Is the Intel Core i5 12400F Still Worth Buying in 2025?

The Intel Core i5 12400F is still a popular CPU in 2025, but is it worth it? Can it still deliver a decent performance in all the AAA games?

Picture of Intel Core i5 12400F — Intel Core i5 12400F (Image via Intel)

Table of Contents

The Intel Core i5 12400F was released in early 2022, but it’s still a popular CPU among budget gamers in 2025. That’s because it delivers a performance that is close to AMD’s Ryzen 5 7600 but at half the price. Can it still deliver a decent performance in competitive and AAA games now and in the future? Is it still worth buying? These are the questions we will discuss in this article, with a detailed analysis of Intel Core i5 12400F performance in both productivity and gaming.

Note: Parts of this article are subjective and reflect the writer’s opinions.

5 PCIe Gen 5 and Gen 4 SSDs for Budget Gamers

Intel Core i5 12400F: How Does It Perform in 2025?

The Intel Core i5 12400F is based on the older Alder Lake architecture. It has six cores, which should be enough for almost all games in 2025. This CPU can be configured with both DDR5 and DDR4 RAM. Therefore, those who want the highest performance should go for the DDR5, while budget gamers can go with the DDR4. This is another reason why the Core i5 12400F is still preferred by many gamers. Let’s check out the rest of the specs before we start analyzing its performance.

Specification

Picture of Intel Core CPU — Intel Core CPU (Image via Intel)

Here are the specs of the Intel Core i5 12400F:

Specifications	Values
Architecture	Alder Lake
Core/Thread count	6/12
Max clock speed	4.4 GHz
L3 cache	18 MB
RAM support	DDR4-3200 DDR5-4800
PCIe Gen support	Gen 5
Platform Socket	LGA 1700
Thermal design power (TDP)	65W Typical \| 117W Max
Manufacturing nodes	10nm

Due to the low power consumption of this Intel CPU, you can pair it with any budget B760 motherboard. You can even install it on a decent H610 motherboard without any issues, which will deliver an even better value for your money.

Synthetic Performance

Here’s how the Intel Core i5 12400F performs in popular synthetic benchmarks against a popular Ryzen 5 9600 processor:

Benchmarks	Intel Core i5 12400F	Ryzen 5 7600
Cinebench R23 (Single-Core)	1704	1858
Cinebench R23 (Multi-Core)	12047	14344
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)	2300	2797
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)	9477	12486
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)	3483	3908
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)	19464	27032
Blend CPU	161.36	200.8

On average, the Ryzen 5 7600 is around 14% faster in single-core benchmarks than the Intel Core i5 12400F. In multi-core benchmarks, the former delivers 31% more performance than the latter. Therefore, the Core i5 12400F is not as fast as the Ryzen 5 7600, but it is not significantly behind. In fact, the Intel CPU was tested in Blender, and it performed quite decently. Let’s check out how it performs in gaming.

Gaming Performance

Here’s how the Intel Core i5 12400F handles some of the popular games on the market:

Games	DDR4	DDR5
Starfield	76 FPS	88 FPS
Cyberpunk 2077	137 FPS	152 FPS
Black Myth Wukong	181 FPS	199 FPS
Assassin’s Creed Mirage	161 FPS	181 FPS
Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered	114 FPS	134 FPS
God Of War	180 FPS	208 FPS
The Last Of Us Part I	109 FPS	124 FPS

Note: The two CPUs were tested at 1080p resolution (Low/Medium settings) with the RTX 4070 Ti Super GPU to eliminate possible GPU bottleneck. All FPS numbers were sourced from the GAMING BENCH – RGB channel on YouTube.

The Intel Core i5 12400F delivers 60+ FPS at 1080p in almost all games quite easily, even in Low/Medium settings. That’s because lower graphics settings stress the CPU more and expose any bottlenecks that the CPU may have, which this processor doesn’t experience. The DDR5 results are obviously higher than DDR4. However, DDR5 motherboards and RAM kits are also more expensive.

Pricing

Picture of Intel Core i5 12400F's box — Intel Core i5 12400F’s box (Image via Intel)

The Intel Core i5 12400F is currently selling for around $116 on Amazon. For clarity, the AMD Ryzen 5 7600 sells for $184.99 on Amazon, which makes it around 60% more expensive. The Ryzen CPU is not 60% faster, not even close. This makes the Core i5 12400F a much better choice in terms of price-to-performance ratio.

Is the Intel Arc B570/B580 Worth Buying for 1080p Gaming in Late 2025?

Is the Intel Core i5 12400F Worth Buying in 2025?

The Intel Core i5 12400F delivers decent performance in productivity and fantastic performance in gaming, even in late 2025. It can easily deliver 60+ FPS in all the tested games. In competitive games, this processor achieved 120 to 180 FPS, which should be enough for most gamers. Therefore, this Intel CPU is definitely worth buying. You can pair it with DDR4 for a budget PC build or DDR5 for the best possible performance.

We provide the latest news and “How To’s” for Tech content. Meanwhile, you can check out the following articles related to PC GPUs, CPU and GPU comparisons, mobile phones, and more:

Is the Intel Core i5 12400F Still Worth Buying in 2025?