Intel Core i5-12600K gaming performance review — Indomitable value to performance

pcinvasion.com:

After years of delays, Intel has finally moved on to a more advanced manufacturing node, bringing new levels of performance and efficiency to its desktop processors. As it would have it, this technological step forward also coincides with the introduction of Intel’s new Hybrid architecture that introduces a mix of big (P) and little (E) cores all on a single monolithic die. Codenamed “Alder Lake,” we’re looking at what is the most exciting new generation of processors from Team Blue in years. Intel seems to think so as well, because it sent us an i5-12600K to review for gaming performance, features, and value. Spoiler alert, this one takes the value-to-performance crown for the best enthusiast-grade CPU for gaming.

If you checked out our i9-12900K review, you already know Intel has some competent new K-Series CPUs that deliver seriously impressive gaming performance, even while handling heaps of background tasks, such as recording/streaming gameplay. Intel 12th-generation Alder Lake CPUs come as a stark contrast to the last several generations that offered limited performance improvements at the cost of reduced power efficiency, though the revision of PCIe 4.0 support was welcome for Rocket Lake. Understandably, the last several Intel generations didn’t leave a whole lot for most gamers to get excited about if they already had a six-core CPU or better. AMD also managed to release the Ryzen 5000 Series, which brought fierce competition to Intel and was arguably the better buy prior to Alder Lake.

Intel’s 12th generation offers a notable boost in single-threaded performance for gaming via its P-cores, plus a huge jump in multi-threaded performance thanks to the new E-cores. Intel has also boosted the efficiency of its new