Alder Lake CPUs are already among us, is the i5-12600K the definitive CPU?

Since the launch of the 2nd. Generation Ryzen, Intel struggled to stay competitive against AMD, releasing processors with fewer cores, countless refried 14nm, and more, but today the situation finally changed with the arrival of the 12th Intel Core. Generation “Alder Lake”, putting Intel back in the competition with great performance and a host of new technologies.

Alder Lake-S is the first hybrid architecture from Intel, which combines high-performance “Golden Cove” cores with high-efficiency “Gracemont” cores allowing to obtain the right balance between consumption and performance depending on the loads, and with up to 16 cores and 24 threads for a great multi-threaded performance, an aspect in which Intel left much to be desired in the last generations compared to AMD.

In addition to this increase in multi-core performance provided by the additional cores, the Golden Cove cores offer a 19% increase in IPC over the Cypress Cove cores used in the 11th. Generation, adding a large increase in single-core performance, which allows Intel to be the absolute leader in this regard and obtain the maximum performance in loads that use few threads.

Other important features of Alder Lake are the use of DDR5 ram memory for higher data transfer bandwidth, and PCI-E 5.0 for higher communication speed with devices such as GPUs or M.2 SSDs, increasing overall performance. of the platform significantly.

Finally, they are the first desktop processors manufactured at 10nm, something that helps their consumption not skyrocket even more than it is in this new generation, since it would not have been possible to put all this hardware on a chip at 14nm already. that its consumption would be extremely high.

Having given an introduction to these processors, let’s take a look at their performance.

Performance in Cinebench R20 and R23

In Cinebench R20, Guru3D benchmarks show us that the new $ 600 i9-12900K outperforms the $ 750 Ryzen 9 5950X in both single-core and multi-core, plus U’s i5-12600K. $ S 300 beats the $ 450 Ryzen 7 5800X in both single-core and multi-core, having very good price-performance.

On the Cinebench R23 side, TechPowerUp tests show us that in Multi-Core the i9-12900K outperforms the Ryzen 9 5950X, the i7-12700K outperforms the Ryzen 9 5900X, and the i5-12600K outperforms the Ryzen 7 5800X, beating to all processors that are one notch higher. In single-core, the three new processors lead the podium by far, this being one of the aspects where we will see the most difference in the actual use of these processors.

Performance in games

On the gaming side, Intel takes the lead again with these new CPUs, as long as you have a GPU like an RTX 3080 that demands the most from the CPU. With an RTX 3060 or a GPU like that there is not going to be a noticeable difference so if you were planning to upgrade to have more FPS in games, keep this in mind.

You can see the individual tests for each game on TechPowerUp.

Consumption and Temperatures

Although for now everything seems very nice, the i9-12900K has a serious problem that is its consumption. It can reach 300W in Cinebench, and in extreme tests even more, so it will not be an easy task to cool it. As we can see, with a Noctua NH-U14S it reaches 93 ° C when removing its power limit and exceeds 100 ° C under other circumstances, so an AIO with a 360mm radiator will be needed to keep it at reasonable temperatures.

You can find full stress, single-core, and no-load consumer tests in the TechPowerUp review.

The i7-12700K reaches 220W with the power limit activated and 268W without power limit, so its consumption is also quite high, although not as much as in the case of the i9. This generates that it reaches a temperature of 64 ° with its active power limit, but that it shoots up to 94 ° C when said power limit is removed, so it will also be necessary to resort to a high-performance cooling solution to keep this cool. CPU.

Finally, the i5-12600K reaches 189W with its active power limit and 193W when removed since it does not require as much power due to its fewer number of cores. This allows its temperature to be only 66 ° C with its power limit and 68 ° C when deactivated, so it will not be necessary to spend too much on cooling for this model.

Price-performance

We close the note with one of the most important points when choosing a piece of hardware, the price-performance ratio. The i5-12600K is pretty much the best option we can find as it offers the multi-core performance of a $ 450 Ryzen 7 5800X for just $ 300, and the same single-core and gaming performance as its siblings. older with much lower consumption and temperatures, being a good option wherever you look at it.

The i9-12900K offers practically the same price-performance ratio of the Ryzen 9 5900X and the i7-12700K offers much better price-performance than the Ryzen 7 5800X so these are also very good options although we must bear in mind that we will require a good cooling system and a motherboard with good well-cooled VRMs, which will incur additional costs.

Having seen how the 12th Intel Core performs and how much they consume. Generation, do you plan to upgrade to any of them?