When Intel launched the Core i5 12600K, it became a popular CPU for budget gaming builds, a throne that was previously occupied by the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X. But with the launch of the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X, a successor to the popular AMD Ryzen 5 5600X, a question arises “Is the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X the new budget-friendly gaming CPU?” If you are planning to switch platforms, then is it worth going from Intel Core i5 12600K to AMD Ryzen 5 7600X? We will try to find answers to all these question in this thorough AMD Ryzen 5 7600X vs Intel Core i5 12600K comparison guide.
In the process, we will take a look at their basic specifications, compare their application and gaming performance. We will also take a look at their clock speeds, power consumption, and CPU temperatures. If you are looking to purchase a new CPU or want to upgrade from Intel Core i5 12600K to AMD Ryzen 5 7600X, then we hope that this guide could help you make a better buying decision.
A Brief Note on Intel Core i5 12600K
Intel launched the 12th Gen processors with code name Alder Lake in November 2021 with the Core i9 12900K leading the charts. The launch price of the Intel Core i9 12900K was $589. But the $289 Intel Core i5 12600K was the center of the buzz due to its price tag and also the gaming performance it offers.
Everyone was excited for what Intel has in their pockets for their 12th Gen CPUs as this is their first generation of “Hybrid” CPUs. The Intel Core i5 12600K sports a combination of Performance or P Cores and Efficiency or E Cores. To be specific, it has 6 P Cores with support for multithreading and 4 E Cores without multithreading.
So, the Intel Core i5 12600K has a total of 10 Cores and 16 Threads. The microarchitecture of the 12th Gen CPUs are the Golden Cove P Cores and Gracemont E Cores.
The base clock speed of the P and E Cores of 12600K are 3.7 GHz and 2.8 GHz respectively while the turbo clocks of P and E Cores are 4.9 GHz and 3.6 GHz respectively.
Intel introduced a new LGA 1700 Socket for the 12th gen Alder Lake processors. The Intel Core i5 12600K CPU supports both DDR4 and DDR5 RAM types in dual channel mode with frequencies as DDR4-3200 and DDR5-4800.
Coming to the cache layout, each P core of the 12600K Processor gets 1.25 MB L2 Cache and one module of E cores gets 2 MB L2 Cache.
Speaking of E Core modules, Intel grouped four E Cores into a cluster that share the L2 cache. So, in 12600K, you get 2 MB for four E Cores. This makes the total L2 Cache of 12600K at 9.5 MB. It also has 20 MB L3 Cache, which is common for all the cores.
The Intel Core i5 12600K processor has 20 PCIe lanes from the CPU. Of these, 16 are PCIe Gen 5 while the remaining 4 are Gen 4. The 12th Gen Alder Lake processors are fabricated using the “Intel 7”. Even though Intel calls it “Intel 7”, it is technically a 10 nm node.
The base processor power of Intel Core i5 12600K CPU is 125W while the maximum turbo power is 150W.
Important Specifications of Intel Core i5 12600K
- 6 P Cores, 4 E Cores and total 16 Threads
- LGA 1700 Socket
- Supports both DDR4 and DDR5
- Cache: Total L2 Cache is 9.5 MB [1.25 MB per P Core (6 * 1.25 MB = 7.5 MB) 2 MB per E Core Module (1 * 2 MB = 2 MB)], Total L3 Cache is 20 MB
- Total 20 PCIe Lanes (16 PCIe 5.0 Lanes and 4 PCIe 4.0 Lanes)
- Intel UHD 770 Integrated Graphics
- Base Power is 125 Watts and Turbo Power is 150 Watts
- Manufacturing Node is Intel 7 (based on 10 nm Enhanced SuperFin)
A Brief Note on AMD Ryzen 5 7600X
As AMD announced the high-end CPUs in the form of the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X and the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X, no every is interested in spending that chunk of money. Hence, along with these powerful processors, AMD also launched the reasonably priced AMD Ryzen 5 7600X.
It is based on a new architecture, the Zen 4 and a brand-new socket, the AM5. Similar to its expensive and powerful comrades, the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X supports only DDR5 memory and has only PCIe 5.0 support.
With a launch price of $299 and the traditional 6 core 12 thread design, the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X is the contender for the best bang for the buck gaming CPU.
AMD completely revamped the architecture with Zen 4 that has 13% better IPC performance. The next biggest change is the CPU socket. AM4 has been a successful platform for both AMD and the consumers. They supported it well beyond their initial promise.
But starting with Ryzen 7000 Series CPUs, AMD moved away from the PGA AM4 socket to the new LGA AM5 socket. That’s right. Now the pins are on the motherboard rather than the CPU.
Unlike Intel, which made its 13th Gen Raptor Lake CPUs support both DDR4 and DDR5 Memory, AMD completely ditched the DDR4 Memory in favor of DDR5. When you combine this with a new AM5 Motherboard, you are looking at a significant investment.
Coming back to the Ryzen 5 7600X, it has a base clock of 4.7 GHz and a boost clock of 5.3 GHz. Unlike Intel and Apple, AMD struck with its traditional 6 core 12 thread CPU.
Important Features of Ryzen 5 7600X
- 6 Cores 12 Threads
- Zen 4 Architecture
- AM5 Socket
- Supports only DDR5 Memory
- Cache: L2 is 1 MB per core (Total 6 MB) and L3 is 32 MB per CCD (Total 32 MB)
- Total 28 PCIe 5.0 lanes (4 of them are reserved for chipset)
- RDNA2 based Integrated Graphics (base clock of 0.4 GHz and boost clock of 2.2 GHz)
- TDP is 105 Watts
- Manufacturing Node is TSMC 5 nm for CCD and TSMC 6 nm for IOD
Specifications: AMD Ryzen 5 7600X vs Intel Core i5 12600K
In the following table, we made a side-by-side list of all the essential specifications of the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X and the Intel Core i5 12600K.
| AMD Ryzen 5 7600X | Intel Core i5 12600K | |||
| Cores (Threads) | 6 (12) | Performance (P) | 6 (12) | |
| Efficiency (E) | 4 (4) | |||
| Base Clock Rate | 4.7 GHz | Performance (P) | 3.7 GHz | |
| Efficiency (E) | 2.8 GHz | |||
| Turbo Clock Rate | 5.3 GHz | Performance (P) | 4.9 GHz | |
| Efficiency (E) | 3.6 GHz | |||
| Max Turbo Frequency (Max Single Core Frequency) | — | 4.9 GHz | ||
| Cache | L2 | Total 6 MB
1 MB per Core (6 * 1 MB = 6 MB) |
Total 9.5 MB
1.25 MB per P Core (6 * 1.25 MB = 7.5 MB) 2 MB per E Core Module (1 * 2 MB = 2 MB) |
|
| L3 | 32 MB (32 MB per CCD) | 20 MB | ||
| Power | TDP 105 Watts | Base Processor Power | 125 Watts | |
| Max Turbo Power | 150 Watts | |||
| Process | TSMC 5 nm | Intel 7 (10 nm) | ||
| Socket | AM5 (LGA) | LGA 1700 | ||
| Code Name (Architecture) | Zen 4 | Alder Lake | ||
| Microarchitecture | — | Performance (P) | Golden Cove | |
| Efficiency (E) | Gracemont | |||
| PCIe Lanes | Total 28 PCIe 5.0 Lanes (4 reserved for chipset) | Total 20
16 PCIe 5.0 Lanes 4 PCIe 4.0 Lanes |
||
| Memory Support | DDR4 | — | Up to DDR4 3200 MT/s | |
| DDR5 | Up to DDR5 5200 MT/s | Up to DDR5 4800 MT/s | ||
| Integrated Graphics | AMD RDNA2 GPU
(Base Clock 0.4 GHz and Boost Clock 2.2 GHz) |
Intel UHD Graphics 770 | ||
| Price | MSRP $299 | $289 | ||
Comparison of AMD Ryzen 5 7600X and Intel Core i5 12600K
Let us now compare the performance of the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X CPU against the Intel Core i5 12600K.
Test System
Before we begin, here is a quick look at our Intel and AMD test systems.
| Intel Test System | ||
| CPUs | Intel Core i5 13600K | |
| Intel Core i5 12600K | ||
| Motherboard | MSI PRO Z790-A Wi-Fi | |
| Memory | G.Skill Trident Z5 (Intel XMP) 32GB (2 × 16GB) DDR5 6000 CL30 | |
| AMD DDR5 Test System | ||
| CPUs | AMD Ryzen 7 7700X | |
| AMD Ryzen 5 7600X | ||
| Motherboard | GIGABYTE X670E AORUS Master | |
| Memory | G.Skill Trident Z5 (AMD EXPO) 32GB (2 × 16GB) DDR5 6000 CL30 | |
| AMD DDR4 Test System | ||
| CPUs | AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D | |
| AMD Ryzen 5 5600X | ||
| Motherboard | ASUS ROG X570 Crosshair VIII Hero | |
| Memory | G.Skill Trident Z 32GB (2 × 16GB) DDR4 3600 CL16 | |
| Common to All Test Systems | ||
| SSD | SAMSUNG 980 PRO SSD 1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe | |
| CPU Cooler | Corsair iCUE H150i RGB Elite Liquid CPU Cooler | |
| Power Supply | Seasonic PRIME 1300 Platinum | |
| Graphic Card | MSI Gaming GeForce RTX 3090 Ti 24GB | |
| Software | Windows 11 21H2 | |
| Nvidia 526.47 | ||
Application Benchmarks
Cinebench R23 Multi-Core (Higher is Better)
Let us start with the most popular benchmark tool, the Cinebench R23. After the 10-minute multicore loop test, the Intel Core i5 12600K got a score of just over 17500 points while the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X could only manage just under 15000 points.
If you compare the performance difference of Intel Core i5 12600K and AMD Ryzen 5 7600X, then the former boasts a 17% performance gain.
| Intel Core i5 13600K | 24001 |
| AMD Ryzen 7 7700X | 20072 |
| Intel Core i5 12600K | 17563 |
| AMD Ryzen 5 7600X | 14983 |
| AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D | 14443 |
| AMD Ryzen 5 5600X | 11569 |
Cinebench R23 Single-Core (Higher is Better)
Coming to the single core performance in the Cinebench R23, there is a slight twist in the story. The single-core performance of both the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X and the Intel Core i5 12600K is very similar albeit the former has a small 2% advantage.
| Intel Core i5 13600K | 1993 |
| AMD Ryzen 7 7700X | 1980 |
| AMD Ryzen 5 7600X | 1920 |
| Intel Core i5 12600K | 1881 |
| AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D | 1477 |
| AMD Ryzen 5 5600X | 1453 |
PassMark’s CPUMARK 10.2 Multi-Threaded/Overall (Higher is Better)
Next, we have another popular benchmark tool from PassMark, the CPU Mark. The following results show the overall or multi-threaded CPU Mark Score of all the processors in this test.
The story is different from the Cinebench Multi-threading test. Here both the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X and the Intel Core i5 12600K scores 30000.
| Intel Core i5 13600K | 40175 |
| AMD Ryzen 7 7700X | 37548 |
| AMD Ryzen 5 7600X | 30005 |
| Intel Core i5 12600K | 29987 |
| AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D | 29776 |
| AMD Ryzen 5 5600X | 25993 |
PassMark’s CPUMARK 10.2 Single-Threaded (Higher is Better)
Coming to the single threaded performance in CPU Mark, the results are once again similar the previous single thread test but this time much better for the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X.
The Intel Core i5 12600K could score just under 4100 points while the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X score under 4250 points.
| AMD Ryzen 7 7700X | 4301 |
| AMD Ryzen 5 7600X | 4249 |
| Intel Core i5 13600K | 4237 |
| Intel Core i5 12600K | 4085 |
| AMD Ryzen 5 5600X | 3480 |
| AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D | 3402 |
Blender Open Data Render Time (Lower is Better)
Another popular open-source tool is Blender. For the next couple of tests, we will see the render times and number of samples per minute in Blender version 3.4. The Intel Core i5 12600K took just under 14 minutes while the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X took slightly 10 seconds over 14 minutes.
| Intel Core i5 13600K | 9 min 40 sec |
| AMD Ryzen 7 7700X | 11 min 5 sec |
| Intel Core i5 12600K | 13 min 55 sec |
| AMD Ryzen 5 7600X | 14 min 10 sec |
| AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D | 14 min 50 sec |
| AMD Ryzen 5 5600X | 19 min 59 sec |
Blender Samples Per Minute (Higher is Better)
The results for number of samples in a minute for Blender Render is also very similar to the render time results. Here you can see the samples per minute score across the three test scenes: monster, junkshop, and classroom.
| Intel Core i5 13600K | 347.8 |
| AMD Ryzen 7 7700X | 310.5 |
| Intel Core i5 12600K | 249.2 |
| AMD Ryzen 5 7600X | 232.8 |
| AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D | 225.9 |
| AMD Ryzen 5 5600X | 178.6 |
Adobe Photoshop 2022 Puget System Benchmark (Higher is Better)
The Adobe suite has a couple of important tools that many creators and artists use. We will start with the Adobe Photoshop 2022. It has a built-in Puget System Standard Benchmark.
If you look at the overall scores, the Intel Core i5 12600K falls short in front of the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X by about 13%.
| AMD Ryzen 7 7700X | 1460 |
| AMD Ryzen 5 7600X | 1430 |
| Intel Core i5 13600K | 1356 |
| Intel Core i5 12600K | 1263 |
| AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D | 1199 |
| AMD Ryzen 5 5600X | 970 |
Adobe Premier Pro 2022 Puget System Benchmark (Higher is Better)
Next application in the Adobe suite is the Premier Pro 2022. In this test, both the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X and the Intel Core i5 12600K produce very similar scores.
| Intel Core i5 13600K | 1089 |
| AMD Ryzen 7 7700X | 999 |
| Intel Core i5 12600K | 956 |
| AMD Ryzen 5 7600X | 948 |
| AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D | 902 |
| AMD Ryzen 5 5600X | 755 |
7-Zip File Manager Compression (Higher is Better)
One of the popular and widely used open-source applications is the 7-Zip File Manager. It helps in archiving files. For this test, we are performing the built-in benchmark feature. Here is the result in million instructions per second (MIPS) for compressing using a standards 32 MB dictionary size and 10 passes.
| AMD Ryzen 7 7700X | 115469 |
| Intel Core i5 13600K | 123983 |
| AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D | 90058 |
| AMD Ryzen 5 7600X | 88658 |
| Intel Core i5 12600K | 87893 |
| AMD Ryzen 5 5600X | 72006 |
7-Zip File Manager Decompression (Higher is Better)
In decompression, which usually favors AMD Ryzen CPUs, the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X finishes with over 103K MIPS. But the 12th gen Intel Core i5 12600K couldn’t get past 87K MIPS.
| AMD Ryzen 7 7700X | 135879 |
| Intel Core i5 13600K | 127863 |
| AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D | 111026 |
| AMD Ryzen 5 7600X | 103958 |
| AMD Ryzen 5 5600X | 88969 |
| Intel Core i5 12600K | 86953 |
Chromium Code Compilation Time (Lower is Better)
Developers working on large projects need a stable multi-threaded system with a powerful CPU. So, we tested the code compilation performance by taking the open-source Chromium project code.
The performance of Intel Core i5 12600K is not that great as it could finish the compilation in just over 79 minutes. Even worse, the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X finished the compilation in just under 83 minutes.
| AMD Ryzen 7 7700X | 62 min 32 sec |
| Intel Core i5 13600K | 69 min 19 sec |
| Intel Core i5 12600K | 79 min 35 sec |
| AMD Ryzen 5 7600X | 82 min 43 sec |
| AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D | 92 min 43 sec |
| AMD Ryzen 5 5600X | 124 min 55 sec |
Corona 1.3 Render Time (Lower is Better)
The last “application” benchmark is the Corona 1.3, which is a high-quality shading engine for production rendering. Let us now see the rendering time of different Intel and AMD CPUs.
| Intel Core i5 13600K | 65 sec |
| AMD Ryzen 7 7700X | 75 sec |
| AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D | 88 sec |
| Intel Core i5 12600K | 92 sec |
| AMD Ryzen 5 7600X | 96 sec |
| AMD Ryzen 5 5600X | 115 sec |
Gaming Benchmarks
Let us move to some gaming performance. We tested some popular titles at a resolution of 1920 × 1080 (1080p) as anything beyond, the GPU will dominate the performance. We are running all the games in DirectX 12 with Ray Tracing and DLSS off.
Far Cry 6
- Resolution: 1920 × 1080
- DirectX 12
- Game Setting: Ultra
- DirectX Raytracing: Off
The first game is Far Cry 6. Here, the performance of the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X is slightly better than the Intel Core i5 12600K as the former got shy of 150 fps while the latter could only push 135 fps. Here are the rounded off average frames and also 1% low fps.
| CPU | Average FPS | 1% Low FPS (Min FPS) |
| AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D | 156 | 104 |
| Intel Core i5 13600K | 148 | 105 |
| AMD Ryzen 7 7700X | 147 | 101 |
| AMD Ryzen 5 7600X | 146 | 100 |
| Intel Core i5 12600K | 135 | 97 |
| AMD Ryzen 5 5600X | 116 | 74 |
Cyberpunk 2077
- Resolution: 1920 × 1080
- DirectX 12
- Game Setting: Ultra
- Texture: High
- Ray Tracing: Off
- DLSS: Off
Next, we have another popular title, Cyberpunk 2077. In this game, both the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X and the Intel Core i5 12600K couldn’t go past 125 fps.
| CPU | Average FPS | 1% Low FPS (Min FPS) |
| Intel Core i5 13600K | 143 | 121 |
| AMD Ryzen 5 5600X | 127 | 109 |
| AMD Ryzen 7 7700X | 126 | 110 |
| AMD Ryzen 5 7600X | 125 | 109 |
| Intel Core i5 12600K | 123 | 108 |
| AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D | 123 | 108 |
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
- Resolution: 1920 × 1080
- DirectX 12
- Game Setting: High
- DLSS: Off
Last but not least, we tested the Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Unsurprisingly, the results are once again similar. The AMD Ryzen 5 7600X could easily push over 230 fps while the Intel Core i5 12600K could only get over 190 fps.
What surprised in this game is the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D beating all the current gen Intel and AMD flagships. Based on this result, we are very excited to get our hands on the upcoming Ryzen 7000 Series CPUs with 3D V-Cache.
| CPU | Average FPS | 1% Low FPS (Min FPS) |
| AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D | 280 | 178 |
| Intel Core i5 13600K | 233 | 152 |
| AMD Ryzen 7 7700X | 233 | 145 |
| AMD Ryzen 5 7600X | 230 | 139 |
| Intel Core i5 12600K | 193 | 135 |
| AMD Ryzen 5 5600X | 184 | 110 |
Clock Speed
We ran the AIDA64 Stress Test for 10 minutes and here are the maximum frequency and average frequency of all cores.
| CPU | Maximum Frequency | All-Core Average Frequency |
| Intel | ||
| Intel Core i5 13600K | 5.1 GHz | 5 GHz |
| Intel Core i5 12600K | 4.9 GHz | 4.5 GHz |
| AMD | ||
| AMD Ryzen 7 7700X | 5.5 GHz | 5.3 GHz |
| AMD Ryzen 5 7600X | 5.4 GHz | 5.3 GHz |
| AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D | 4.5 GHz | 4.3 GHz |
| AMD Ryzen 5 5600X | 4.6 GHz | 4.6 GHz |
CPU Temperature
During the same AIDA64 Stress Test, we monitored the CPU Temperatures with Corsair iCUE H150i RGB Elite Liquid CPU Cooler. Here are the CPU temps for your reference.
| CPU | Max Temp | Average Temp |
| Intel | ||
| Intel Core i5 13600K | 98°C | 73°C |
| Intel Core i5 12600K | 65°C | 51°C |
| AMD | ||
| AMD Ryzen 7 7700X | 87°C | 84°C |
| AMD Ryzen 5 7600X | 83°C | 80°C |
| AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D | 78°C | 75°C |
| AMD Ryzen 5 5600X | 80°C | 68°C |
Power Consumption
During the Blender render, we measured the CPU Package Power Draw using the HWiNFO tool. The following table consists of the peak CPU Package Power Draw as reported by HWiNFO.
| Intel | |
| Intel Core i5 13600K | 220 Watts |
| Intel Core i5 12600K | 120 Watts |
| AMD | |
| AMD Ryzen 7 7700X | 143 Watts |
| AMD Ryzen 5 7600X | 120 Watts |
| AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D | 116 Watts |
| AMD Ryzen 5 5600X | 78 Watts |
Is It Worth the Upgrade from Intel Core i5 13600K to Intel Core i5 12600K?
The retail price of both the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X and the Intel Core i5 12600K is very similar, which is close to $300. Performance wise, you can clearly see there isn’t that much difference between these two CPUs.
If you already own the Intel Core i5 12600K, then it isn’t worth changing to the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X. You have to buy a new motherboard and RAM (DDR5, if your 12600K system doesn’t have it) and even with all these upgrades the performance gain is very little.
However, if your current system is slightly (Intel 11th gen or AMD 5000 Series), the upgrading to the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X is definitely worth it.
