Much interest is focused on Intel’s new Core i5-12400 chip, which could give AMD’s Ryzen 5 5600X a run for its money. While we’ve already seen various application benchmarks, a Chinese tech YouTuber 二斤自制, has tested the Core i5-12400 with games, which is the most interesting workload for Alder Lake buyers.
Although the Core i5-12400 has not yet been formally introduced, its specifications are currently known. The processor has six Golden Cove cores, or Performance cores as Intel refers to them (P-cores). This indicates that the Core i5-12400 will have the same six-core, twelve-thread configuration as the current Core i5-11400. Even more importantly, gamers will no longer have to tinker with BIOS settings to get old and unsupported titles to run on the Core i5-12400. If you’re not sure what we’re talking about, you can read more about how old DRAM in older games doesn’t play well with Alder Lake.
Even though CPU-Z classified the YouTuber’s Core i5-12400 as an engineering sample (ES), she acknowledged that the processor is a qualification sample (QS). While this indicates that the processor is nearing completion, the retail version may differ.
In any case, the core count, 18MB of L3 cache, and 65W TDP will remain the same. Clock speeds, on the other hand, are prone to variation. The Core i5-12400 is expected to have a base frequency of 2.5 GHz and a turbo speed of 4.4 GHz. The latter is somewhat correct since the YouTuber’s CPU-Z screenshot showed the Core i5-12400 running at roughly 4.4 GHz.
Intel Core i5-12400 Gaming Benchmarks
The Core i5-12400 was pitted against the Core i9-12900K and Core i5-11400 by the reviewer (Rocket Lake). Because the Core i5-12400 is a low-cost processor, she chose DDR4 RAM. The memory was from HyperX’s Predator Black series, and she ran it at DDR4-4000 with timings of 18-18-18-38 throughout all three test systems. MSI’s Z690A-Pro motherboard housed the Alder Lake processors, whereas the MEG Z590 Ace had the Rocket Lake processors. Meanwhile, the graphical duties were handled by the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Supreme.
The performance difference between the Core i5-12400 and Core i5-11400 in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was only 2.33 percent. The other titles, on the other hand, exhibited a larger margin. The Core i5-12400, on the other hand, produced up to 18.42 percent and 12.08 percent higher average frame rates in Grand Theft Auto V and Total War: Three Kingdoms, respectively.
The Core i5-12400 also performed admirably in Cyberpunk 2077, outperforming the Core i5-11400 by 16.67%. The Core i5-12400 performed similarly to the Core i9-12900K and Core i5-11400 in Red Dead Redemption 2. The biggest notable advantage came from PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds when the Core i5-12400 outperformed the Core i5-11400 by 24.4 percent.
The Core i5-11400 was already a strong budget gaming processor, but the Core i5-12400 outperformed it. if you do not intend to overclock or require the Efficiency cores (E-cores), the Core i5-12400 provides a good bang for your dollars. We’ll have to wait till the official launch to acquire pricing confirmation. If Canadian shop DirectDial’s prices are correct, the Core i5-12400 might launch for less than $250, with the iGPU-less Core i5-12400F joining the Alder Lake stack for $200.
