Intel Core i5-12600K Review

1. Introduction to Intel Core i5-12600K2. Intel Slides and Specs3. CPU Performance - Cinebench4. CPU Performance - CrossMark, Blender & 7-Zip5. Memory Performance - AIDA646. Gaming Performance - Deus Ex & Watch Dogs Legion7. Gaming Performance - Far Cry 6 & 3DMark8. Power Consumption & Temperature9. Closing Thoughts10. View All Pages

In recent times Core i5 has been Intel's budget CPU of choice, delivering six cores with Hyper Threading for a price around £300. This specification puts Core i5 head-to-head with AMD Ryzen 5 and leaves the customer to decide on relatively fine points such as their preferred platform.

The new Core i5-12600K gives that premise a good shake as you now get six Performance cores and four Efficient cores which is a total of 16 threads so we're looking at a new Core i5 that is more akin to a conventional eight core, while the price remains at the previous level.

Our testing demonstrates that Core i5-12600K is impressive out of the box with Auto settings and is competitive against both Core i9-10900KF and Core i9-11900K while using considerably less power. If you choose to overclock the Core i5-12600K you get a fistful of extra performance and it is still easy to keep the CPU nice and cool.

We can confidently state the Core i5-12600K leaves Ryzen 5 5600X trailing in its wake but that isn't much of a shock when you consider Intel is working with a new architecture, new process and also has DDR5 memory.

We really did not expect to see that Core i5-12600K would also beat down the Ryzen 7 5800X to such an extent you can find heavy discounts on the AMD part in the USA and we have to hope we will see similar changes of pricing here in the UK.

The Intel Core i5-12600K is available from Overclockers UK for £289.99 HERE.

See our i9-12900K review HERE.

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Pros:

• Top gaming performance at a sensible price.
• Six P cores plus four E cores beats Ryzen 5 hollow.
• Excellent value for money.
• Runs nice and cool under load.
• We found 500MHz overclocking was quick and simple.

Cons:

• You need a new 600-series motherboard and right now that means Z690.
• Core i5 uses about 40W more than Ryzen 5 under load.

KitGuru says: Intel Core i5-12600K sets a new standard for budget gaming CPUs and beats both Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 7 by a wide margin.

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