Intel Core i5-12400 Desktop Processor 18M Cache, up to 4.40 GHz

Product Information

Naturally, the rules around Intel's Gear 1 and Gear 2 modes apply here, and you'll want to stick with the low-latency Gear 1 for most practical use-cases (especially gaming).

There's a 50% generational increase in L3 cache, from 12 MB in the previous-generation i5-11400F to 18 MB. Hardware virtualization is available on the Core i5-12400, which greatly improves virtual machine performance. Number of frames per second for Intel Core i5-12400 processor in Grand Theft Auto V game with 1920 × 1080 (FHD (1080p)) resolution.The 12400 delivers solid performance in all manner of threaded productivity applications and beats even the highest-end Ryzen 5000 chips in single-threaded work.

But while the Core i5-12400 lacks the advantage of E-cores, it actually proves to be the most power-efficient Alder Lake chip we've tested.

Its GOLD 80 PLUS efficiency rating ensures the power supply operates at peak efficiency, reducing energy waste and operating costs. That's because the Ryzen 5 3600X and 3600 are several years old and have the previous-gen Zen 2 architecture. Designing the system around the turbo boost TDP ensures that it operates within the specifications under the highest theoretical workload. We say wallet-friendly, but of course what we don’t know is a key piece of the puzzle, and that’s how Intel will pitch pricing. The power supply must provide sufficient power to the system components, including the CPU, without running out of power or causing system instability.

An instruction set refers to the basic set of commands and instructions that a microprocessor understands and can carry out. If the CPU cooler is inadequate, the CPU will throttle its performance to prevent damage from overheating. That means AMD's least expensive Zen 3 model, the Ryzen 5 5600X, is the 12400's only true competitor in our benchmarks. Fortunately, the 12400 is just as fast with DDR4 in the majority of tasks, and you can pick from plenty of cost-saving DDR4 motherboards. As CPUs like the Core i5-12400 get more powerful and power-hungry, understanding the TDP of computer components becomes increasingly important.That said it's worth mentioning that if we were to use the ultimate quality setting the game is entirely GPU limited and this normalizes CPU performance, seeing the 5600X and 12400 matched, even with the 6900 XT at 1080p. It has 6 performance cores, with no power-efficient cores, so in other words, it’s just a normal CPU with no ‘small’ cores as per Alder Lake’s hybrid scheme of things (not every 12th-gen chip will employ the hybrid tech). Enhanced Intel SpeedStep® Technology builds upon that architecture using design strategies such as Separation between Voltage and Frequency Changes, and Clock Partitioning and Recovery.