After entering 2022, the processor market has added many "recruits": Intel has launched a full range of 12th-generation desktop processors, mainly composed of non-K series products that cannot be overclocked, among which the Core i5-12400 is the most interesting. This processor is not equipped with the mainstream users of the E Core energy efficiency core, the price is only about 1699 yuan, than the Core i5-12600K, Core i9-12900K these high-end processors are much cheaper, more suitable for use in mainstream computers, so for users, Core i5-12400 is not a better choice?
6-core processor product analysis
The Core i5-12400 has attracted attention mainly because it has not only upgraded to use the new Golden Cove processor architecture, but also adopted a 6-core, 12-thread design. For mainstream users, such a processor core, thread number configuration is more practical, not only to meet most of the cores, threads have a certain demand for consumer-level software, games, but also not equipped with too many processor cores, the price is more reasonable. After all, ordinary users generally rarely carry out professional applications such as graphic rendering and scientific computing. In fact, before the Core i5-12400 was listed, there were also a number of 6-core, 12-thread processors on the market, of which the most sought after by consumers was the AMD Ryzen 5600X.
▲The Ryzen™ 5 5600X processor is cost-effective and comes with an original heatsink.
This product uses AMD's latest Zen 3 processor architecture, based on TSMC 7nm FinFET production process, 6 core, 12 thread design, the maximum acceleration frequency from 4.5GHz of the Ryzen 5 3600XT to 4.6GHz. Another highlight of the processor is that its L3 cache capacity is the same as the higher level 8-core Ryzen™ 7 5800X, up to 32MB, and each core can directly access the L3 cache, which can effectively reduce the communication time between cores, reduce latency, and improve cache performance. In other respects, the TDP thermal design of the Ryzen 5 5600X consumes only 65W of power and comes with a Wraith Stealth 65W silent version radiator. At present, the price of AMD Jingdong's self-operated flagship store on the Ryzen™ 5600X is about 1799 yuan, which is not expensive.
▲The Core i5-12400 also uses a 6-core, 12-thread design, but the three-level cache capacity is only 18MB.
The Intel Core i5-12400 is built by Intel 7 process technology based on 10nm Enhanced SuperFin technology, which can support DDR4 and DDR5 memory, respectively, and support new technologies such as PCIe 5.0. This processor has 6 performance cores (P Cores) that support Hyper-Threading Technology, and the number of compute threads is the same as 12. Among them, the highest turbo frequency operating frequency of the P Core performance core is 4.4GHz, and its turbo TDP power consumption is 117W. However, the Core i5-12400 also has a congenital deficiency in terms of specifications, that is, its three-level cache capacity is still not high, although the flagship Core i9-12900K's three-level cache capacity has been increased to 30MB, but the three-level cache capacity of the mid-range Core i5-12400 has been greatly reduced, reduced to only 18MB, and there is still a big gap compared with the 32MB three-level cache capacity of the Ryzen 5 5600X.
▲ With the same level of B550 motherboard, the Ryzen™ 5 5600X board U set is priced at only 2419 yuan.
▲ With the same level of B660 motherboard, the Core i5-12400 board U set is priced at 379 yuan.
In terms of price, although the Core i5-12400 retail price sold separately for 1699 yuan, it seems to be 100 yuan cheaper than the Ryzen 5 5600X, but the B660 motherboard designed for Intel's non-K series processors is not cheap. For example, the current Core i5-12400 with ASUS TIF GAMING B660M-PLUS D4 heavy gunner motherboard board U set price is about 2798 yuan, and Ryzen 5 5600X with the same level of B550 motherboard, such as ASUS TUF GAMING B550M-PLUS motherboard The total price is only 2419 yuan, cheaper as much as 379 yuan, users can use this difference to upgrade the capacity of a memory or SSD. Therefore, when choosing a motherboard with the same level, the combination of core i5-12400+B660 motherboard is more expensive than the combination of Ryzen 5600X+B550 motherboard.
So from the actual experience, who is more worth choosing between the Ryzen 5 5600X and the Core i5-12400? Next, let's use practical tests to come up with the answer.
How we test
Test platform
Motherboard: AMD B550 motherboard, Intel B660 motherboard
Processor: Ryzen™ 5600X, Core i5-12400
Memory: Zhiqi Royal Halberd DDR4 4000 8GB×2
Hard Disk: AORUS Gen4 7000s NVMe SSD
Graphics: Radeon RX 6900XT
Power supply: AORUS P850GM
Next, we specially built the Ryzeng 5600X platform based on the AMD B550 motherboard and the Core i5-12400 platform based on the Intel B660 motherboard to conduct a comprehensive comparison test from the processor benchmark performance, application performance and gaming performance. In order not to make the display part a bottleneck, the graphics card uniformly uses the top-of-the-line AMD Radeon RX 6900XT graphics card. At the same time, considering that the current DDR5 memory price is too expensive, it is almost impossible for users who buy Core i5-12400 processors to choose DDR5 memory, so we use a B660 motherboard that supports DDR4 memory on the Core i5-12400 platform. In order to maximize the performance of the two processors, both platforms use The Zhiqi high-end DDR4 memory - Royal Halberd DDR4 4000, and its latency setting is also very low, only 15-16-16-36@1T, which is a fairly powerful product in DDR4 memory.
The Ryzen™ 5 5600X performed better overall
Processor benchmarks and application performance testing
Test review: First of all, from the perspective of processor performance testing, the Ryzen™ 5600X has won in multi-threaded performance tests, especially in the overall performance test of the PerformanceTest processor, which has gained an advantage of up to 11.4%, while the processor also has a small victory over the Core i5-12400 in the Super Pi one-million-bit operation test that reflects the single-threaded performance of the processor, which is also small in CPU-Z, PerformanceTest 10.2 CPU single-threaded performance testing has certain advantages.
In the actual application performance test, we mainly carry out daily web browsing, file compression, audio and video transcoding, PS image processing and other common consumer application tests, rather than professional graphics rendering or scientific calculations. Compared to the Core i5-12400, the Ryzen 5 5600X has taken the lead in most tests. For example, in the performance test of pcMark 10 that simulates a variety of practical applications, the Ryzen™ 5600X leads the Core i5-12400 by about 4.3%, because the former has obvious advantages in applications such as program startup, video conferencing, and image editing. For example, in the Ryzen 5600X, the time spent on Gaussian blur on the picture only 0.144 seconds, while the Core i5-12400 took 0.326 seconds, more than double the time. At the same time, there are similar results in the actual combat of PhotoShop 2021, which performs color conversion, adds "color palette" and "sponge" filters, etc., and the time consuming of the Ryzen 5 5600X in the test is 10 seconds less than that of the Core i5-12400, and the performance is 12.6%.
It is also worth noting that even when performing the most commonly used browser applications by users, the advantages of the Ryzen 5600X are obvious - in the Six Tests of WebXPRT3 Browser Performance Test, "Photo Enhancement", "Using Artificial Intelligence to Organize Photo Albums", "Stock Option Pricing", "Encrypted Notes and OCR Scans", "Sales Charts", and "Online Jobs", the task execution time of the Ryzen 5 5600X is lower than that of the Core i5-12400. As a result, its score also significantly exceeds that of the Core i5-12400. In AMD's traditional advantage project 7-ZIP compression and decompression performance test, the Ryzen 5600X ahead of the Core i5-12400 advantage reached a staggering 24.7%, while the Ryzen 5 5600X also won the Core i5-12400 in video transcoding, only in the foobar2000 FLAC lossless audio to MP3 test, which took slightly more time than the Core i5-12400.
The Ryzen™ 5 5600X has an overwhelming advantage!
Game performance testing
Test review: In the game performance test that consumer users are most concerned about, we use the online game that players like to play the most, supplemented by some AAA game single-player masterpieces for comparative testing. In these games, Zombie World Wars, Return to German Headquarters: New Bloodline, Final Fantasy XIV: Dawning Moon' End, Dust 5, Tomb Raider comes with benchmark tools that run the actual game scene and calculate the average number of frames run, while CS:GO, League of Legends, PUBG: Battle Royale, and World of Tanks can record and replay players' game games, and then use third-party testing tools such as FRAPS. It can calculate the average number of running frames, so it can represent the actual game performance of each test platform.
The test results were surprising, and although the Core i5-12400 is Intel's latest product, the Ryzen 5600X still has an overwhelming advantage in popular online games. For example, in the replay of the actual CS:GO game scene, the average frame rate of the Ryzen 5 5600X was 22.4% ahead of the Core i5-12400; in the "League of Legends" test, we played back the team battle scene during the game, and the average running frame of the Ryzen 5 5600X was as much as 28.5% higher than that of the Core i5-12400, and the frame rate was 55fps ahead. The test results of these two games give people the impression that these two processors are completely two eras of products, after all, they are all paired with the same graphics card, and the difference in processors alone brings such a big gap. In other games, while the two processors have narrowed the gap, the Ryzen 5 5600X also has an advantage in most games. For example, in World of Tanks, the average frame rate of the Ryzen 5 5600X is 23.1fps faster than the Core i5-12400, 7.8%; in Final Fantasy 14: The End of the Dawn moon, the Ryzen 5 5600X has a 5.1% advantage, in addition to publifier: Battle Royale, Tomb Raider: Shadow, Return to German Headquarters: New Bloodlines and other games, the Ryzen 5 5600X also outperformed the opponents, only in "Dust 5" and "3DMark" and other games. Tested slightly behind the Core i5-12400.
We analyze the main reasons for this, one is that although the Core i5-12400 has upgraded the new Golden Cove processor architecture, compared to the previous Intel processors, there is indeed no small improvement, but compared to the Ryzen 5600X Zen 3 architecture does not have much advantage; the second is that the Core i5-12400 has insufficient L3 cache capacity, which is 14MB less than the Ryzen 5600X. Generally speaking, as long as there is a cache with a large enough capacity and a fast enough speed, then the processor has a greater probability of finding the data that needs to be processed in its own cache, and there is no need to find data in the memory of only about one-tenth of the third-level cache, which can greatly improve the computing efficiency of the processor, especially in those games with large processor data calculations such as online games, and some stand-alone games, the Ryzen™ 5600X with a larger three-level cache capacity can have a greater advantage.
The Ryzen™ 5 5600X remains the first choice for the 6-core processor market
Obviously, whether it is in the photoShop image processing, browser, video transcoding applications most commonly used by ordinary users, or the popular games "CS:GO", "League of Legends", "World of Tanks", "PUBG: Battle Royale", the Ryzen™ 5600X has defeated Intel's cutting-edge product - Core i5-12400, fully reflecting that in the mainstream processor market, amD Ryzen 5000 series processors based on Zen 3 architecture still have a lot of advantages in the face of 12th-generation Core processors. In addition, the Ryzen 5 5600X board U set is also cheaper than the Core i5-12400 board U set, which is more cost-effective, so if you want to assemble a 6-core computer, the Ryzen 5 5600X is still a better choice. Finally, we also recommend a set of Ryzen™ 5600X, Radeon RX 6600XT graphics card, 2K high refresh rate display, the whole machine price of less than 10,000 yuan of cost-effective AAA computer, hoping to bring smooth gaming and office experience to all users.