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Best Intel 12th Gen CPU in 2024 – best for gaming performance

The Best Alder Lake CPUs: Intel 12900K vs 12700K vs 12600K

Updated: Feb 19, 2024 9:25 am
Best Intel 12th Gen CPU in 2024 – best for gaming performance

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Have you ever asked the question, what is the Best Intel 12th-Gen CPU? Well, we have, and we have the answer. We here at WePC have devoted years to testing the best CPUs that both Team Red and Team Blue have to offer, this gives us the knowledge and the expertise to guide you through the best Intel 12th gen CPU. With the 13th Gen and 14th Gen superseding the 12th Gen, it could be the perfect time to pick up the prior generation of CPUs for cheap. Here’s our guide to the best Intel 12th-gen CPUs, as well as a detailed look at Z690 motherboards and DDR5 RAM.

Many will be asking if upgrading to the 13th Gen is worth it. It certainly will offer a boost, but don’t write off the incredibly powerful 12th gen. We like to keep this article up to date, and although this article focuses on previous-generation CPUs, it pays to be in the know. We’ve compiled a list of the best Alder Lake processors with each kind of consumer in mind with all the information currently available: taking into account budget, gaming performance, and workstation performance.

If you want to know more about the CPUs that follow the 12th generation, you can check out everything you need to know about the Intel 13th Gen article. If you don’t have time to read this full guide we’re going to make things simple for you right here. We have the Core i9-12900K as the best 12-generation Intel CPU. Thanks to its high core count and unrivaled gaming performance (via 12th-gen equivalent CPUs) The 12900K deserves the top spot in our Best 12th-gen CPU article.

Note: All of the 12th-generation CPUs below were released in 2021, although we like to keep things current, we can’t make something newer than it is. These are the best 12th gen Intel CPUs of 2024.

What is the best Intel 12th-generation CPU?

The best Intel 12th-generation CPU will be one that has powerful single and multi-core performance, and a relatively high clock speed, not only that, but it also has to be affordable and have a decent price-to-performance ratio.

Here we will run through the best 12th gen Intel CPU, we will analyze several things including core speed, core count, cache, and TDP. We must analyze these factors as they contribute massively to CPU performance and by extension, PC performance.

Core i9-12900K

Best 12th gen Intel CPU
Core i9-12900K

Intel Core i9-12900K

Intel Core i9 12900K

Boost clock speed (single core)

5.3 GHz

Total Cores / Threads

16/24

P-cores

8

E-cores

8

Socket

LGA 1700

Overclockable

Yes

Pros
  • Powerful single core performance
  • Powerful multi-core performance
  • Overclockable
Cons
  • Expensive

The i9-12900K is Intel’s strong attempt to outperform AMD in gaming and multi-core tasks. The i9-12900K is around 30% better in gaming compared to AMD’s Ryzen 9 5950X. It costs $589 at launch making it 36% cheaper than the $800 5950X, and offers potential performance gains. Don’t worry, you can now pick both of those CPUs up for considerably cheaper, thanks to newer CPU releases. The i9-12900KF, without integrated graphics, is generally slightly cheaper, but it might be wise to spend a bit more for the iGPU option as a backup in case the main GPU fails.

Remember, these performance numbers are based on the i9-12900K’s standard 5.3GHz boost clock (compared to Ryzen 9 5950X’s 4.9GHz and Ryzen 9 5900X’s 4.8GHz). Intel CPUs are known for overclocking, which could give the i9-12900K an even bigger advantage with a Z690 motherboard.

The i9-12900K doesn’t just focus on gaming but aims to compete with AMD in multi-core tasks where AMD usually excels. It now has 16 cores and 24 threads (up from the previous 11900K’s core count), similar to AMD Ryzen 5950X. However, AMD’s 7nm process is different from Intel’s 10nm process, so real-world performance will depend on benchmarking.

The 12900K boasts a substantial 30MB L3 cache, 14MB L2 cache, and 1.4MB L1 cache. How this affects gaming and workstation tasks is uncertain, especially how the OS’s kernel scheduler manages the “big” and “little” cores in the 12th gen CPUs regarding cache allocation. This might lead to smoother multitasking and better workstation performance, not just heavy-duty gaming.

All-in-all, the Intel Core i9-12900K is shaping up to be the most powerful gaming CPU on the market, not just the best of the Intel 12th-gen range.

Core i7-12700KF

Best value 12th gen Intel CPU
Core i7-12700KF

Intel Core i7-12700KF

12700KF

Boost clock speed (single core)

4.9 GHz

Total Cores / Threads

12/20

P-cores

8

E-cores

4

Socket

LGA 1700

Overclockable

Yes

Pros
  • Powerful single core performance
  • Overclockable
Cons

Whilst the flagship Alder Lake CPU may get most of the press coverage, it’s the next biggest CPU in the rankings that will be of more interest to most pure gamers, who’d be better off spending more money on a more powerful graphics card than going all out on the CPU.

The Core i7-12700KF offers gaming enthusiasts the same number of performance cores as the competing AMD Ryzen 7 5800X (eight cores specifically) but with an additional four efficiency cores for the same $384 MSRP (translating to 12 cores with 20 threads in total). At 5.0GHz the boost clock speed of the 12700KF is slightly larger than the 4.9GHz of the 5800X. How all this translates into both gaming and workstation performance remains to be seen, but early signs from the earliest leaks are encouraging. Once again the overclocking potential of the Intel K-series should prove a big draw for the most hardcore gamers, an area that will likely let it extend the lead over the Ryzen 7 5800X further.

We’ve chosen the KF version of this CPU, primarily because it offers the best value for pure gamers who don’t really use their computer for much else other than web browsing, word processing, and gaming; it competes directly on price with the AMD competition. Although having integrated graphics has its merits, for gamers who fit this description dedicated GPUs are more of a luxury/backup feature they can do without.

We’ll have to wait for independent third-party benchmarking to really test what the Intel Core i7-12700KF is capable of post-release, but it’s fair to say that it will be the best upper mid-range pick of the 12th-gen range.

Core i7-12700K

Core i7-12700K
Best 12th gen CPU for gaming

Intel Core i7-12700K

12700K

Boost clock speed (single core)

4.9 GHz

Total Cores / Threads

12/20

P-cores

8

E-cores

4

Socket

LGA 1700

Overclockable

Yes

Pros
  • Great single core performance
  • high gaming proficiency
  • Overclcokable
Cons
  • can be expensive

Although we selected the Intel Core i7-12700KF as our mid-range pick as it offers the best value for gamers, for some the Intel Core i7-12700K may be the better choice.

To reiterate, the Intel Core i7-12700K is functionally identical to the Intel Core i7-12700KF other than it comes with its integrated graphics (iGPU) which can be used in place of a dedicated graphics card for slightly more money. As mentioned in our ‘Things to consider’ section, your average gamer won’t need to use this iGPU, relying entirely on the separate dedicated graphics card, however, in certain scenarios, it can be useful to have one.

If you intend to use your machine for creative purposes and workstation applications, be aware that certain pieces of Adobe software for instance use features like QuickSync which rely on an iGPU to work.

Besides this, if you’re ever in a scenario where your main GPU fails (God forbid) then it can be very useful to have a backup until your replacement arrives, particularly as, in these days of silicon shortages, this could take some time. For an additional $25 MSRP it could be worth it just for your peace of mind.

Core i5-12600KF

Best Budget 12th gen CPU
Core i5-12600KF

Intel Core i5-12600KF

12600F

Boost clock speed (single core)

4.9 GHz

Total Cores / Threads

10/16

P-cores

6

E-cores

4

Socket

LGA 1700

Overclockable

Yes

Pros
  • Powerful single core performance
  • Amazing multi core performance
  • Overclockable
Cons
  • No in box cooler
  • Still more power-hungry than Ryzen

The Intel Core i5-12600KF isn’t a budget offering, being more of a lower mid-range CPU, and one that is capable of overclocking at that, but at the time of writing it is the cheapest Intel 12th Gen processor you can buy. The Intel Core i5-12600F is expected to arrive in early 2022, which will be the same basic CPU, without iGPU, but incapable of overclocking and therefore cheaper. In 2022, we saw the Intel Core i3-12400F which, took up the true budget slot in the range. If saving money is your priority then we’d consider either waiting for one of these to arrive or looking at buying an Intel 11th Gen CPU, the Intel Core i5-11600F for instance.

Still though, if you truly must have an Intel 12th gen CPU right away, and want the cheapest one available, then the Intel Core i5-12600KF is the pick for you. It comes with 6 P-cores and 4 E-cores with a boost clock speed of 4.9GHz, and 20MB of L3 cache.

We’ll be interested to see when independent benchmarking comes out whether it can compete with AMD’s Ryzen 5 5600X in terms of performance, especially seeing as its MSRP is markedly cheaper at $264 compared to the AMD $300 CPU.

Things to consider when getting the best Intel 12th gen CPU

Before you make a decision about which Intel Alder Lake CPU is best for you, it’s a good idea to have in mind the key factors that determine the performance of a processor and the various other features that are key to understanding how it will function, so as to best pick the one that suits your needs. Even if you’re already familiar with how CPUs function, we suggest you have a quick scan through the following points to refresh yourself. 

Intel 12th gen gaming performance

Even though Intel has faced stiff competition of late from AMD for the title of best gaming CPU, it’s an area where they’ve traditionally managed to prevail due to the superior overclocking potential of their processors. The latest leaks indicated that Intel may have succeeded in reasserting its dominance in the field of gaming performance, though we’ll have to wait for more thorough independent benchmarking following the 12th-generation release date to learn more.

Intel 12th gen workstation performance

Early indications from leaked performance data seem to indicate the flagship 12900K CPU has vastly improved multi-core performance, the area in which AMD has dominated for years now, at least at the higher-end SKUs. The AMD Ryzen 5950X has offered a multi-core intermediary between flagship gaming CPUs and professional-grade workstation/server CPUs like the AMD Threadrippers and Intel Xeons, and it seems like Intel might be trying to compete at this level now with the Intel Core i9-12900.

Intel 12th gen vs Intel 11th gen – what’s new

Things are very different this time with Intel’s 12th generation of CPUs, compared to the 11th gen. With them comes a brand new CPU socket (LGA 1700). Not only that, Intel’s Alder Lake CPUs support DDR4 and DDR5 memory along with supporting PCIe Gen 5 right out of the gate. Even if we can’t fully utilize that yet.

ARM’s LITTLE.big technology is a hybrid architecture and runs rampant throughout the new Alder Lake desktop processors. introducing a new division in CPU cores we’ve never seen before. This technology splits the CPU into P-cores (performance) and E-cores (efficiency). The performance cores are clocked higher than the efficiency cores and have a higher TDP as a result.

Efficiency cores work oppositely and are clocked lower having a lower TDP. Tasks and processes are split here by the Windows kernel scheduler or intel’s thread director and allocated to either a P or E-core depending on the resources required to complete the task. This is again pre-determined by the operating system, all for the sake of CPU efficiency.

This is all available on the high-end Z690 and B660 chipset motherboards, some models of both include both DDR4 and DDR5 versions.

CPU cores and threads

One of the most important features of a CPU is its core and thread count. A core is a physical processor within the CPU which can be seen on the chip itself. A thread, on the other hand, is a virtual core (essentially a partition of the physical core) designed to help the CPU handle multiple tasks.

Generally speaking, a higher core count is important for workstation tasks such as rendering, 3D modeling, and other things that require the simultaneous processing of various computations. If you’re streaming whilst gaming on the same device it can also help run both processes efficiently at the same time. Ultimately it’s useful for any kind of multitasking on your PC. If you’re just a pure gamer not interested in streaming, you can normally get away with fewer cores if the clock speed is fast enough (see below for an explanation of clock speed). 

That being said there is a minimum amount of cores that will be needed to play the most demanding games on the highest settings. As a general rule, the following guidelines are recommended when purchasing a new processor:

  • 4 Cores – General use, light browsing, and very light gaming
  • 8 Cores – Decent for gaming, moderate multi-tasking, and all general-use purposes
  • 12 Cores – The minimum requirement for gaming enthusiasts who want to run the latest games on the highest settings. 
  • 16 Cores +  – Handles pretty much everything you can throw at it. Very good for rendering, multi-tasking, and other CPU-intensive processes as well as gaming.

What is the LITTLE.big architecture? – What are P cores and E cores?

As mentioned above, big/Little architecture is also stylized as big.LITTLE architecture or in various other forms, is a CPU architecture developed by ARM Holdings to maximize efficiency in computer processors, which is used in Intel Alder Lake chips. In layman’s terms, there are two separate core types within the CPU: P-cores or performance cores (the big), and E-cores or efficiency cores (the little). P-cores tend to come with two threads per core, whereas E-cores usually just have a single thread each.

The P-cores are more powerful, and better able to deal with the heavy lifting of processing tasks (gaming for example) whereas the E-cores deal with smaller, easier, and quicker processes, freeing up the P-cores to deal with what they’re good at. E-cores are more energy efficient and take up less space on the silicon, which is what makes this structure advantageous, and the architecture around the cores is designed to most efficiently designate tasks to the cores best suited to deal with them.

The architecture of Alder Lake CPUs has been designed with Windows 11 in mind, and early tests have shown that the performance of the 12th Gen is big.LITTLE CPUs are significantly improved within Windows 11, as its kernel scheduler is much better able to efficiently designate resources between the core types.

CPU clock speed

Next up is the clock speed, which is the most important factor to consider for gaming performance. Clock speed (or sometimes cycle speed) refers to how many cycles a core will perform every second. It’s the physical speed of your processor and is measured in gigahertz (GHz) – i.e. millions of cycles. So, a CPU that has a 3.6GHz clock speed, performs 3.6 million cycles per second. if we’re talking about the 12900KS specifically, it can handle a 5.5GHz maximum turbo power, something we’ve never before seen. Making it perfect for high-capacity content creation workloads.  

A lot of modern-day processors come equipped with two separate clock speeds – a base and a boost speed. This means a particular CPU can automatically overclock its core(s) to that particular speed to achieve optimal performance. It usually does this when in highly demanding CPU scenarios, such as gaming. 

Another factor to consider when looking at clock speed is overclocking, which only certain CPUs are capable of (and the same with the motherboards they’re paired with). This increases the stock clock speed, usually by tweaking settings within the BIOS of the PC, but great care should be taken when overclocking, as it is not without its risks. Read our How To Overclock your CPU guide if you’re thinking about doing this.

Whether you’re gaming or doing high-intensive workflows, you always want to get the highest clock speed your budget can afford.

What does K mean for Intel CPUs?

The ‘K’ designation at the end of an Intel model CPU signifies that it is possible to overclock it. If a processor doesn’t have a K at the end of its model name, then overclocking is not possible. So, for example, take the 12900 vs the 12900K, these two CPUs will be very similar, except for the fact that the 10900K is overclockable, whereas the 10900 is not.

For Intel 12th Gen CPUs, if you buy a K-series processor you will need to pair it with a Z690 motherboard, as these are the only ones that support overclocking functionality; you will still be able to use the CPU with other 12th gen motherboards, but the extra money you pay for the K model will be wasted.

Intel K vs KF: what does F mean for Intel CPUs?

The ‘F’ designation at the end of an Intel CPUs model name means that it does not have an integrated graphics processing unit (iGPU) built into the processor. If you have a dedicated graphics card, like the majority of gamers or people interested in buying a powerful CPU, then you don’t technically need the onboard graphics that the iGPU provides, so can save a little money by buying the cheaper F option.

However, onboard graphics are useful to have as a backup in case your main graphics card fails, or if you are between upgrades. Additionally, we would advise anyone who will be using their PC for workstation applications, particularly within the Adobe suite, to avoid the Intel F CPUs as some of these pieces of software do rely upon integrated graphics to function. Finally, integrated graphics will use up a lot less power than a dedicated graphics card, so if you’re interested in limiting your power consumption when not gaming, an iGPU you can switch to is a good thing to have.

Intel 12th gen launched with the 600 series motherboards.

This time around, we have a few more options at our disposal. We have the higher-end B660 and Z690 motherboards offering a plethora of new features, including but not limited to PCIe gen 5, thunderbolt 4, and DDR5 RAM support.

You can often find two versions of LGA 1700 motherboards, one with DDR4 RAM support and one with DDR5. Of course, this all depends on your budget but Intel’s 12th Gen CPUs vastly prefer DDR5 RAM dies to their improved speed and bandwidth. This configuration is strongly suited to the Z690 chipset. Allowing the full potential of the 12th Generation to be unleashed, perfect for content creators, gamers, and video editors alike.

FAQs

Are Intel 12th Gen CPUs still good?

The 12th-generation Intel CPUs, also known as Alder Lake, are good for several reasons. They were the first to be built on a new hybrid architecture that combines high-performance cores and high-efficiency cores, resulting in a significant boost in performance and power efficiency. Additionally, they support advanced technologies such as PCIe 5.0 and DDR5 memory, which further increases performance. They also support Intel’s latest security and AI features, such as Intel Deep Learning Boost and Intel Total Memory Encryption. Overall, these CPUs offer a significant improvement over their 11th-generation counterparts and are well-suited for demanding workloads such as gaming, content creation, and AI.

What is the 12th Gen socket type?

All Alder Lake Intel 12th Gen CPUs use the LGA 1700 socket type, the best of which are Z690 boards, which follow Intel’s tradition of introducing a new socket type with each generation. For those who don’t know, the socket is the mounting point on your motherboard that holds the CPU in place. It is one of the most important factors when pairing a CPU with a motherboard, as each socket is unique and will not support other types, so make sure yours match up!

Final Word

When choosing the best Intel 12th-generation CPU for the money, you have to consider every angle. It’s not just about the performance or how many cores the CPU has, it’s about what is the best CPU for you. No point spending the big bucks if you don’t need to. The top pick for us, unsurprisingly, is the Intel Core i9 12900K which comes with the greatest single-core and multicore performance, but the Core i7 12700KF is also a great selection for gamers who’d be better spending their money on superior graphics card.

See our where-to-buy Intel 12th-gen page for the latest listings of 1200 series CPUs from different retailers worldwide. Also, make sure to pick yourself up a Z690 motherboard if you are planning on going with one of the K versions of the Intel 12th gen.

If you’re thinking of going with another CPU outside of the Intel 12th Gen, check out our best gaming CPU page.


Jack is a Tech and News Writer who has a vast and proficient knowledge of CPUs, Motherboards, and Computer technology.

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