Intel Core i5-12600 Review 2022 – To E or not to E The Intel Core i5-12600 “Alder Lake” forms the leader of a sub-series of 12th Gen Core-i5 processors. While usually non K, K and KF variants are quite similar as the only difference is the integrated graphics or overclocking.
The Core i5-12600 is a very different processor from the Core i5-12600K and i5-12600KF too, though. Actually, the i5-12600 in this review has more in common with the very tempting i5-12400F that we recently reviewed. With its 12th Generation, Intel branched its Core-i5 desktop processor series out into two sub-series.
The i5-12600K and KF are based on the larger Alder Lake C0- die and offer the Hybrid architecture, which has six performance “P cores” working next to four efficiency “E cores.” The rest of the Core-i5 series is based on a physically smaller die codenamed “H0,” which only has six P-cores and no E- ores.
The i5-12600 we are reviewing today is the fastest of these H0 processors that you can buy. This also makes it the fastest Alder Lake processor without any E-cores.
The Core i5-12600 is a traditional multi-core processor with none of the Hybrid-processing elements found in the i5-12600K. It is a 6core/12thread processor with six “Golden-Cove” performance cores and no “Gracemont” E core clusters on the silicon.
Each of these P cores has 1.25MB of dedicated L2-cache, and the six cores share an 18MB L3-cache. The iGPU, uncore, and platform I/O is identical to the other Core Alder Lake processors, including support for DDR5 memory and PCI-Express Gen-5.
The Core i5 H0 series includes the i5-12400/F, i5-12500, and this chip is the i5-12600. The Core i3-quad-core models are carved out of this exact silicon by disabling a two cores. The i5-12600 ticks at a base frequency of 3.30GHz, with 4.80GHz maximum in Turbo Boost frequency.
Its power limits are identical to those of the i5-12400 with 65W processor base power and 117W in maximum turbo power. The UHD Graphics 770-iGPU is based on the Xe LP graphics architecture and sees 32EUs (256 programmable shader’s) run at up to 1.45 GHz graphics clock.
Intel is offering the Core i5-12600 at around $239, which makes it $31 cheaper than the i5-12600K and just $25 cheaper than the i5-12600KF that comes with a disabled i-GPU. As we mentioned earlier, you have to be very careful when ordering these chips as a misplaced “K” that can land you with a significantly different chip.
In this review, we find out if it’s worth considering the E-core-free Core-i5-12600 over its cousins with E-cores that promise you more compute muscle for just an additional $25-35.
Hopefully this article Intel Core i5-12600 Review 2022 – To E or not to E can be benefit and useful.