Core i5-12490F vs Core i5-12500H

The Core i5-12490F packs 6 cores / 12 threads, while the Core i5-12500H offers 12 cores / 16 threads — the Core i5-12500H has 6 more cores. Boost clocks reach 4.6 GHz on the Core i5-12490F versus 4.5 GHz on the Core i5-12500H — a 2.2% clock advantage for the Core i5-12490F (base: 3 GHz vs 2.5 GHz). The Core i5-12490F uses the Alder Lake-S (2022) architecture (10 nm), while the Core i5-12500H uses Alder Lake-H (2022) (Intel 7 nm). In PassMark, the Core i5-12490F scores 20,366 against the Core i5-12500H's 20,462 — a 0.5% lead for the Core i5-12500H. Geekbench 6 single-core — the metric most relevant to gaming — records 1,800 vs 2,260, a 22.7% lead for the Core i5-12500H that directly translates to higher frame rates. Multi-core Geekbench: 8,800 vs 9,900 (11.8% advantage for the Core i5-12500H). L3 cache: 20 MB (total) on the Core i5-12490F vs 18 MB (total) on the Core i5-12500H.

The Core i5-12490F uses the LGA1700 socket (PCIe 5.0), while the Core i5-12500H uses FCBGA1744 (PCIe 4.0) — making them incompatible on the same motherboard. Both support up to DDR5-4800 memory speed. The Core i5-12490F supports up to 128 GB of RAM compared to 64 GB — 66.7% more capacity for professional workloads. Both feature 2-channel memory with ECC support. Both provide 20 PCIe lanes. Chipset compatibility: B660,H610,H670,Z690,B760 (Core i5-12490F) and Adler Lake-H PCH (Core i5-12500H).

Neither processor supports overclocking. Virtualization support: VT-x, VT-d, EPT (Core i5-12490F) vs VT-x, VT-d (Core i5-12500H). The Core i5-12500H includes integrated graphics (Intel Iris Xe Graphics 80EU), while the Core i5-12490F requires a dedicated GPU. Primary use case: Core i5-12490F targets Gaming Desktop, Core i5-12500H targets Performance Laptop. Direct competitor: Core i5-12490F rivals Ryzen 5 5600X.