Intel’s 12th Gen Alder Lake-S processors are finally out. Featuring a total of sixteen cores, eight Golden Cove, and eight Gracemont, these chips mark a major shift in the chipmaker’s design strategy. Alder Lake offers potent single-threaded performance courtesy of the performance cores, while also keeping up with the competition, thanks to the efficiency cores. However, the reviews of these processors have been far from perfect. The increased power consumption and the less-than-impressive multi-threaded performance have been criticized by multiple reviewers.
While the Core i9-12900K consistently manages to beat its Ryzen 5000 (5950X) rival in gaming workloads, the Core i5-12600K actually falls behind in eSports titles. We’re looking at a delta of as much as 32% (in Valorant) and an average advantage of 7.5% for the Ryzen 5 5600X over the 12600K in eSports titles at 1080p.
| Games | Core i9-12900K | Ryzen 9 5950X | Core i5-12600K | Ryzen 5 5600X |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CS: GO | 749 | 670 | 654 | 642 (-1.8%) |
| Overwatch | 399 | 399 | 399 | 399 |
| Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege | 485 | 470 | 451 | 463 (+2.7%) |
| Apex Legends | 276 | 278 | 280 | 274 (-2.1%) |
| Valorant | 791 | 780 | 592 | 782 (+32%) |
| Call of Duty: Warzone | 215 | 190 | 186 | 195 (+4.8%) |
| Average | 486 | 466 (-4.1%) | 427 | 459 (+7.5%) |
The deltas increase slightly at 1440p, with the Ryzen 5 5600X being 9.4% faster than the Core i5-12600K in eSports titles at this resolution. The 12600K is a smidge faster in Rainbow Six Siege, Overwatch, and Apex Legends, while the 5600X leads by a comfortable margin in Warzone, Valorant, and CS: Go,
| Games | Core i9-12900K | Ryzen 9 5950X | Core i5-12600K | Ryzen 5 5600X |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CS: GO | 579 | 575 | 540 | 569 (+5.4%) |
| Overwatch | 314 | 308 | 311 | 307 (-1.3%) |
| Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege | 381 | 353 | 360 | 354 (-1.7%) |
| Apex Legends | 238 | 242 | 246 | 239 (-2.8%) |
| Valorant | 758 | 783 | 591 | 782 (+32.3%) |
| Call of Duty: Warzone | 205 | 195 | 182 | 190 (+4.4%) |
| Average | 413 | 409 (-1%) | 372 | 407 (+9.4%) |
In comparison, the Core i9-12900K is 4.1% faster than the Ryzen 9 5950X at 1080p while being just 1% faster at 1440p. It’s faster than the 5950X in pretty much every title other than Apex Legends and Valorant. The lower price is a major advantage of the 12900K, but the fact that you need a new motherboard and memory don’t help.
