Intel Core 5 120F Upcoming Processor Revealed Early; New Budget Gaming CPU?

Core 5 210F has been spotted early. Check out the details of this highly anticipated, budget gaming Intel CPU!

New Intel Core 5 processor may launch soon (Image via Intel | Deltia’s Gaming)
New Intel Core 5 processor may launch soon (Image via Intel | Deltia’s Gaming)

Intel released its Core Ultra Series 2 architecture a while ago, and now it appears that the chip giant wants to expand its lineup of desktop processor offerings. For now, Intel has been offering Core Ultra 5, Core Ultra 7, and Core Ultra 9 processors with Arrow Lake architecture for desktop users, supporting motherboards with LGA 1851 socket.

However, non-Ultra variants of Intel Core processors based on Arrow Lake were supposed to come out, and now these are finally launching. The new Core 5 120F has been spotted, and this is supposed to be an exciting CPU launch to facilitate gaming at an affordable cost. Let’s check out what we know! 

Intel Core 5 120F Leaked Details: New Budget Gaming CPU?

A reference guide for the upcoming Intel Core 5 120F processor has surfaced online. Here, Intel claims that the processor is built to be “game-ready, built to play”. Sadly, the architecture name was not spotted here, but there is a chance it will be based on Intel Meteor Lake architecture rather than Arrow Lake. By the way, the source of this leak is X (formerly Twitter) user @momomo_us, who has often shared such info related to PC hardware. 

According to the leaked details, the Intel Core 5 120F will facilitate AAA and esports gaming at 1080p resolution, providing “dependable” performance. At the very least, this processor is expected to be a perfect match for mid-range graphics cards like AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT and Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 Ti or lower. 

The price of Intel Core 5 120F is expected to be quite affordable. We expect it to be similar to how the i5-12400F launched under $200. It will succeed previous generation processors, including i5-14400F and i5-13400F. It can be assumed that Intel will also launch Intel Core 5 120, but with integrated graphics. As you may know, the F-suffix processors do not contain Intel’s integrated GPU. 

Intel Core 5 120F: Specifications

SpecificationIntel Core 5 120F
Performance Cores (P-Cores)6 Cores
P-Core Base Clock Speed2.50 GHz
P-Core Turbo Clock Speed4.50 GHz
Maximum Memory SpeedDDR5-4800
Maximum Memory Capacity192 GB
Base Power Rating65W

Checking out the leaked specifications of this upcoming budget processor, it seems to pack decent specs for a budget processor. If you are confused about the missing “i”, Intel rebranded its processor lineup a while ago for better segmentation.

By the way, the maximum memory speed written as DDR5-4800 in the leaked specs refers to the max supported speed with a JEDEC profile, without overclocking. But typically, gamers enable features like Intel XMP to reach higher speeds, such as 6000MHz on DDR5.

This will be an interesting CPU to test. The reason for that is that it does not have E-cores. The lack of E-cores may cause issues for gamers who multitask heavily. Most likely, it will be an issue when multiple apps are open in the background at the same time.

For streamers, it could be apps like OBS, Discord, and browser tabs. Previously, Intel Core i5-13400 and i5-14400 packed E-cores as well. These cores were specifically used for running such apps in the background without slowing down your gaming experience. Do note that this is a leak and the processor has not yet been confirmed by Intel.


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