The gaming chip showdown
The
Intel Core i5-12600K vs
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X and
Ryzen 7 5800X rivalry is a pitched battle for dominance right in the heart of the gaming desktop PC market — the $275 to $300 price point. That might make it seem odd to throw the decidedly more expensive ~$390 Ryzen 7 5800X into the pit with the $289 Core i5-12600K and $299 Ryzen 5 5600X, but make no mistake, Intel's
Alder Lake chips punch far above their pricing weight class. That's allowed them to score key upsets against higher-priced
Ryzen 5000 chips in the suddenly more competitive
AMD vs Intel battle.
AMD's Ryzen chips have absolutely dominated our list of
Best CPUs for gaming and our
CPU Benchmark hierarchy for the last year, but Intel's new design philosophy is a game-changer. As seen in our previous
Intel Core i9-12900K vs Ryzen 9 5900X and 5950X faceoff, Intel's hybrid x86 Alder Lake design represents the company's most disruptive architectural shift in a decade, upsetting AMD's highest-end mainstream chips.