For a considerable number of mainstream users, the mid-range thousand-yuan processor is an affordable and easy choice. Since its launch, the AMD Ryzen™ 5 5600X has become the processor of choice for mid-range gaming PCs with its powerful performance, and even two generations of Core have no pressure. Now that there is a menacing 12th generation Core on the market, should mid-range gamers continue to choose the Ryzen 5 5600X or Core i5 12600KF when installing the machine? Today we will compare it in detail.
Compared to specifications, the Core i5 12600KF actually has no advantages
Due to the hybrid architecture of large and small cores, the Core i5 12600KF is composed of 6 performance cores and 4 performance cores to create a specification of 10 cores and 16 threads, which is obvious at first glance. However, in real game applications, only the 6 performance cores with hyper-threading will be used, and the remaining 4 performance cores will be used
Multithreading performance of the processor is further enhanced when video encoding, streaming, or 3D render output is required. This means that when playing games, the Core i5 12600KF and Ryzen™ 5600X are both 6-core, 12-thread specifications, and there is no difference.
Game programs are more sensitive to the processor frequency, Ryzen 5 5600X although the highest frequency is slightly lower, but it 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 5600X can even reach the single-core 4.95GHz frequency. Although the Core i5 12600KF can also be overclocked, it can only be paired with a very expensive Z690 motherboard, which is bound to affect the cost performance of the entire platform.
In terms of caching, the Core i5 12600KF 1 performance core exclusively enjoys 1.25MB L2 cache, every 4 energy efficiency cores form a unit, sharing 2MB L2 cache, even so it only has 20MB L3 cache, while the Ryzen 5 5600X has 32MB L3 cache, larger L3 cache can undoubtedly bring stronger gaming performance, in this regard, the Ryzen 5600X also has advantages.
In terms of power performance, although the Core i5 12600KF finally asked for the 14nm process, it was only increased to 10nm, which was not as advanced as the 7nm of the Ryzen 5600X. Thanks to a more advanced process, the Ryzen 5 5600X requires only 65W of power to perform at full blood. At the same time, you may also notice that the Core i5 12600KF has the power consumption of PL1 and PL2 modes, of which the PL1 mode can only break out of performance for a short time, and then the multi-core performance will be greatly reduced, so it must play all the performance in the PL2 state, but if this mode is turned on, the processor power will be increased to 150W, which is more than twice that of the Ryzen 5 5600X.
As for the Core i5 12600KF first support DDR5 memory and PCIe 5.0, the former is too high because the price is too high, not suitable for mid-range users to choose, the latter is empty of ultra-high bandwidth, but there is no graphics card or SSD can be used, so it seems a bit flashy, in terms of practicality and Ryzen™ 5600X is no different.
Let's see how the Core i5 12600KF and the Ryzen™ 5600X perform when running the game.
The game is on an equal footing
In the actual game test, the performance of the two processors is more interesting. In World of Warcraft: Shadowlands, the Ryzen™ 5 5600X has a score of 370fps, significantly ahead of the Core i5 12600KF's 329fps, which is also the most disparity of all test items.
At the same time, in the three games such as "Forza Motorsport: Horizon 4", "League of Legends", "Red Dead Redemption 2" and so on, the average frame rate of the Ryzen 5 5600X is only 1fps lower than that of the Core i5 12600KF, and the difference in Tomb Raider: Shadow is only 3fps, which can basically be regarded as an error. The results of the two processors in Final Fantasy XIV are exactly the same, both 220fps.
From the above tests, we can see that in most games, the gap between the Ryzen 5 5600X and the Core i5 12600KF is very small, and we can completely conclude that the ryzen 5 5600X's game performance is comparable to that of the Core i5 12600KF.
In the case of comparable game performance, the important factor affecting user choice may be the price. Next, let's look at the comparison of installed costs.
Compared with the total installed price, the Ryzen 5 5600X wins without suspense
It can be seen that in the case of other hardware are the same model, the processor and the motherboard alone, between the two sets of configurations, 1660 yuan have been opened, which is not a small gap. If you put the budget saved on the graphics card, you can fully upgrade the graphics card from the RX 6600 XT to the RX 6700 XT, so the game performance gap between the two configurations can be large.
One might say it's unfair to pair the Core i5 12600KF with the Z690. As mentioned earlier, the Ryzen 5 5600X and B550 can turn on the PBO for higher single-core frequencies for even greater gaming performance. Although the Core i5 12600KF does not lock the multiplier, but if it is not matched with the Z690, it cannot be overclocked and its performance cannot be fully released, which is unfair to the Core i5 12600KF.
Summary: The game performance is comparable, the installed price is more affordable, and the creation of a mid-range game console Ryzen™ 5 5600X is still the first
From the above comparison, it can be seen that even if the Core i5 12600KF has been greatly improved this time, its 4 performance cores, the DDR5 memory supported by the first release and PCIe 5.0 are not very useful for game applications, and in terms of game performance, it is only comparable to the Ryzen 5600X.
When installing the machine, in order to fully play the performance of the Core i5 12600KF, you can only choose the expensive Z690 motherboard, which can be costly. If you choose the B660, there is no room for lower cost processor performance. The choice of Ryzen 5 5600X does not have this concern, with the B550 can achieve overclocking, to ensure the full play of processor performance. Therefore, from a comprehensive point of view, the cost-effective advantage of choosing Ryzen 5600X to create a mid-range game console is too obvious, and it is still the first choice at present.