The Best Intel 12th Gen CPU: premium, mid-range, and budget picks
The Best Alder Lake CPUs: Intel 12900K vs 12700K vs 12600K
What is the best Best Intel 12th Gen CPU? Intel 12th gen CPUs launch today worldwide, you can read our guide below on the best Intel 12th gen CPUs and also check out our guide for Z690 motherboards and DDR5 ram.
The 12900KS is here! Check out our where to buy the 12900KS page.
If you’re looking for the best Intel 12th Gen CPU for your needs, then look no further. The release date of the Intel 12th gen CPUs will soon be upon us, and we’ve compiled a list of the best Alder Lake processors with each kind of consumer in mind with all the information currently available: taking into account budget, gaming performance, and workstation performance.
Be advised that Intel 12th Gen CPUs have been designed alongside Windows 11, and the new Windows operating system is required to get the most out of their performance. Also be aware that if you’re considering buying an Intel 12th Gen CPU capable of overclocking for this very purpose, you’ll need to buy a Z690 motherboard in order to unlock this functionality.
Make sure you read our Things to Consider when buying an Intel 12th gen CPU section below for more information on the above and other considerations you should bear in mind before buying an Alder Lake processor.
Intel 12th gen gaming performance
Even though Intel has faced stiff competition of late from AMD for the title of best gaming CPU, it’s an area where they’ve traditionally managed to prevail due to the superior overclocking potential of their processors. The latest leaks indicated that Intel may have succeeded in reasserting their dominance in the field of gaming performance, though we’ll have to wait for more thorough independent benchmarking following the 12th gen release date to learn more.
Intel 12th gen workstation performance
Early indications from leaked performance data seem to indicate the flagship 12900K CPU has vastly improved multi-core performance, the area in which AMD has dominated for years now, at least at the higher end SKUs. The AMD Ryzen 5950X has offered a multi-core intermediary between flagship gaming CPUs and the professional-grade workstation/server CPUs like the AMD Threadrippers and Intel Xeons, and it seems like Intel might be trying to compete at this level now with the Intel Core i9-12900.
Our Top Picks
The Best Intel Alder Lake 12th Gen CPUs
In-depth Review
Intel Core i9-12900K
Intel Core i9-12900K
The i9-12900K is a concerted effort by Intel (more so even than previously) to really go for the jugular of AMD for the crown of best gaming CPU. According to Intel’s press releases (backed up by some early leaks) the Intel Core i9-12900K performs between 0-30% better than the Ryzen 9 5950X in gaming, but for the very reasonable MSRP of $589 compared to the slightly cheaper AMD Ryzen 9 5900X at $549, and the $800 5950X. 36% cheaper for and up to a 30% performance increase sounds good to us, if these figures are to be believed. The i9-12900KF model (without integrated graphics) promises to be $25 cheaper, though personally we’d spend a little extra and go with the iGPU option, purely for its use in GPU failure scenarios.
It should be kept in mind that these performance figures are based on the standard 5.3GHz boost clock that the Intel Core i9-12900K comes with out the box (compared to the 4.9GHz 5950X and 4.8GHz 5900X). One area that Intel CPUs traditionally excel in is overclocking, so this may give the i9-12900K an even greater edge over the competition when paired with a Z690 motherboard.
It also seems that with the Intel Core i9-12900K, the blue team aren’t just aiming at trying to take on AMD in the sphere of gaming, but also take them on in multi-core workstation tasks, traditionally the area in which AMD have dominated. The core and thread count of the 12900K has doubled from that the 11900K came with, up to 16/24, which means it matches up to the AMD Ryzen 5950X in the number of cores (with thread count being lower due to half of these cores being ‘little’ E-cores). Of course these competing CPUs have completely different architecture, the AMD Ryzen 9 coming with a smaller 7nm process size compared to the 10nm of the Alder Lake CPUs, so there’s no way of knowing how this actually works out until thorough benchmarking takes place.
The previous generation Intel flagship saw a reduction in the size of the L3 cache to 16MB, but the latest news indicate the 12900K will come with a whopping 30 MB L3 cache, 14MB of L2 cache, and 1.4MB of L1 cache. How this translates to actual performance in gaming and workstation use remains to be seen, especially as we don’t know how the kernel scheduler within the OS will interact with the big & little architecture of the 12th gen CPUs with regards to cache: perhaps it will allocate it differently between the core types? Overall though, this would indicate a CPU which is perhaps better at handling many simultaneous multi-tasking workloads, perhaps meaning a smoother experience doing workstation tasks, as opposed to just heavy duty processing such as in gaming.
All-in-all, the Intel Core i9-12900K is shaping up to be the most powerful gaming CPU on the market, not just the best of the Intel 12th gen range.
Intel Core i7-12700KF
Intel Core i7-12700KF
Whilst the flagship Alder Lake CPU may get most of the press coverage, it’s the next biggest CPU in the rankings that will be of more interest to most pure gamers, who’d be better off spending more money on a more powerful graphics card then going all out on the CPU.
The Core i7-12700KF offers gaming enthusiasts the same number of performance cores as the competing AMD Ryzen 7 5800X (eight cores specifically), but with an additional four efficiency cores for the same $384 MSRP (translating to 12 cores with 20 threads in total). At 5.0GHz the boost clock speed of the 12700KF is slightly larger than the 4.9GHz of the 5800X. How all this translates into both gaming and workstation performance remains to be seen, but early signs from the earliest leaks are encouraging. Once again the overclocking potential of the Intel K-series should prove a big draw for the most hardcore gamers, an area that will likely let it extend the lead over the Ryzen 7 5800X further.
We’ve chosen the KF version of this CPU, primarily because it offers the best value for pure gamers who don’t really use their computer for much else other than web browsing, word processing, and gaming; it competes directly on price with the AMD competition. Although having integrated graphics has its merits, for gamers who fit this description dedicated GPUs it’s more of a luxury / backup feature they can do without.
We’ll have to wait for independent third-party benchmarking to really test what the Intel Core i7-12700KF is capable of post release, but it’s fair to say that it will be the best upper mid-range pick of the 12th gen range.
Intel Core i7-12700K
Intel Core i7-12700K
Although we selected the Intel Core i7-12700KF as our mid-range pick as it offers the best value for gamers, for some the Intel Core i7-12700K may be the better choice.
To reiterate, the Intel Core i7-12700K is functionally identical to the Intel Core i7-12700KF other than it comes with its own integrated graphics (iGPU) which can be used in place of a dedicated graphics card for slightly more money. As mentioned in our ‘Things to consider’ section, your average gamer won’t need to use this iGPU, relying entirely on the separate dedicated graphics card, however in certain scenarios it can be useful to have one.
If you intend to use your machine for creative purposes and workstation applications, be aware that certain pieces of Adobe software for instance use features like QuickSync which rely on an iGPU to work.
Besides this, if you’re ever in a scenario where your main GPU fails (God forbid) then it can be very useful to have a backup until your replacement arrives, particularly as, in these days of silicon shortages, this could take some time. For an additional $25 MSRP it could be worth it just for your piece of mind.
Intel Core i5-12600KF
Intel Core i5-12600KF
The Intel Core i5-12600KF isn’t really a budget offering, being more of a lower mid-range CPU, and one which is capable of overclocking at that, but at the time of writing it is the cheapest Intel 12th Gen processor you can buy. The Intel Core i5-12600F is expected to arrive in early 2022, which will be the same basic CPU, without iGPU, but incapable of overclocking and therefore cheaper. Later still in 2022 we expect to see the Intel Core i3-12400F which, although its existence hasn’t been officially confirmed, we expect to see take up the true budget slot in the range. If saving money is your priority then we’d consider either waiting for one of these to arrive, or alternatively look at buying an Intel 11th Gen CPU, the Intel Core i5-11600F for instance.
Still though, if you truly must have an Intel 12th gen CPU right away, and want the cheapest one available, then the Intel Core i5-12600KF is the pick for you. It comes with 6 P-cores and 4 E-cores with a boost clock speed of 4.9GHz, and 20MB of L3 cache.
We’ll be interested to see when independent benchmarking comes out whether it can compete with AMD’s Ryzen 5 5600X in terms of performance, especially seeing as its MSRP is markedly cheaper at $264 compared to the $300 AMD CPU.
Final Word
So this has been our guide to the best Intel 12th Gen CPU. We hope it has been useful to you in determining which is the best Alder Lake CPU for your needs. The top pick, unsurprisingly, is the Intel Core i9 12900K which comes with the greatest single-core and multicore performance, but the Core i7 12700KF is also a great selection for gamers who’d be better spending their money on a superior graphics card.
See our where to buy Intel 12th gen page for the latest listings of 1200 series CPUs from different retailers worldwide. Also, make sure to pick yourself up a Z690 motherboard if you are planning on going with one of the K versions of the Intel 12th gen.
If you’re thinking of going with another CPU outside of the Intel 12th Gen, check out our best gaming CPU page.