Intel Processor N97 vs Intel Core i5-12600K

Intel Processor N97

The Intel Processor N97 is an entry-level mobile CPU for thin and light laptops from the Alder Lake-N series. It was announced in early 2023 and offers no performance cores and 4 of the 8 efficient cores (E-cores, Gracemont architecture). The chip does not support HyperThreading and clocks with up to 3.7 GHz. The performance of the E-cores should be similar to old Skylake cores (compare to the Core i7-6700HQ). All cores can use up to 6 MB L3-cache. 

Performance

The performance should be between the Intel Processor N100 and Intel Processor N200 and clearly below the Core i3-N300 and N305 due to the reduced core count. 

Features

The Alder Lake-N chips only support single channel memory with up to DDR5-4800, DDR4-3200 or LPDDR5-4800. The chip also supports Quick Sync and AV1 decoding (most likely same engine as in Alder Lake). Furthermore, Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2 are partly integrated (but no Thunderbolt). External chips can be connected via PCIe Gen3 x9 (via the PCH).

The integrated graphics adapter is based on the Xe-architecture and offers only 24 of the 32 EUs (Execution Units) operating at 1200 MHz. Due to the single channel memory, low clock speeds, and low shader count, the gaming performance of the iGPU is very limited.

Power consumption

The N97 has a base power consumption of 12 W and therefore double the amount of the N100. The CPU is built with a further improved 10nm SuperFin process at Intel (called Intel 7).

Intel Core i5-12600K

The Intel Core i5-12600K is a mid-range CPU for desktops based on the Alder Lake architecture. It was first announced in November 2021 and offers 6 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores. The performance cores (P-cores) support HyperThreading, leading to 16 Threads that can be processed at once. The performance cores can clock with up to 4.9 GHz, the efficiency cores can clock with up to 3.6 GHz. All cores can use 20 MB Smart Cache. The integrated memory controller supports up to 128 GB DDR5 with 4800 MT/s (dual channel).

Thread Director (in hardware) can support the operating system to decide which thread to use on the performance or efficiency cores for the best performance.

The integrated graphics adapter is based on the Xe-architecture and called Intel UHD Graphics 770. It clocks between 300 and 1.45 GHz.

For AI tasks, the CPU also integrates GNA 3.0 and DL Boost. Quick Sync in version 8 is the same as in the Rocket Lake CPUs and supports MPEG-2, AVC, VC-1 decode, JPEG, VP8 decode, VP9, HEVC and AV1 decode in hardware.

Performance

The average 12600K in our database is way ahead of the Ryzen 9 3900 and the Core i9-10900K, as far as multi-thread benchmark scores are concerned. This is a very fast CPU that should have no trouble running triple-A games for at least a couple of years.

Power consumption

This Core i5 series chip has a Base power consumption of 125 W, with its maximum Intel-recommended Turbo power consumption sitting at 150 W.

The i5-12600K is built with Intel's fourth generation 10 nm process marketed as Intel 7 for lower-than-average, as of mid 2023, energy efficiency.