Intel Core i5-12600K: Reddit's Favorite Budget CPU Verdict

Not silly. The 12600k is a bargain right now, and is a great CPU. Use it for a few years then drop in a 14700k when it starts to show it's age, and by then the 14700k will be a bargain. It's smart.

Even an i3 12100f would be faster then a 6800k. The 12600k would be a great upgrade.

10$ extra for the iGPU is a no brainer in case anybody was considering getting the kf version.

I've been using a 12600K in my most recent build & it's a great CPU for the money.

Their reasoning is solid though. Everybody uses W10, W11 sucks and isn't ready yet, and DDR5 is too expensive and doesn't give a boost to ADL in games.

I think you're slightly insane to not be buying a 12600K right now. 90% of the performance for 20% of the price of most game/cpu combos.

12600k is a great value that will continue to be relevant for years. $170 is a steal for that processor IMO.

I made a similar thread a few days ago. TLDR: Yes the CPU is amazing.

Intel Z690 looking like it's gonna go down as a legendary budget platform.

Yup used a 12600k in my latest build. Runs fast and cool. Paired with a Z690 board and allows for future cpu upgrades.

The 12600K is an amazing CPU. For pure gaming it can't be beat.

7800x3d. I used to be die hard intel but this thing is admittedly a fucking monster of a chip.

Mine says 10/16. I might try to do an OS reset. Hopefully it should pickup the additional cores. Also make sure that in the about system page that it says you have a 12600K and not just a 12600.

Nope. It's better than my 9700k which is still kicking ass and taking names.

I upgraded from a 12600K to a 14700K. I also have a 4080. Definitely worth it as it will allow you to get another 3-4 years use of your motherboard and RAM.

Get the 14700K, it's the refined endgame of this architecture, and it's the only 14th gen that got more cores than its predecessor.

There's actually a lot more difference between an i5-12600 and a i5-12600K than there has been in i5 K and non K's in the past. The i5 12600K now has 4 e-cores as well as the 6 Performance P cores. The non K just has the 6 P-Cores. If you do slightly more mixed or demanding workloads the extra e-cores may come into play.

The 13600K, 14600K, 13700K, 14700K, 13900K, 13900KS, and 14900K are all incremental upgrades bringing very little actual performance improvement over the 12600K to the table.

It is a beast cpu that I'm still using. And for that price? It's a steal.

My 12600K barely breaks sweat in anything I throw at it.

Not silly at all. I built a new computer with a 12600k when it was on sale for $150 around the holidays. Paired with a z790, 32gb ddr5, and an RX6800, it makes for a great budget midrange gaming pc. With the new build, I've got max settings at 1080p and it runs anything I throw at it seamlessly.

Not a bad choice at all and yes the 12600k will absolutely stomp that 6800k into the dirt then spit on it.

Not a bad choice, its a good cpu. It really is, id rather see someone buy a 12600k for a good price and use all of it then watch someone buy a 14700k for 400 plus bucks and cut its performance in half by using a crappy cooler in an sff case like every other post.

12600k is amazing upgrade to 6800k.

We built a 12600K based computer for my son last Christmas. It has been great for him. It is a wonderful CPU for the price. No issues have been reported to me with the efficiency cores. Good gaming while streaming + discord etc whatever.

12th gen is cheap AF due to raptor lake pushing the price of the entire product stack. You get 90% of the single thread performance of raptor lake and the components are often much cheaper than comparable raptor lake ones. Oh, and they don't fry themselves without a bios update. Definitely the value pick on the intel side right now.

I mean, 12th to 13th gen gap is a good one, but from 13th to 14th not much, so I find it as a good cheap alternative if you don't have a high end system with a 4070ti super onwards.

As there is little to no difference between 12, 13, 14 gen for gaming. You might as well wait for the next one or move to AM5 with a 7800X3D. Specially if you are gaming at 1440p, an OC on your i5 would get you the same performance on gaming as a 14th gen.

I'd say it's a pretty good platform overall. It was a great comeback after AMD wiped the floor with them with zen 3.

They did it again. It's core2duo, aka core-m all over again. Big perf per watt. And great single core performance. It's very good for Intel.

I have the 12600k, AMA. Love it. You might want to consider AM5 though, due to the longevity of the platform.

I run a 12th gen 12600kf with a 3060ti, it's performance is great for the price. I may upgrade in a year or two it's really worth the bargain.

The 12600k is an excellent chip and excellent value. If you are tight on a budget, go 12600k. If you have a little more to spare, look at going AM5. Both will be significantly faster than your 6800k.

It's a good CPU. I have one but honestly I regret not waiting a bit for 5800X3D to release and getting that instead, but at the time no one knew that X3D chips were going to be as good as they were for gaming.

I bought one a week ago, really great CPU. Better than a i9 11900k or Ryzen 7 5800x. I'm currently running my i5 12600K with adaptive voltage (auto) and -100mV offset, it uses ~115W (from 140W on stock settings) currently running at low 60s °C at full load.

my 12600K vs a 14900K in my 7900XTX system got me 12fps. Whooo. totally worth it.... just wait.

Just wait for something meaningfully better. I put a 13700k and now a 14700k in my system and frankly, if I hadn't sold a pc to necessitate building another one, it was entirely a waste of time. Gained a few fps but spent like 3 days messing with clock speeds and voltage settings so it wouldn't run at way-too-hot all the time.

The 12600k would be fantastic; there's no better value right now from what I see at the moment on intel. The 12600k at this price is a no-brainier compared to other options.

12600k is really nice piece of metal but as of benchmarks from recent months I would probably give it a second thought. 12400f can costs 40% less while having almost same fps (usually less than 10% difference) in games so purely for gaming I would probably aim for B660 board and 12400f. That can save you serious money which can go into better psu or graphic card.

Yes it's good. Almost nobody would be disappointed with how well it performs. It's a brand new intel cpu with 16 threads. The consensus seems to be that it's a good value. I doubt anyone would not be happy after buying one.

13600K is great and 12600K isn't that bad either. I've long stopped trying to get the fastest for an unreasonable uptick in price just to chase those few percent.

Sounds like you have no real reason to upgrade. Reviews of 14th were not bad, per se, it's just not really much different than 13th gen so kind of stupid. And 13th gen isn't really worth an upgrade from an unlocked 12th gen cpu. Just overclock your 12600k.

I had 12600k for 3 years and it was damn good.

Not sure if you still care but I found the solution. Because after checking my task manager (and I know for a fact my shit is a 12600kf) it said 6/12 also. But press the windows key, type 'system configuration', click the 'boot' tab, click 'advanced options' and make sure your 'number of processors' is unchecked then restart. Once restarted change it to '16'. That fixed my 10/16 issue.