Intel's Alder Lakechips are surprisingly powerful, already earning key upsets against higher-priced Ryzen chips on our list of Best CPUs for gamingand CPU Benchmark hierarchy. As seen in our previous faceoffs, Intel's hybrid x86 Alder Lake design, which mixes fast performance cores (P-cores) with small efficiency cores (E-Cores), represents the company's most disruptive architectural shift in a decade. As a result, Intel upsets AMD's highest-end mainstream chips, particularly in price-to-performance metrics. Putting the Core i5-12400 up against AMD's price-comparable models isn't a fair fight; the Core i5-12400 beats them by huge margins. That's because the Ryzen 5 3600X and 3600 are several years old and have the previous-gen Zen 2 architecture. But, again, these are the only price-comparable chips from the AMD camp. In gaming, the Core i5-12400 is 22.7% and 26% faster than the Ryzen 5 3600X and 3600, respectively.

When compared to past generations, it did roughly match the 11700K and was quite a bit faster than the 11600K, in that sense performance was very good.Intel classifications are for general, educational and planning purposes only and consist of Export Control Classification Numbers (ECCN) and Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) numbers. Any use made of Intel classifications are without recourse to Intel and shall not be construed as a representation or warranty regarding the proper ECCN or HTS. Your company as an importer and/or exporter is responsible for determining the correct classification of your transaction. Then when power limited to the 65w spec, it matched the 5600X making it 8% slower than the unleashed configuration. Because this game only uses a single core heavily, the power configuration doesn't matter, allowing the 12400 to produce a score of 202 pts even when adhering to the 65-watt spec. That's the same score you'll receive from a Zen 3 processor and only 2.5% less than the 12600K.

I was very impressed with the cooling capability of the Enermax Liqmax III 360, which boasts an excellent 360-watt TDP (Thermal Design Power). The 12400 delivers solid performance in all manner of threaded productivity applications and beats even the highest-end Ryzen 5000 chips in single-threaded work. The Core i5-12400 also serves up incredible levels of gaming performance but at a much lower price point than any comparable AMD processor, setting a new bar for budget gaming chips. For gamers looking for the best value, the Core i5-12400 is now the uncontested best value CPU for gaming. Another standout feature of the 700D Airflow is its ability to support vertically mounting a graphics card. This is a great option for those who want to showcase their high-end GPU and add a unique touch to their build. There's another big difference between the i5-12400F/12400/12500/12600 compared to the i5-12600K. The newer chips are based on a physically different silicon, dubbed "H0." This die is smaller, and physically only features six "Golden Cove" P-cores, zero "Gracemont" E-core clusters, and a shared L3 cache that's only 18 MB. The i5-12600K and KF are carved out of the larger "C0" die, the same one the flagship i9-12900K is based on, by disabling two out of eight P-cores, and one of the two E-core clusters. The 12400 goes toe-to-toe with the 6-core, 12-thread Ryzen 5 5600X that has long been the favorite for enthusiasts because of its incredible blend of pricing and performance. This chip comes with a 65W TDP rating, 32MB of L3 cache, and has only high-performance cores. It also supports DDR4-3200 memory and the PCIe 4.0 interface.The savings are truly massive and it places Alder Lake roughly on par with Zen 3 for this comparison. The Corona benchmark sees the 12400 delivering exceptional levels of performance, beating the 11600K and 5600X. Taking 117 seconds to complete the workload meant it was 9% faster than the 5600X, despite being 26% slower than the 12600K.