Another budget 12th Gen Intel Alder Lake processor has destroyed its AMD rivals. Similar to the Core i3-12100F, the Core i5-12400F outplays its pricier Ryzen competitor, the 5600X across the majority of modern games. The Core i5-12400F features six “Golden Cove” performance cores with a boost clock of 4.4GHz. Like the rest of the non-K i5s and i3s, it lacks the efficiency cores and is aimed primarily at gamers.
Priced at $179 on Newegg, the 12400F edges past the $293 Ryzen 5 5600X across the board. However, the deltas between the two are quite slim, and if you can’t find a budget 600-series motherboard, and decent DDR5 memory, the latter might actually be a better buy.
For the time being, retailers are only selling Z690 boards which are priced in excess of $200. Till the lower-end H610 and B660 motherboards land, the lower-end Alder Lake offerings will be in a strange position. Excellent value-for-money but nothing to pair them with.
