Awesome comments already guys, got the RTX 3050 review dropping tomorrow too, so stay tuned!

I bought the 12700k over some ryzen options and while it ended up being a better option the price of the motherboards were definitely surprising to me as someone who hasn't upgraded since skylake.

I recently got a bundle containing: Asus TUF Gaming B660M-PLUS D4 i5-12400F Corsair 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4 3200MHz Asus GeForce RTX 3060 PHOENIX LHR 12GB for 840€, I think that was a pretty good deal considering GPU prices atm. Really feels like the i5-12400F fits perfectly in something like this.

As always, good review. I got my i3-10100f with Gigabyte B460 Aorus Pro and 2x8G 2666hhz Kingston Hyper mem in Sept 2020, its still good for me. I need rather get some good deal gpu to replace my GTX1050.

really happy with my 11400F, it was cheaper than ryzen 5 when i first bought it and ive been very happy with it

I got the 10105 for $99.99 USD. What a deal for a work and school PC.

Had been really cool to see a video with the 12400F/12100F and a "der8auer non K OC" compared to the results in this video

Attention to those who want to buy. Intel 12th Gen non-K CPU SA voltage（VCCSA） is locked at 0.92V, This causes the RAM to unstable under DDR4 3600MHz Gear 1 or higher , Even some RAM with XMP will not be able to boot. Gear2 will introduce higher latency, which will result in lower framerates for gamers. I don't know why Intel did this, maybe to give the K-series CPUs an edge,maybe it's to force users to buy expensive DDR5 RAM. I just bought the 12700, I don't want to overclock, just want to use cheaper DDR4 RAM, But Intel takes away even that. I'm very disappointed now. So I would like to remind people who want to buy Intel 12th Gen non-K CPU. Don't waste your money on DDR4 3600 memory. DDR4 3200 is the limit. If you want better memory performance, buy DDR5 memory. Or zen3 5600x+DDR4 3600 or higher.

Haven't seen one of your vids for a while. Loving the C&C music at the end

I’m doing a cpu upgrade in the next few weeks because my old 4690k just can’t handle halo infinite above 60 fps and discord at the same time. And as much as I’d love to get the 12400f because it’s the newest and the fastest etc etc, the fact that I can get a 10400f for $198 and a decent b560 mobo for $179 completely wipes the floor of the value proposition of the 12400f which costs $299 (not that bad, but still not great) and the equivalent b660 mobo which costs $349. $377 vs $648, the 12400f + mobo just doesn’t seem worth an extra 71% of the price of the 10400f + mobo imo. Especially considering I still have a GTX 970 so I doubt I’d see any performance increase in games with the 12400f over the 10400f since my GPU is so old so I’m almost certain to be GPU bound in everything I play

Me who invested in a Ryzen 5 3600 back in July 2019, smiling in the corner knowing it was a worthwhile investment.

Now the value of these CPUs comes with the non k overclock capable motherboards der8auer presented in a review. I'm going to be building some new work PCs to accommodate a couple new workers and opted for waiting these mobos paired with locked i7s and it's going to be more performance and cheaper than Ryzen 5800x

My best value cpu is the friendships I’ve made along the way with my other tech yes city brothers 😎

Can always count on the Tech Yes Man to prioritize that Price/Performance!👍❤

The 12600K only adds 10% faster clock speeds and 4 ecores which adds a few frames only when you're CPU bound and already above 120 frames. It also slurps more power and runs up the thermals. The 12100 was going for almost the same price, so the extra 2 cores of the 12400 was only $40.

That i7 vs i3/i5 fact is why I got 4000Mhz DDR4. It might not be as good as 3600 with a lower latency but people see a higher number.

Alright! Once again, the Tech YES Man brings us the good stuff to help us make an informed purchase decision. Keep up the great work, good sir!

Definitely a thorough assessment!

Thanks for answering my question! I have a Snowman, might see if I can find a suitable power monitor sometime and do a real test, see what happens just for lols. :D I'm sure you're right though, probably just a small difference.

i got a 12400f cpu on christmas 2022 for gaming and editing and a gtx 1660super and its awesome! thank you tech yes and i got a overkill cooler from thermalright (peerless assassin)

That's funny. My stock cooler with the 3600 would always peg at 95 degrees full-bore and clock down to almost base clocks at all core workloads (3.6-3.65ghz). I got a Snowman and got it down to 70-80 at peak utilization, with boost clocks now in the 3.9ghz range - thus I did still lose performance by using the stock AMD cooler.

Great video! Lets hope that ASUS starts making DDR4 Mobos capable of overclocking. der8auer made a great video about non K OC for Alder Lake on ASUS mobos. That is really gonna change the budget cpu landscape.

Great presentation and well balanced. Thank you

I think the i3-12100f is even better value than this for budget gamers.

wow, that 12100 is up there with the big boys

I'd love to see you get an asrock h670 riptide and test with this cpu along with the non k 12 series skus that are coming in the future. The value prospects look amazing.

If you go for this the b660 that can bclk oc is a must! It will perform like the 12600k

Did someone say value? Instant like

thanks man. good to see some New World benchies as well man.

ahh what a bummer. I was waiting for your review to say what was the honest opinion. I was looking up for this cpu maybe was the time I upgrade. ohh well next gen is just another year away :P will wait for a little bit more

9:43 isn't the 11400f even more power hungry than the 12400f ?

How much of a difference in performance is there on DDR4? I don't believe for one second a budget builder will be or should be buying DDR5 for that build. I would imagine good 3200 or 3600 would be 3-7% less performance, depending on the use. Depending on the use case, going up a CPU tier or doubling the Ram would be a better idea than DDR5. Obviously DDR5 would show its value, once you migrate it to a future build.

12400f 179$ + B660M-A D4 139$ = 320$ best value on the market

i bought an i3 10100f 80euros , asrock mainoard 67euros , 8gb ram 23euros all together same price for i5 10400 only.

I watched other videos and the benchmark result with 12400 use far less wattage (almost half) when compared to 5600x. Which one is the right one?

No mention of the game changing overclock possible currently on the 12400, once this info becomes more widespread this CPU will most likely go up in price than down.

I would argue the 12100f is best value due to it being 130 bucks but only a hair slower than a 5600x in multicore work loads and most likely far better in gaming if the i3 is overclocked a lot.

this cpu is insane i wished 12th gen mobs weren't so expensive in my country cheapest mob for 12th gen is 200 eur and for amd 5th gen is only 65 eur

Seeing how close the 10400F was in the gaming benchmarks I completely agree with your conclusion. I've found the stock cooler is fine for the lower powered 10400F, however I did order a few 11th gen stock coolers as they have the all black look, but any cheap air cooler will do.

Great review. I bought a h610 mobo for 60 euro and the i5 12400f for 90 euro. Great deal!

12100 is calling my name. Even with B660 pricing i can resell my 3300x/B550 for most of the cost of 12100/B660. I made a call when i bought my 3300x. I placed my bet that single threaded gains from this performance war would be so high that 4c/8t would be plenty enough for gaming again very quickly, and i could ride those gains for a small cost per year. I feel like the 12100 playing AAA "quad core killers" with better fps AND lows than the 3600 speaks for itself.

Running 12400f on b760m ds3h and rx 6600xt plus 5200mhz 16gb xpg ddr5. Whatever game I throw at it, it does the magic.

The associated costs are not a problem, because you meet them in both amd and intel worlds... For example, amd's factory coolers may be adequate but they sound like a helicopter, so yes, you'll need an aftermarket cooler for intel and amd cpus. Now, about the motherboards, the new b660 and z690 come loaded with new technologies and they are still new in the market. It is expected to be much more expensive than the 560's and the 590's... Wait some months and their prices will go down as happens always (let's leave aside the chip "shortage phenomenon"). Always the new technology, the first months, ask for more money... The same can be said for the DDR5 too. So I don't see any disadvantage on 12400f. Besides, you have not any other alternative option in the amd world... Whatever new part buy NOW in the AMD platform , will be obsolete in a few months when series 7xxx come out, because then, for the new cpu, will need new motherboard, new cooler and new RAM (only DDR5) and they will be more expensive (as new technologies) too ... But with 12400f you can keep the motherboard and the DDR4 for one more generation next year...

Can you put a 4070 ti graphic card in this computer

My 12400f has been amazing coupled it with a RTX 3060ti and honestly I regret the GPU more than the CPU. But I'm waiting for the 5 series to come out.

Could we please have a used cpu 2022 guide ?

Great video mate

I used a Asus Prime B660M-K which works fine. Didn't destroy my budget like the Z690 mobo does. The stock LGA1700 cooler is just horrendously loud. It keeps the cpu degrees away from thermal throttling so i got a Hyper 212 evo V2 and now the temps are amazing.

Can i use this cpu with a rtx 3080?

Thank you so much @Tech Yes City. I have a question regarding your final thoughts. If one were to wait to buy an I5 12400 and an H610 motherboard, wouldn’t you be giving up memory overclocking ability? I haven’t looked at the specific differences of the newest chipsets for the 12th generation Intel Alder Lake platform. I’m going by what I know from past generations. Also does that make much of a difference with a CPU like this?

10th gen still a solid buy, keep up the good work! 👍

I do think that H610 mb with 12400 is a good price/performance combo, and I do consider it as an upgrade for my current system (it's not perfect, but with prices in my area it's good enough) but right now I don't have good enough GPU to feel the difference, so I will pass for now...

Thanks for this 🙏🏻

I think for a good all around mid level gaming system, the 12400 and even the 12100 are actually very good value especially as DDR4 is so cheap so all told $400 gets you a decent platform with the 12400/B660 and DDR4 ram at 3600 and that will allow for upgradability in the future. Problems as always, right now is the GPU prices have thrown everything into a tail spin and thus going second hand like 10th gen Intel, AMD 3600 etc really comes into play as the more you can save towards your GPU the better right now. Still if you are buying NEW right now then 12th gen is the stronger platform. I wish AMD would seriously drop prices of the 5600X/5800X etc and they need to produce low end CPU's for the next cycle as right now Intel have that all tied up with a bow!

I got a msi Z690 + i5 12400f + 16gb of ram all for $300. If you can get a deal like that the price to performance ratio is insane

I always love your work always brother

I get this CPU for $172 and paired with $131 B550M motherboard. I think with just $303 this CPU has best price to performance right now (even compared to 12100f I guest). There is no CPU under $175 can beat this level of performance, Everyone called this CPU Budget King for a reason.

Just to note: you’ve got a C0 stepping 12400 there (SRL4W S-spec), that’s the large die, same as 12900K for instance. There’s also the H0 stepping with a smaller die (SRL5Z S-spec) that consumes less power.

cant state it enogh the 12100f and 12400f, are by far the best gaming cpus out there atm even if paired with the B610/H660 boards. the small offset in price for a b660/h610 DDR4 board, is easy saved on the cpu price alone. and the extra IPC + feature set vs older gen intel or even AM4, is imo worth it, esp considering inflation prob influencing the newer parts prices. I also big time disagree with You tech yes, in the whole 10 series debate, since those cores are loong in the tooth by now (basicly 6500/6600/6700, cores, just a bit more of them). and we havnt seen such a large platform uplift in ages from intel (nor amd for that matter). gen5 support and extra DMI speed from cpu to chipset is huge for future proffing.

Just getting back into gaming on pc since the 90s I happen come across a good prebuilt it has this cpu, with 3060rtx 12gb ddr6, ram is only 16gb one stick gonna add more there and then 1tb HD and I can run all modern new games that I play on highest graphics settings and still get 120fps good setup for 1080 I’ll upgrade here in future for gpu and stuff but yeah good cpu for what I do warzone, fortnite games like that

What cooler would you recommend for this? I'm looking at simple 120mm rad AIOs and maybe even that Ventroo 5, you have any you've tested you like?

I think ill get this. I am Upgrading from an athlon 860k. Cpu ram and Mobo are getting a swap and its will cost me under 400 for an upgrade and thiw review just answered exactly what I want this cpu to do

I agree on 10400f point. Think it was the best budget cpu for a while and i honestly think it remains the best value cpu on the market. Maybe 11400f could dethrone it right now, depends on regional prices i guess. You can get 10400f+b560 mb+3200mhz+ ram for less than 12100f+B660(let alone 12400f) and no ram included. One can make an argument that 12100f would give pcie 4.0 (pretty useless for quite a while, especially for budget gamer) and that you can later swap in a better cpu. Problem with that is that then you really do not want to go with cheapest MB out there and you want something like Asus b600 prime which raises the cost even more. Same story is with 12400f, you rather want semi decent board for it and suddenly you end up paying for entire thing like 180-200% of what 10400f setup would cost you. Recently calculating all that i ended with 12400f+board+ram+cooler cost nealy as much as 5600x setup on a very good MB (like really, Tomahawk max II b450 is like half the price of cheapest ATX b660 board). Meanwhile if you want to upgrade from 10400f, you can just sell mb+cpu (much easier to sell than random i3) and just buy new stuff once you have funds for it. And with a midrange gpu you really will be hard pressed to notice the difference while gaming. Then there is ofc ryzen 3 3600 which came down in price a bit and probably will get even cheaper that comes in with much cheaper board which also gives you plethora of great cpus to upgrade to down the line. All that being said, 12400f is a great CPU, at a great price, but it's general value is being held back strongly by motherboard costs.

What about testing this chip with a H610 board or a cheap B660 board. The "forever boosting" is not unlocked on all motherboards. From what I understand from Intel it isn't unlocked at all on H610 and is only on some B660 boards. This means that only Z690 has full boosting capabilities (unlimited time PL2). This also destroys the value of the chip relative to its performance. Especially considering that the 12400F + a B660 board is about the same price as a 5600x + B450/B550 board.

No mention of potential bclk overclocking? Rumors are this should be able on ASRock b660 steel legend. 12400f @ 5Ghz is nothing to sneeze at.

Finally someone is talking about the motherboard costs. I was thinking of upgrading but the cheapest mobos cost twice as much as I paid for my H110 a few years ago. While they are great CPU's I am not surprised that AMDs CPUs are still holding value because a lot of people have a mobo and only need to upgrade the CPU. Even if you need to buy a motherboard for ryzen you have to spend less for it. I am a little dissapointed I went Intel not AMD because the upgrade path.

Great review

Hey Tech YES City great video as usual i wanna ask can u do a review on the i9 11900 ES QVYE its 190$ banger atm what do you think ??

Wow can't believe you didn't talk about the overclocking of the 12400f and other non K overclocking possibilities of 12th gen. Thanks Yes Man!

This thing can be overclocked to 5ghz all core, it's a beast

i bought this CPU yesterday and paired it with MSI PRO H610M-B and with a tower fan CPU cooler, I upgraded from Core i5-3470 but because lack of funds so I only upgrade the Motherboard, CPU and RAM, so the GPU is still my old 1050ti and 2 HDD and 2 SSD (I saw an m2 slot on the motherboard maybe will consider trying m2) I hope I made the correct decision with this upgrade

Hey Bryan, In your bar chart from I9-12900k until I3-10100F where does the E5 2699 v3 sits?

1. the asus b660 is not very expensive. 2. amd's stock cooler isn't that amazing to be honest. I will still get an external cooler as 5600x chip is quite hot. 3. Overall it's still cheaper to get intel as ram speed doesn't really affect intel's chip + cpu price is much lower. 4. getting a 10400 vs 12400 doesn't make sense as the price differential is very little and the performance Benches show a yield of 18% gain on certain games 5. You can now overclock the 12400 or 12400f.

i am just impressed with the numbers of i3 12100f in gaming such a decent cpu with only 4cores

I really love my 10400f it was bargain buy at that time.

I'll be giving this a bit of time to come down in price

Last year, I got 12400. The cooler model SE-214-XT keeps it cool and maxes at 60 when rendering. I upgraded from a classic 3930k, which I got 5 years ago. I bought it from Amazon and saw it was a good price. I didn't do any research Both of these chips have the same threads and cores,so why did the guy lie, saying Cpus hasn't shown a big jump? It's other cards like the i3 10th, even compared to other i3s and other i7s from the 11th or 9th generation, that show big jumps in power from the eras before it. It used to take me 5min to copy a ep from a DVD now it only takes 2min with 1 program and then with the other only takes 1min Renders for a 8hr 1440p used to take 4hr now takes only 2 Malwarebytes used to take 2hr now takes 10mins sometimes even 5mins same amount of files

I recently got this CPU, not knowing how high the temps would be. It idled around 50C and that can (at least) double when stressed. I'm getting a Thermalright BA120 ARGB as an aftermarket. Anyone have any experience with this combo? If there is a better one, I would love to hear suggestions, especially with some benchmark information.

Don't forget the $40 Thermal Grizzly CPU Contact Frame for the new LGA 1700 boards.

The new Intel cooler looks like am edgier version of the original stock cooler

I disagree with your recommendation. The LGA 1700 B660 can be had for around $100-120 and the 12400F CPU for less than $200. What this gets you is your foot in the latest and greatest platform. AM4 is on its way out and the 10-11th Gen Intel CPU are way behind the 12th gen CPUs in IPC performance. I say the 12400 and a B660M is the perfect buy for 90% of new users or those on Intel 6-9th Gen CPUs and AMD 1000-3000 series CPUs. The box cooler is perfect as long as you tweak the fan curve, tweak the PL2 settings and have a nice case with good airflow. Great video! Keep them cranking!

Since a decent Motherboard cost is really high in my country i think going on older gen cpu is the option for me. i was tempted to get the i3-12100f but i still dont know if i really want to get that since the cost of the i3-12100f and cheapest bare bone motherboard in my country is the same as going Ryzen 7 2700 and a B450M Mortar Max. but still im not really rushed either since the GPU Price is still not looking great either in here.

I wouldn't recommend R5 3600, it's not enough even for an RTX 3070 at 1440p in many games. If ever, the 12100f offers same performance but way cheaper. Also, the 12400f + TUF B660M-PLUS , at least in my region, costs the same as R5 5600X alone with the comparable performance.

I just got the 12400T off eBay for $129. Cheap, AND low heat/power draw.

Is this cpu the best budget price to performance gaming/productivity cpu? Or is there another better one?

Brooo i played with you when you did that apex bench mark!

OC 12400F 👍🤩

Can you compare h610 performance with B660.

You completely ignored the fact that some boards allow beyond 5ghz all cores overclock on 12gen non-K cpus...

I have a GTX 1070, and ordered this over an i3 12100F. I was looking for an upgrade from a B460M-A Pro and i3 10100F, and was recommended B660 and an i3 12100F, cause of my budget, and I ordered both, but ultimately decided to cancel the i3 order and splurge and get the i5 12400F after seeing it was recommended by benchmark over the i3 for gaming. My issue at the time, and right now while I wait for the parts, is I am CPU bottlenecked in MWII. Would this be okay to be paired with a 1070? I just want to stop the bottleneck lol. I do plan on getting a Hyper 212 EVO v2 as a nice budget cooler, but that's not for a week or two. Would it also be okay to use the stock cooler until then for gaming?

Idle power consumptions please. Important nowadays. The 12400 is the best for idle and moderate loads. Full loads are really important for final power consumption.

Hi, I'm planning to get a new PC. Need your kind advice about the PC specs below:- i5 12400F + RTX 3060 8GB _____________________________ Intel I5 12400F 6c 12t @ 2.5~4.4ghz MSI PRO B660M E Motherboard Zadak 8GB 3200 RGB DDR4 Inno3D / Palit RTX 3060 12GB Invasion / Silverstone 600W 80+ Power Supply MSI Vampiric R100 Casing 240GB M.2 SSD Toshiba 1TB HDD With Games = Total cost USD 1068. Do you think the total price is worth it with the specs above? Need some suggestions on this. Thank you.

I just got an i5 11400F that I wan to use in an iTX build. Only reason I got it was that I got it for Intels recommended sale price: around $150 USD

That 12600 is wild

I bought it in combination with an rtx 3050 (gigabyte h610 mobo and 16 g 3.200 ram). but it's my first time building a pc so: should I apply thermal paste? the cooler I think has a layer already... but the less I do the less I m confused. suggestions?

Which API do you use for your Fortnite benchmarks?

12400F with Snowman cooler wont blow any downward air on to surrounding motherboard components, using an AIO will be worse, 100c CPU will heat up those components.

Thank you 👍

when i plug in the cheapest motherboards the 12400f setup is more than the 5600x . its not a bad cpu , but its not a gain on the soon last gen amd . i would agree on the 3600 . you can get great deals on them bundled with motherboards . and your giving up maybe 5-10% fps at over 100fps. you will never notice the difference.

How did you mount the snowman on the 12th gen proc?