In India, most of the people want to build a PC in the budget segment. For them, Intel recently launched its budget-friendly processor the Intel Core i5-12400F. It is a 6-Core 12-Threats Processor. Is this processor could be the perfect processor for budget gamers, streamers, and productivity users? and what’s new in the 12400F let’s find out.
This is the review of the 12th Gen Intel Core i5-12400F processor. In this review, we will see the 12400F benchmarks, Gaming Performance, and everything you need to know.
Intel Core i5-12400F 12 generation Specs and Features
The Intel Core i5-12400F is priced at approx Rs 13000 in India. And in the US market, it starts at $169. It is a 6-Core and 12-Threads processor based on 12th Gen “Alder Lake” architecture. Unlike other Alder Lake processors, you can’t get the Efficient-cores on the 12400F. It comes with 6 performance cores and a total of 12 Threads.
Note: The ‘F’ series stands for the processor that doesn’t come with integrated Graphics. You have to use a dedicated Graphic Card to use the ‘F’ series processors.
The question is what is the difference between i5-11400F and i5-10400F or AMD’s Ryzen 5 3600? Both old-generation processors also come with 6-Core and 12-Threats. The i5-12400F comes with better single-core and multicore performance out of the box. For that reason, it can give better performance than those processors.
This processor comes with 4.40 GHz of Max Turbo Frequency and 2.50 GHz of Base Frequency. It also comes with an 18 MB Intel Smart Cache with a 7.5 MB total L2 Cache. This is not an unlocked processor. So you can’t overclock this processor.
It’s compatible with both DDR4 at 3200 MT/s and DDR5 at 4800 MT/s RAM. It can support a maximum of 2 Memory Channels, with a Max Memory Bandwidth of 76.8 GB/s.
As this is an Alter Lake processor, it also required an LGA1700 socket motherboard and 600 series (Z690, H670, B660, H610) chipset. The 12400F supports PCIe Express 4.0 lanes and also it is ready to work with PCIe 5.0 hardware once it’s available.
Talking about Lanes, it supports Max 8 of DMI (Direct Media Interface) Lanes and Max 20 of PCI Express Lanes. And talking about TDP, it requires a base power of 65 watts and a Maximum power of 117 watts.
Intel Core i5-12400F Benchmarks
For the Test Bench, we used budget components to make the test real life as a budget user can afford. We used a basic Gigabyte B660 DS3H motherboard, Zotac Nvidia RTX 3060ti Graphic Card, 16GB DDR4 RAM (8*2), and its own Stock cooler.
i5-12400F Gaming Benchmarks
We used Six AAA title games for this test. All games are tested in 1080p resolution (1920×1080) with Ultra settings Possible. Gaming benchmarks are listed below-
- Watch Dogs Legion: we get an average of 80FPS (RTX and DLSS off).
- Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: We get an average of 81FPS (Ultra High).
- Battlefield V: We get an average of 104FPS (Ray-tracing Ultra and DX12 enabled)
- Shadow of the Tomb Raider: We get an average of 139FPS (Highest setting)
- Forza Horizon 4: We get an average of 163FPS (Highest setting)
- Valorant: We get an average of 350FPS (Highest setting possible)
i5-12400F Synthetic Benchmarks
For the Synthetic benchmarks, we have used Four benchmark tools for testing.
- Cinebench R20.
- PCMark 10.
- Final Fantasy XV Windows Edition.
- Blender Benchmark.
- With Cinebench R20 the 12th Gen Intel Core i5-12400F processor scored 4749 pts.
- With PCMark 10 the 12th Gen Intel Core i5-12400F scored 7243.
- With Final Fantasy XV Windows Benchmark, the i5-12400F scored 11686 points.
- In the final test with Blender Benchmark Test i5-12400F scored Monster- 82.182252, junkshop- 47.867023, and classroom-39.543291 sample per minute.
These scores are very good score that give the 12400F in this price range. It will perform similarly to AMD’s Ryzen 5 5600x which costs around Rs 22000.
i5-12400F Streaming Performance
This processor is also very capable of streaming while you game on it. For the test I used CPU based encoder to make the test hard we used Softwere-based x264 encoding with 10000 Bitrate in OBS. This encoding used CPU power to stream.
In the testing, we run Valorant which runs on 280FPS without any stream delay or lag. Also, we run Shadow of the Tomb Raider which runs on 120 FPS without any lag or delay.
But If you are using an Nvidia GPU you can use Nvidia NVENC Encoder in OBS to get better streaming performance in real life.
i5-12400F Temperature during Test
During the test, this processor goes to 59-62 degrees temperature. Where the room temperature was 29 degrees. But we recommend you to use an aftermarket cooler like any good air cooler or AIO if you planning to game and stream simultaneously.
Final Verdict about Intel Core i5-12400F
This processor comes with great price-to-performance value at this price point. This processor gives better gaming and multitasking performance compared to AMD’s Ryzen 5 3600, i5-10400F, and i5-11400F. you can get a Ryzen 5600x level performance which is considerably more expensive in 12400F.
For those people who planned to buy a processor under 15000, the Core i5-12400F provided the best value at this price point. But if you already have 10400F or 11400F we would not recommend you to upgrade to 12400F.
And as we told you before, you need a dedicated Graphic Card to run 12400F. if you can’t afford a dedicated GPU then you can go with i5-12400 which has an iGPU.
