Core i5-12600 vs Ryzen 7 5700X

Gaming speed, cores and clocks

On our gaming index the Core i5-12600 scores 65 and the Ryzen 7 5700X scores 62, about 5% faster for gaming. That gap is small and mostly shows up at 1080p with a very fast graphics card.

The Core i5-12600 has 6 cores and 12 threads, and the Ryzen 7 5700X has 8 cores and 16 threads. The extra cores of the Ryzen 7 5700X help with video editing, streaming while you play and heavy multitasking more than with the game itself. Boost clocks are 4.8 GHz and 4.6 GHz.

Platform, power and price

The Core i5-12600 uses the LGA1700 socket and the Ryzen 7 5700X uses AM4, so they need different motherboards, and often different memory. When you compare prices, count the board as well as the chip.

Rated power is 65 W for the first and 65 W for the second. That is close enough that cooling needs will be similar.

At launch the Core i5-12600 cost $213 and the Ryzen 7 5700X $299, which gives 30.5 and 20.7 points of gaming performance per $100. Today's prices will differ.

Which graphics cards each one can feed, and which to buy

At 1080p the Core i5-12600 can feed a card up to the Radeon RX 9070 before it holds the card back by more than 10 percent. The Ryzen 7 5700X reaches the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti. Both chips are in the same range for graphics card pairing.

Choose the Core i5-12600 if you want the faster gaming chip. Choose the Ryzen 7 5700X if you would rather spend the difference on a graphics card, which does more for frame rates in most games.