Intel i5-12600K Processor | 10 Cores 16 Threads @ 3.7Ghz Base / 4.9Ghz Turbo (Box Packed)

The Intel Core i5-12600K is a desktop processor with 10 cores, launched in November 2021. It is part of the Core i5 lineup, using the Alder Lake-S architecture with Socket 1700. Thanks to Intel Hyper-Threading the core-count is effectively doubled, to 16 threads. Core i5-12600K has 20MB of L3 cache and operates at 3.7 GHz by default, but can boost up to 4.9 GHz, depending on the workload. Intel is building the Core i5-12600K on a 10 nm production process, the transistor count is unknown. You may freely adjust the unlocked multiplier on Core i5-12600K, which simplifies overclocking greatly, as you can easily dial in any overclocking frequency.

With a TDP of 125 W, the Core i5-12600K consumes a lot of power, so good cooling is definitely needed. Intel’s processor supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory with adual-channel interface. For communication with other components in the system, Core i5-12600K uses a PCI-Express Gen 4 connection. This processor features the UHD Graphics 770 integrated graphics solution.

Hardware virtualization is available on the Core i5-12600K, which greatly improves virtual machine performance. Additionally, IOMMU virtualization (PCI passthrough) is supported, so that guest virtual machines may directly use host hardware.

Programs using Advanced Vector Extensions (AVX) will run on this processor, boosting performance for calculation-heavy applications. Besides AVX, Intel is including the newer AVX2 standard, too, but not AVX-512.