The first digits after the "Tier" (i3, i5, i7, i9) are the generation, they are both of the same generation. Clock speed doesn't directly equate to performance. Don't use UserBenchMark like the AutoMod warned you about, it's a poorly run site with hard to read metrics and is incredibly biased. The 12700 is better than the 12600K but it's not worth purchasing over the 12600K just for gaming purposes, it's more for production workloads. More on reddit.com

What I want to know is what happened to the i1 and the i11 More on reddit.com

Intel and AMD have generally cost and power differences with the year that the processor was released: Examples: i7-12700H or i7-1260P or i7-1260U The i7 is where Intel calls it the top 50% processor. Where it goes against against i9, i5 or i3. (Cheap tactics to show market breakdown). I9 - top 25%, i7 - top 50%, i5 - bottom 50 to 75%, i3 - bottom 75% to 100%. The 12 is the generation or the year it was released (2022). 12th generation CPUs have hybrid architectures which uses a mixture of P cores and E cores. (P cores - performance core, E cores - efficiency cores). 11th gen and AMD (so far) have been using traditional architectures where its 2 to 16 cores where they all run at the same speed and have dual threads per CPU. CPU architectures talk about cores and clock speed. Core count is the amount of instructions per clock period. While Clock speed is the amount of cycles or per seconds) Equivalent of cyclinder displacement and RPM on engine comparison. The 700 or 60 talks about the model specification. The H P and U determine its power consumption usage. U processors are Intel and AMD specification on being a power savings CPU. (equivalent of buying a Toyota Prius) U processors consume somewhere between 9 to 55W based on power demand. P processors are an Intel only item since the 12th gen CPUs are quite power heavy. These deeper power demand with 28W to 64W of power demand. This shows on more P cores compared to U cores. H processors are Intel and AMD's enthusiast CPUs designed for pure performance. (equivalent of buying a Ferrari supercar) Power consumption of 45W to 115W. This shows with even more P cores. https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/docs/processors/core/12th-gen-core-mobile-processors-brief.html Software requirements of the programs that you are runnning have their specific requirements. Programmers will have to speak up on how better speeds will improve your workflow. More on reddit.com

You don't. Just read some reviews. More on reddit.com