Leak suggests the Intel i5-12600K CPU outperforms AMD's Ryzen 7 5800X at a considerably lower price

Sources close to Moore’s Law Is Dead claim that the upcoming Alder Lake desktop processors from Intel could provide quite a few surprises, especially in the mid-range sector. Sure, the high-end i9 models will most likely beat the AMD Ryzen 5000 competition, but this tier hardly ever offers the best price/performance ratio. The real value is supposed to come from the mid-range tiers, so the i5-12600K has a real chance to shine this time around.

Tom from MLID is quite confident that the i5-12600K with its 6 big cores and 4 little cores will not only be about 20% faster than the Ryzen 5 5600X, but it may also beat the Ryzen 7 5800X by around 5% in multi-core loads. Tom’s sources also note that the Gracemont little cores could provide more performance than currently expected (apparently exceed Skylake’s IPC), especially with the new Windows 11 scheduling, and this will help the i5 models become a very competitive mid-tier product. The i7 and i9 Alder Lake models are expected to be more power hungry than the Ryzen 5000 counterparts, but the i5 is supposed to be more energy efficient and match the TDP of an R7 5800X.

Pricing will be competitive too. The i5-12600K should be priced similar to the i5-11600K, so we are looking at a $300 - 350 range, with Tom's source leaning towards the lower end of the spectrum. Also, the KF models without iGPU will still be a thing and the i5-12600KF will probably slide under $300. Now, this price difference against the R7 5800X will most likely be offset by the fact that Alder Lake requires new motherboards. DDR5 modules are not really a must, since Alder Lake still supports DDR4, but why not take advantage of the DDR5 memory? We should also consider separate cooler costs. Adding all these up plus the jump to Windows 11, final costs should be around the same as with an R7 5800X system, but at least the gaming performance is slightly superior.

AMD has an answer for Alder Lake with the 3D V-Cache Ryzen 5000 models, but these are launching in early 2022, which allows Intel to dominate the market for at least a few months. While the pricing on the i5 model may be fairly competitive, we still need to see if Intel is able to provide decent supplies for Q421.

Buy the Intel i5-11600KF processor without iGPU on Amazon