The Spring Festival holiday is coming again, and I believe that many players have enough budget in their hands to assemble a favorite computer at this time. For most mainstream players, the 6-core platform is still the most cost-effective choice in terms of comprehensive cost performance, and the current dessert-grade 6-core U not only has AMD Ryzen 5 5600X, but also Intel's new generation of Core i5 12400, so who is better in the performance and more cost-effective of these two solutions? In this issue, we will compare it in detail.
The 7nm process is still ahead of the curve, and the multi-core performance of the ultra-large L3 cache ZEN3 architecture is more dominant
Although the Core i5 12400 belongs to Intel's 12th generation Core family code-named Alder Lake-S, it removes all the energy efficiency cores and retains only 6 performance cores, so even if it is also called the Core i5, it is actually far from the Core i5 12600K with a 6P+4E core configuration, and it is not a level at all.
In terms of frequency, as can be seen from the table, whether it is the base frequency or the acceleration frequency, the Core i5 12400 is actually significantly lower than the Ryzen 5600X, which will bring obvious disadvantages to the Core i5 12400 in some frequency-sensitive game and software applications. In addition, it is particularly worth mentioning that the Ryzen 5 5600X does not lock the frequency, in the vast majority of first-line B550 motherboard BIOS to open the "multi-core performance enhancement" and other functions, can reach the full core to 4.6GHz or even higher frequency, and even if the player does not manually overclock, you can also further open the PBO to achieve a higher single-core frequency, some good physique Ryzen™ 5 5600X can even reach the frequency of single core 4.95GHz. But the Core i5 12400 not only has a low frequency itself, but also locks the upper limit of the frequency multiplier, and can only be used with a small number of Z690 motherboards with special BIOS and very expensive Z690 motherboards to over-frequency, which runs counter to the original intention of players to pursue cost performance and ease of use.
The ZEN3 architecture of the Ryzen 5 5600X allows all cores to share a 32MB large L3 cache for better multi-threaded performance
In terms of caching, the Ryzen 5 5600X has a 32MB L3 cache, while the Core i5 12400 only has 18MB L3 cache, and a larger L3 cache can undoubtedly bring higher multi-core data sharing efficiency, so in terms of multi-threaded performance, the Ryzen 5600X also has inherent advantages.
Finally, the power setting, thanks to the 7nm advanced process, the Ryzen 5 5600X only needs 65W power to play full blood performance, and core i5 12400 although there is a PL1 mode of 65W, but in this power setting can only be a short period of time burst performance, after which the multi-core performance will be greatly reduced, so it has to play all the performance in the 117W PL2 state, and this power is much higher than 65W. Therefore, in the same full blood performance, the Core i5 12400 is far less energy efficient than the Ryzen 5600X.
Let's take a look at the actual combat comparison.
Game Office Wins! The Ryzen™ 5 5600X performs better overall
Intel's Golden Cove architecture on the 12th generation Core focuses on increasing the capacity of the L2 cache, so although it scores well in benchmark software such as CPU-Z, it is not so prominent in games that eat L3 cache capacity, while the Ryzen 5600X with 32MB of large L3 cache has an advantage in this regard, even if it is a product that predates the Core i5 12400 two generations, the frame rate performance in most game masterpieces is still stronger than the Core i5 12400, which is about 3.79% ahead of the curve. Of course, in addition to the factor of cache capacity, the higher operating frequency of the Ryzen™ 5600X is also indispensable.
In terms of productivity applications, the most commonly used web browsing applications are the type that is more sensitive to processor frequency, so the higher frequency Ryzen 5 5600X is ahead of the Core i5 12400. 3D rendering applications are sensitive to processor multithreading performance, while the Ryzen™ 5600X has a larger L3 cache and is more efficient at multi-core data sharing, so the overall performance is also stronger than the Core i5 12400, which is also 6 cores and 12 threads. Taken together, the Ryzen™ 5 5600X leads the Core i5 12400 in productivity performance by about 5.8%.
In summary, whether it is gaming performance or productivity performance, the overall performance of the Ryzen™ 5600X is slightly better than the Core i5 12400. Therefore, in terms of performance alone, the Ryzen 5600X is more worth choosing than the Core i5 12400. Next, let's look at the comparison of installed costs.
Compared with the total installed price, the Ryzen™ 5 5600X platform wins the cost performance
Some players may see that the Core i5 12400 box price is slightly lower than the Ryzen 5 5600X and think that it is more cost-effective, but please don't forget that the installed machine also needs to buy a motherboard. From the current total price of the mainstream board U set, the motherboard positioning in the same level, the total price of the Ryzen 5 5600X board U set is much lower than the Core i5 12400 board U set, as can be seen from the table, this price difference reached 379 yuan! In addition, amd's 1080P game applications have recently been positioned as a thousand-yuan dessert graphics card RX 6500 XT, which is more than 23% higher than the price-like GTX1650, and it is also very good to form a cost-effective host with the Ryzen™ 5600X. Therefore, you can see that combining these price advantages, the price of the Ryzen™ 5 5600X machine has an advantage of up to 579 yuan over the core i5 12400 machine of the same level, and players can also use this part of the price difference to upgrade memory, hard disk, etc., to get a better experience.
summary:
With better comprehensive performance and a more fragrant installed price, the Ryzen 5 5600X is still the 6-core U dessert king
As can be seen from the previous tests, the Ryzen™ 5600X with 7nm ZEN3 architecture, whether it is comprehensive game performance or comprehensive productivity performance, the performance is slightly better than the Core i5 12400, and it has not been locked, players can choose PBO mode or manual overclocking to get higher performance, so there is room for improvement in the actual experience in use. The Core i5 12400 locks in the highest multiplier, and there is no room for performance on mainstream B660 motherboards. In terms of installed cost, the total price of the Ryzen™ 5 5600X board U set has a great advantage over the core i5 12400 board U set of the same level, and players can use this price difference to upgrade memory or SSD to get a better experience. Therefore, from a comprehensive point of view, for mainstream players, it is more cost-effective to build a 6-core performance host or choose the Ryzen 5600X.