Intel Core i5-12500 vs. 12400 Differences, Benchmarks, & Review

The Intel i5-12500 vs. i5-12400 differences are small on paper (other than the IGP), so we wanted to see whether it's worth buying the i5-12500 over the 12400, ft. benchmarks for games & IGP.

The 12500 vs. 12400 comparison mostly boils down to the frequencies -- base and boost -- for CPU-bound performance; however, there is an IGP component difference in the UHD 770 vs. UHD 730 (and frequency differences there) as well. It's not as much our focus, but we previously tested these IGPs and can show those results to help you form an opinion on whether it's worth it.



RELATED PRODUCTS

TIMESTAMPS

00:00 - Intel i5-12500 CPU Review
02:06 - Intel i3-12100F vs. 12400 vs. 12500 Specs
03:16 - UHD 770 vs. UHD 730 Benchmarks
05:24 - Frequency Validation
06:11 - CSGO at 1080p & 1440p (i5-12500 vs. i5-12400)
07:37 - Rainbow Six Siege at 1080p & 1440p
08:32 - F1 2021 CPU Benchmarks
09:03 - Red Dead Redemption 2 Best CPUs
09:21 - Grand Theft Auto V
09:46 - Far Cry 6
10:02 - Blender Cycles CPU Rendering
10:25 - Chromium Code Compile
10:50 - Power Consumption
11:13 - Conclusion

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Host, Test Lead, Writing: Steve Burke
Testing: Patrick Lathan
Video: Keegan Gallick

[ZealotPewPewPew]

The 12500 is 100 better than the 12400. That's just science.

[tekelupharsin]

One thing I love about GN is the amount of respect they have for the budgets of their viewers with lesser means.

[Psybuster]

Back to you, Steve, for the i5-12600 non K review!

[wongwong]

When the raptor lake i3 comes out I'm just gonna slap that plus a low(ish) end alchemist card on my home pc. I at least want it to be good enough to beat the 7400 and 1060 3GB currently in it. I'm grateful to have you guys here benchmarking this stuff

[hardrada_]

I'd be really interested in seeing 12600 non-k added to this comparison, also maybe comparing the 12600 and the 12600K. Wonder how much the +4 E cores add to the performance.

[Fay]

I'd say that if you consider the whole audience of the channel as uninterested in any IGP at all, then the obvious choice is the 12400F. But if they're considering the need for an iGP almost at all, then the value of the UHD 770 does justify it.
So in which case, I'd say my recommendations would be (considering prices to be generally proportional to today, not considering sales): 12400F for no-iGP, 12500 for iGP.

[immortalzodd]

The iGPU is quite handy for video production (and for the CPU at hand at a budget).
I think Tech Notice made a video about the Intel iGPUs being the only ones that support all variants of the H265 codec.
Something no discrete GPU does at the moment.

[SvDKILLSWITCH]

I fully understand not really diving into the codec stuff as gaming is very much a focal point of your channel and your audience. The 12500 is already kind of a niche part when the 12400 exists (and I'd argue that for your audience, the non-F SKUs are already niche parts so it's a niche within a niche), so why not go into those niche areas where the 12500 might make a meaningful difference over the 12400, rather than just rolling out another set of standard benchmarks which mostly tell us what we already know?

For example, does the extra codec engine meaningfully increase the number of simultaneous 10-bit 4K HEVC streams a 12500 can transcode to 8-bit 1080p AVC for something like a Plex server that someone is running on their main PC? Plex also supports hardware HDR tonemapping using the GPU for acceleration, is the UHD 770 more performant here than the UHD 730?

Or perhaps is the quality of Quick Sync Video high enough that it provides a meaningful alternative to NVENC, especially for those who pair this with say a 6700 XT where AMD's AVC encoder is not particularly great for low-bit rate live-streaming on Twitch by comparison. Does the 12500 retain higher gaming performance than the 12400 in that scenario?

I also understand that your desire for a rigorous testing methodology in all things would make pieces like that much more work than something like this (i.e. research, design, development, and testing of that methodology all for the sake of one content piece), but even an exploratory piece that's deliberately not a review and therefore not as rigorous could be useful.

Again, totally respect that's well beyond what you were going for here, and not to take away anything from the work you already do (and we appreciate it!), but I feel like there might actually be something meaningful for a small sliver of users where the few bucks extra the 12500 might cost could make sense (PCs being used for business vs gaming, Plex/Jellyfin/Emby servers, and streaming with an AMD GPU is all I can really think of though).

[mscheese]

This review didn't cover what I was actually wondering about the UHD 770 vs. the UHD 730 - how they differ in terms of video encoding with QSV, if they differ at all.

[mattywrecks]

Steve n coffee, what a start to the day 👌thanks as always to you n the crew!

[Cherijo]

The extra video processing could be useful for some multi monitor business applications, and the second codec engine could be useful for streamers to offload work to from their main GPU. Very niche cases though.

I'm willing to bet they're making 12500/770 silicon and downgrading some to 12400/730 on imperfect chips based on silicon lottery.

[NilsHermansson-bedd]

The big difference is ECC memory support imho. That's the only reason why I bought the 12500, but I do not use it for gaming.

[MrSmitheroons]

One thing I've seen over the years: The more obscure intel CPU SKUs are usually a bit overlooked during demand surges, so there will occasionally be, for example, at 10500 available for less than a 10400. So, I would say treat them as mostly equivalent *other than* the fact that availability and susceptibility to inflated prices may be different, so the 500 SKU gives you a chance to nab *something* at MSRP when the 400 SKU is overpriced. Maybe.

[ivovass]

Just the comparison I was looking for. I was thinking there would be a bigger difference but now I know to invest in a better motherboard instead. Thanks

[kostasvapo]

uhd 770 is very good option for low budget editing rig, when combined with a discrete GPU

[castlers]

Did you ever re-visit the issues with the higher end DDR5 on ASUS boards? Just like your 12900k review piece, I know a friend who is having severe problems with getting XMP to work on that platform period.

[erhanozaydin]

Finally 12400 looks a worth succesor to my 2500k. It might seem funny but I was eyeing 12500 to level my upgrade to whooping 10000 intel points 😎

[doabrad]

Unfortunately, the 12500 is currently $325.00 on Amazon, out of stock at Best Buy, and doesn't appear to exist anywhere on Newegg. Luckily, the 12400 and 12500 are very similar in performance, so the increased base clock of the 12500 is basically the only thing I'm losing out on by being on the 12400. Whatever the case, I'm very pleased with my 12400 purchase. It's a very nice upgrade over my aging i5-9600K. 😄

[McTroyd]

In addition to QuickSync like you mentioned, I could see the improved IGP being helpful to game streamers who use a DGPU. It could help a lot to offload the video encoding from the CPU and DGPU while a heavy-duty AAA title is running, particularly for a twitchy first-person shooter who needs _all_ the FPS. I'd still buy the 12500 instead of the 12400 because I've been burned before by cheaping out on the 100 MHz difference. 😅 (It was 2002 and 100 MHz increase meant a lot more then, but once bitten, twice shy, right?) 👍️

[ChaNeuBas]

So I'm guessing 12400 vs 12500 is a similar situation to AMD's Ryzen 'X' vs 'XT'?