks

On our gaming index the Core i7-12700K scores 71 and the Ryzen 5 7500F scores 68, about 4% faster for gaming. That gap is small and mostly shows up at 1080p with a very fast graphics card.

The Core i7-12700K has 12 cores and 20 threads, and the Ryzen 5 7500F has 6 cores and 12 threads. The extra cores of the Core i7-12700K help with video editing, streaming while you play and heavy multitasking more than with the game itself. Boost clocks are 5 GHz and 5 GHz.

Platform, power and price

The Core i7-12700K uses the LGA1700 socket and the Ryzen 5 7500F uses AM5, so they need different motherboards, and often different memory. When you compare prices, count the board as well as the chip.

Rated power is 125 W for the first and 65 W for the second. That difference changes the cooler you need, and it shows up in heat and noise.

At launch the Core i7-12700K cost $409 and the Ryzen 5 7500F $179, which gives 17.4 and 38.0 points of gaming performance per $100. Today's prices will differ.

Which graphics cards each one can feed, and which to buy

At 1080p the Core i7-12700K can feed a card up to the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super before it holds the card back by more than 10 percent. The Ryzen 5 7500F reaches the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti. Both chips are in the same range for graphics card pairing.

Choose the Core i7-12700K if you want the faster gaming chip and the same or more cores. Choose the Ryzen 5 7500F if you would rather spend the difference on a graphics card, which does more for frame rates in most games.