Intel Core i5 Alder Lake i5-12400 OEM

6 cores - minimum for games 2023 - 2024

System requirements for AAA games continue to rise, and in 2023 it became obvious that 4-core processors could no longer cope with the tasks. This is especially noticeable in games like Starfield, which seriously loads processors when landing in large cities. Therefore, even for inexpensive gaming systems, it is worth considering modern 6-core processors such as Ryzen 5 or Core i5. One of the best in terms of price-performance ratio is the Core i5-12400.

6 cores, 12 threads

Unlike the older Core i5 and Core i7 models of the Alder Lake series, the Core i5-12400 uses only Performance cores with high IPC, which are automatically overclocked to 4.4 GHz. Eliminating energy-efficient E-cores allows you to maximize the performance of each core, which is especially important for game engines like Unreal Engine 5. The processor supports DDR5 memory and the PCI-E 5.0 bus, although for low-cost systems it is preferable to use DDR4, since the performance gain from high-frequency memory in games is minimal.

Direct competitor to Ryzen 5 5600

In gaming tests, the i5-12400 shows excellent results, comparable to the more expensive Core i7 of previous generations. Paired with a GeForce RTX 4060 or Radeon RX 7700 XT graphics card, this processor can easily handle modern games at 1080p and 1440p resolutions. An alternative could be the Ryzen 5 5600, which is slightly inferior to the i5-12400 in gaming performance, does not support DDR5 and is tied to the outdated AM4 platform, but is cheaper by one and a half thousand hryvnia.