Ryzen 5 7600X vs Core i5-12400F

Compare the Ryzen 5 7600X and Core i5-12400F on real gaming and productivity benchmarks, full specifications, live retailer prices and performance-per-dollar, then jump straight to the cheapest in-stock option.

From$163.00
Buy
From$164.93
Buy

The short answer

The Ryzen 5 7600X is the better buy here: it's both faster for gaming and gives more performance per dollar.

  • Ryzen 5 7600X is about 27% faster for gaming at 1080p (gaming index 67.3 vs 53.0).
  • Ryzen 5 7600X is roughly 32% faster in multi-core work, an edge in rendering, encoding and compiling.
  • Ryzen 5 7600X is the cheaper chip right now, by roughly 1%.
  • Ryzen 5 7600X delivers about 28% more gaming performance per dollar.
  • Core i5-12400F has a lower TDP (65W vs 105W), so it runs cooler and is easier to cool quietly.

Gaming performance

CPU-bound gaming score: a geometric mean of in-game frame rates at 1080p, normalized so the fastest gaming CPU we track = 100.

Ryzen 5 7600X67.3
Core i5-12400F53.0

Does the CPU matter at 1440p or 4K? Much less. At higher resolutions the graphics card sets the frame rate, so the gap between two CPUs shrinks — often to nothing. The 1080p figure above is the demanding case, where the CPU is stressed and the difference actually shows.

Performance per dollar

Gaming index divided by the current lowest price — higher is better value. This moves with the market as prices change day to day.

Ryzen 5 7600X41.3 / $100
Core i5-12400F32.1 / $100

The Ryzen 5 7600X gives about 28% more gaming performance per dollar at today’s prices.

Full platform cost

A CPU’s real cost includes the cheapest in-stock motherboard that can run it and, when the chip doesn’t bundle one, a cooler that can handle it. Here is the lowest-priced complete platform for each, and the gaming performance you get per platform dollar.

Ryzen 5 7600X
+ A620M S2H$79.99
Platform total
$259.58
Core i5-12400F
Platform total
$265.11

Cheapest complete platform (lower is better)

Ryzen 5 7600X$259.58
Core i5-12400F$265.11

Gaming performance per platform dollar (higher is better)

Ryzen 5 7600X25.9 / $100
Core i5-12400F20.0 / $100

Specs head-to-head

Ryzen 5 7600X
Core i5-12400F
Price (from)
$163.00
$164.93
Gaming (1080p index)
67.3
53.0
Cores / threads
6 / 12
6 / 12
Boost clock
5.3 GHz
4.4 GHz
Base clock
4.7 GHz
2.5 GHz
L3 cache
32 MB
18 MB
L2 cache
6 MB
7.5 MB
TDP
105W
65W
Max power
142W
117W
Socket
AM5
LGA1700
Memory support
DDR5, 5200
DDR5, 4800; DDR4, 3200
Integrated graphics
Radeon Graphics
None
Architecture
Zen 4
Alder Lake
Process node
TSMC N5
Intel 7
MSRP
$299.00
$184.00

Productivity & compute

Ryzen 5 7600X
Core i5-12400F
PassMark (multi-core)
28,278
19,554
PassMark (single-thread)
4,130
3,486
Geekbench 7 (multi-core)
13,861
9,513
Geekbench 7 (single-core)
2,599
1,966
Cinebench 2024 (multi-core)
846
640
Cinebench 2024 (single-core)
115
95
Cinebench R23 (multi-core)
15,315
12,454
Cinebench R23 (single-core)
1,976
1,623

Efficiency

Gaming performance per watt (gaming index per 100W of TDP) — higher means more frames for the heat and power.

Ryzen 5 7600X64.1
Core i5-12400F81.5

Where to buy

Ryzen 5 7600Xfrom $163.00
RetailerAvailabilityPriceBuy
AmazonIn stock$163.00
Buy
B&HIn stock$199.00
Buy
NeweggIn stock$199.00
Buy
Core i5-12400Ffrom $164.93
RetailerAvailabilityPriceBuy
AmazonIn stock$164.93
Buy

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