The last word:
Well, that’s it, Intel is back in the game and in a big way! Because yes, let’s be honest, we’ve been waiting for a new architecture from Intel for several years. The bet has been successful with the i9-12900K which takes the lead on all of our benchmarks and the i5-12600K that is very often ahead of the top of the range Rocket Lake and Comet Lake.
Single-core performance has increased significantly compared to the previous generation and is now ahead of the Ryzen 5000’s. Regarding power consumption, the switch to 10 nm is positive even if there is still a significant gap with the Ryzen 9 5950X. But that is different with the i5-12600K, which is the one offering the best balance between performance and power consumption. We strongly believe the i5-12600k is the new best of class the 6-core CPUs, especially thanks to its affordable price and its performance.
The i9-12900K becomes “the processor” for 3DMark. The CPU manages to pulverize records in every benchmark, making it the most interesting SKU for benchmarkers. Nevertheless, Cinebench and Geekbench are not left out either.
Even if we haven’t covered the topic of games yet, there’s no doubt that the performance will be up to scratch and will confirm your interest in these two CPUs, with the i5-12600K being more the budget friendly one.
Alder Lake, interesting prices :
Should I change my setup and go for Alder Lake? Given the performance and if you haven’t just bought yourself a brand new setup, the answer is clearly yes. When you see the i5-12600K available for 330 euros, it would be a shame not to go for it. Some concerns still remain and that’s the rest of the component’s prices.
The first Z690 motheboards are very expensive and the lack of DDR5 kits availability is also paying off. We’ll try to pick up a DDR4 compatible Z690 board soon to see if this option could be the better deal for now.
The i9-12900K costs around 720 euros. It is therefore more interesting than the Ryzen 9 5950X sold for instance for around 850 euros. We will see if AMD decides to change its pricing in the coming weeks. The good news is that Intel confirmed there will be sufficient availability for its Alder Lake processors. In conclusion, you might have guess it yet. In conclusion, Alder Lake is a big WIN and we say YES.
See you at 5pm to discover its overclocking potential on the ROG Maximus Z690 for the CPU but also for DDR5!
