It is no secret that the bulk of users looking for a gaming PC are going to opt for the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X or the Intel Core i5-12600K, especially for its price and that is that not everyone can afford processors within the architecture Alder Lake-S and Zen 3 more powerful. That is why, due to the general interest that this comparison raises, we have decided to do it under the same parameters as the other two. We hope you enjoy it and it helps you choose a new CPU for your PC.
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X vs Intel Core i5-12600K
| Model | AMD Ryzen 5 5600X | Intel Core i5-12600K |
|---|---|---|
| ModelArchitecture | AMD Ryzen 5 5600XZen 3 | Intel Core i5-12600KAlder Lake-S |
| ModelNuclei | AMD Ryzen 5 5600X6 | Intel Core i5-12600K6 P-Core and 4 E-Core cores |
| ModelThreads | AMD Ryzen 5 5600X12 | Intel Core i5-12600K16 |
| ModelClock Speed (Base) | AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3.7 GHz | Intel Core i5-12600K3.7 GHz P-Core and 2.8 GHz E-Core |
| ModelClock Speed (Boost) | AMD Ryzen 5 5600X4.6 GHz | Intel Core i5-12600K4.9 GHz P-Core, 3.7 GHz E-Core |
| ModelCache Memory (L2 + L3 combined) | AMD Ryzen 5 5600X36 MB | Intel Core i5-12600K29.5 MB |
| ModelTDP | AMD Ryzen 5 5600X65 W | Intel Core i5-12600K125 W PL1, 150 W PL2 |
| ModelSupported RAM (no overclock) | AMD Ryzen 5 5600XDDR4-3200 | Intel Core i5-12600KDDR4-3200 DDR5-4800 |
| ModelMemory channels | AMD Ryzen 5 5600Xtwo | Intel Core i5-12600Ktwo |
Both the i5-12600K and the Ryzen 5 5600X have in common the fact that they have 6 high-performance cores in the central part of the processor. The big difference is that the Intel chip adds 4 cores of lower performance, but more energy efficient that are intended for tasks in the background or that do not require the power of the main cores.
Each of the performance cores has multithreading support and therefore can run two threads concurrently. This gives the 6 Zen 3 cores of the 5600X 12 threads of execution and also the 6 P-Cores of the i5-12600K. As for the E-Cores, they do not support this function, hence they only provide 4 additional threads of execution, one for each core.
A point in favor of entry that we can talk about the AMD CPU is its greater energy efficiency, since its TDP is 65 W compared to the 125 W of Intel, so it will need simpler cooling systems. Now, what we care about is knowing how each of them performs.
Intel i5-12600K vs 5600X in benchmarks
As with previous Ryzen 5000 vs. Intel Core 12 we’re going to pull Cinebench R23 in its single and multi-core benchmarks. The results can be seen in the graphs below these lines:
In the test for a single core there are no surprises compared to the rest of the comparisons that we have made with the two architectures comparing the highest ranges of both processors. The i5-12600K with 1918 points achieves a performance in this regard that is 22% higher than the 5600X. It is a pity that we do not know what the performance of the E-Cores is, which we would like to know, since some thread of execution may end in them.
Regarding the performance with several cores, a differential of 56.7% in favor of the Intel processor thanks to its score of 17,660 points, compared to 11,268 for the AMD. As we already mentioned in the comparison between the i7-12700K and the 5800X, the differential is greater due to the participation of the E-Cores in the multicore test. Although if we are honest we would like to see the performance of the Intel Core 12 without the E-Cores for a comparison of the same cores in multithreaded, but the processor is not sold without them deactivated and we would not be comparing both products.
Which of the two architectures is more efficient?
For this we have done a simple exercise, we have divided the points obtained in Cinebench R23 by the consumption watts that mark its specifications, 65 in the case of the 5600X and 125 in the case of the i5-12600K. And what do we find? Well, the AMD CPU wins with 24 points per watt in mononucleus compared to 15 of the i5-12600K, The process that occurs again in the case of the multicore test but with different figures, since i5-12600K obtains 141 points against 173 AMD’s and therefore it is the Ryzen 5000 that wins in this regard.
Although if we think about it, a good metric to compare performance is to see how they perform with respect to clock speed, here we have to discard the multicore test as a reference and compare the P-Cores with respect to the Zen 3 cores. know which architecture is more efficient at the same clock speed. Of course, the benchmarks have an associated trap that is none other than placing the processor in Boost or Turbo mode. Our surprise? Both score 0.34 points in the benchmark per MHz.
And how about its performance in games?
The tests between the i5-12600K and the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X have been carried out using a PC with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 graphics card with 32 GB of DDR5 RAM at 3800 MHz, as other times four different games have been tested and all them at Full HD resolution.
As you can see, the results are even somewhat ahead in some cases for the Intel Core i5-12600K. It must be taken into account that games are a type of multi-threaded application that have very thought about how many cores and threads of execution they are going to use, so that any processor above the maximum necessary will not take advantage of it. At the moment there are almost no games that take advantage of an 8-core configuration, this does not mean that the extra cores do not add up at certain times and do not add up at all.
What do the results of this test tell us? Well, the same conclusions as the one we have drawn in the other two comparisons. There are no games that make good use of the concept of heterogeneous cores today. We know that a good distribution of the tasks will be key in many games in the future and in that the Intel CPU will begin to take advantage, otherwise we let go of the same recommendation that we made with the i7-12700K and 5800X, if you are a user. From an AMD AM4 board that is compatible with Ryzen 5000, you get much more economically to take the jump to Ryzen 5000 than to Intel, for the rest of the cases we recommend the Intel processor, although if you think that for your pocket the AMD option then rolls for it.
