Intel's upcoming 12th Gen Core i5-12400F can compete with the best! Intel's latest batch of processors continues to prove that a smaller process node isn't always better (although it is necessary). While the Intel 7 process node and big.LITTLE architecture have proven effective in the Core i7 and i9 product lines, the increased IPC and node improvements of Alder Lake give Intel's small 6-core processors a very big boost.
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French tech website Le Comptoir Du Hardware (The Hardware Counter) recently reviewed several Alder Lake processors, comparing their performance to other 10th- to 12th-generation offerings as well as AMD's Ryzen 5000 series. One of the biggest surprises in their review was the notable performance of the i5-12400F, a six-core/six-thread processor that doesn't include the typical Alder Lake performance cores.
The yet-to-be-released 12400F's performance in synthetic benchmarks like Cinebench R23 was surprisingly good. Single-core performance reportedly outperformed Intel's 10th and 11th-gen SKUs, including the 10900K and 11900K. Multi-core performance was predictably lower than many of the other CPUs due to the lower core and thread counts. However, the i5-12400F managed to outperform the six-core Ryzen 5600X in many of the tests.
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Gaming tests were favorable across the board, with 1080p performance comparable to and, in some cases, ahead of previous generations of Intel, AMD's 8-core 5800X, and even the 12-core 5900X.
The tests were conducted using typical and “AAA benchmarking titles”, including Anno 1800, Cyberpunk 2077 and Far Cry 6. These results are very impressive considering the limited clock speed and boost behavior of the 12400F engineering sample (ES) tested. What the 6-core processor lacks in “pure muscle” it makes up for in the new architecture’s increased instructions per cycle.
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It's hard to make a determination based on testing an ES processor from an outlet, but the fact that Hardware Counter's findings closely resemble those leaked by Bilibili earlier this year is a promising indicator. If Intel can pair this potential performance with an attractive price tag, there's a good chance the 12400K will land in more than a few gaming rigs around the world.
Information source: techspot.com
