Intel Core i5-12600K Could be a Hit; AMD has Reasons to Worry
The Core i5-12600K could be the hit of Intel's upcoming Alder Lake generation of processors. If it retains the price level of previous i5 releases, it has a chance to outclass even AMD's Ryzen 7 5800X chip.
- Intel i5-12600K could be more powerful even than AMD Ryzen 7 5800X;
- If it retains the price level of previous i5 generations, it has a chance to become a sales hit.
Alder Lake is not just the next iteration of Intel's processors. It's also a new technology with a slightly different approach to computing threads. The 12th-gen processors will be hybrid chips - by having two types of cores, they are supposed to perfectly scale their power and energy consumption. In particular, the mid-range Core i5-12600K could be a real hit. At the price of Ryzen 5 5600X it is supposed to offer performance that can leave even Ryzen 7 5800X behind.
This is what we can learn from the above video on Moore's Law Is Dead YouTube channel. According to the host the i5-12600K should not be significantly more expensive than its previous incarnations (such as the i5-11600K). There are currently no legitimate concerns that it could be otherwise. A price of around $300 would suggest a "shelf" rivalry with the R5 5600X. However, a significant advantage is expected to be provided in multi-threaded performance. It is in this area that the Alder Lake processors should be most efficient.
While the i5-12600K is still essentially a 6-core processor, it also has four Gracemont cores and thus an additional four threads. Together this gives ten cores and sixteen threads. Obviously the performance of the small units is much lower than Golden Cove. Moore's Law Is Dead at one point even refers to the processor as 7-core, as if combining the power of four Atoms into one. Still, there are sixteen threads, which can be crucial in multi-threading tests.
The same may be true of the Intel Core i9-12900K. In the Geekbench database we can find the test results. We can notice better values in comparison to the flagship AMD Ryzen 9 5950X and this on a platform with twice less memory. However, keep in mind that these may be engineering sample tests and we should treat them as leaks.
It's worth adding that Alder Lake's top performance may require Windows 11. Perhaps that's why the releases of the new chips more or less coincide with the launch of Microsoft's new operating system. Core i5-12600K has a chance to become a bestseller among gamers and help Intel regain lost market positions in the middle segment.
