Intel Core i5-12600K, 6C+4c/16T, 3.70-4.90GHz, tray

Numbers always speak for themselves; if you seek a notch more value for money and don't have a use for massive threading then the Core i5 12600K(F) probably will be the processor to get. It's strong and fierce, the single-threaded performance is downright excellent, the multi-threaded performance puts it in Ryzen 7 5800X and 11900K territory. For a processor priced like that you'll reap the benefits in gaming, applications as well as the impressive (Z690) platform. All factors combined make this a truly worthwhile upgrade to a new ECO system. We do feel that the Core i5 12600K will be more interesting over the 12700K/12900K series for the vast majority of people as with its 8+4 cores and 20 threads the CPU absolutely delivers. We're not imbued that much about the inclusion of energy-efficient cores as they just do not matter to me if it does not bring IDLE and low load power consumption down. Overall platform power consumption is considerably higher than what AMD offers. The thing that Intel does have going for it is of course the extremely fast single-threaded performance, and CPU bound gaming does like that. When you look at multi-core performance the Intel is at Ryzen 5800X level with a differential here and there. IPC for the P cores is on par with the fastest Ryzen 5000 core if you clock them both at the same frequency. The thing is, Intel can clock them faster and does that longer; that's where the increased single threader performance is deriving from. AMD achieved enormous popularity by extending their ecosystem; Ryzen 5000 wasn't just about the processor; it was about the platform and, of course, PCIe Express 4.0 compatibility; being first with new technology is critical for advancing that ecosystem, as it gives you a technological lead. Intel is now taking the same concept and taking it a step further with the addition of DDR5 and PCIe Express 5.0 capabilities. While PCI-Express 5.0 may take some time to acclimate to, it does provide backward compatibility with PCIe Gen 4.0, which offers up a variety of storage functionality. Naturally, upgrading to DDR5 could result in a significantly faster response time for applications such as gaming or database workload-intensive databases. Thus, Intel is unquestionably an industry leader with a future-ready platform in that regard. However, the cost of entry for being first with technology is going to be high. And yes, there will be DDR4 compatible motherboards available as well, which may make the switch smoother. However, if you spend this kind of cash, go DDR5 straight away we would say. Apart from its somewhat high power consumption, the platform as a whole (CPU/Motherboard/New Tech) is quite amazing.