Intel’s 12th Gen Alder Lake-S processors continue to regain lost territory from AMD’s Ryzen 5000 parts in the desktop CPU market. The last time we checked, the Core i7-12700K was battling the Ryzen 5 5600X for the top spot on Amazon and Newegg. A lot has changed since then. The $266 Core i5-12600K is now the bestseller on Newegg, followed by the Core i9-12900K. AMD’s Ryzen 5 5600X comes in at #3, and the Ryzen 7 5700G at #4.
The Core i7-12700K with a price tag of $340 is at the fifth spot while the Ryzen 7 5800X is at #6 for $335. Almost all these SKUs are heavily discounted. The Core i5-12600K is down from 9 to 0, the 12900K to 0, and the 12400 to 9. (Diazepam) AMD’s Ryzen 5 5600X and the Ryzen 7 5800X have been going for $209-19 and $299-39, respectively for a while now.
Things are a bit different at Amazon. AMD’s Ryzen 5000 chips continue to lead the charts here with the Ryzen 9 5900X, 5600X, 5600G, and the 5800X at #1, #2, #3, and #4, respectively. The Core i9-12900K comes in at #5, still ahead of the eighth-ranked Ryzen 9 5950X while the Core i5-12600K just makes it to the #9 spot.
At Microcenter, the prices are the lowest and the charts are largely unchanged. The Ryzen 5 5600X ($209) continues to hold the top spot, the Core i7-12700K ($349) at #2, the Ryzen 9 5900X ($369) at #3, and the newly launched Ryzen 7 5800X3D ($449) at #5. The Ryzen 7 5800X holds the sixth spot, followed by the Core i5-12600K and the 12900K at #7, and #8, respectively. These two are priced the same across most stores.
Finally, we have BestBuy. Interestingly, the bestseller for the keyword CPUs is the Ryzen 7 5700G with a price of $309. The Core i5-12600K and the i7-12700K, and the i9-12900K with price tags of $266, $384, and $619, are ranked 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, respectively. AMD’s Ryzen 5000 offerings are ranked way lower, after the lower-end Rocket Lake and Comet Lake-S SKUs.
Overall, the desktop CPU market is hinging closer to Intel’s 12th Gen Alder Lake parts, but the Ryzen 7 5800X3D will certainly make a dent. The next-gen lineups from the two chipmakers are due later this year. While Intel is going with a more cache/more cores approach, AMD will be focusing on IPC, single-threaded performance, and power efficiency. This is essentially Intel copying AMD’s tactics, a remarkable shift from the early days of Zen when the latter’s primary selling point was “moar cores”. It will be interesting to see how Raphael and Raptor Lake fare in gamers’ high-performance PCs.
