The upcoming Intel Core i5-12400 processor could be a game changer in the mid-range, according to an early gaming performance review by Igor's Lab, which landed simulated the chip by disabling the E-cores, and setting the right clock speeds and power values. Based on the smaller H0 silicon of "Alder Lake-S," which physically only features six "Golden Cove" CPU cores, and no "Gracemont" E-core clusters, the i5-12400 ticks at 2.50 GHz, and 4.40 GHz boost frequency, with 65 W base power, and 117 W maximum turbo power (MTP).

Testing reveals that this MTP value lends the processor some stellar energy-efficiency numbers, and the chip strikes a performance/Watt sweetspot. Igor's Lab, however, recommends that for the best efficiency, the i5-12400 should be paired with DDR4 memory. In its testing, DDR4-3733 (with Gear 1) was used. Gaming benchmarks put out by Igor's Lab shows that the Core i5-12400 trades blows with the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X "Zen 3" in a number of games, beating it in several of them by virtue of higher IPC of the "Golden Cove" cores, and beating the i7-11700K "Rocket Lake" 8-core/16-thread processor at a fraction of its power-draw. A word of caution, though, is that the i5-12400 was simulated on a C0 silicon, possibly the i9-12900K, and the real i5-12400 die may not have the same refinements or electrical characteristics. Even with the E-core cluster disabled, the L3 cache size isn't the same (30 MB vs. 18 MB). Catch the review in the source link below.

The Intel Core i5-12600K is set to feature 6 high-performance cores and 4 high-efficiency cores running at base speeds of 3.7 GHz and 2.8 GHz respectively. These cores can boost to 4.9 GHz and 3.6 GHz with Turbo Max Boost 3.0 however we don't expect much more speed can be extracted out of them using overclocking so default performance with sufficient cooling should be close to max. We have recently seen some CPU-Z test scores for the processor from prominent leakers which show the chip scoring 746 and 7058 points in the single-threaded and multi-threaded tests when running stock on Windows 11. The processor was also tested with an unknown overclock on Windows 10 where it scored 79X and 72XX points respectively.

These scores are extremely competitive with them easily beating the Ryzen 5 5600X by 19.5% and 46.7% in single-threaded and multi-threaded tests. We still don't know where Intel will position the Core i5-12600K in the market so any judgment on the value of these processors will need to wait until release. While we don't currently know the expected MSRP for the Core i5-12600K we have seen pricing for the Core i7-12700K and Core i9-12900K at 469.99 USD and 669.99 USD respectively. Intel is expected to announce these Alder Lake desktop processors during an event on October 27th with general availability expected November 4th.

NZXT, a community-driven provider of PC hardware, software, and services today launches BLD Kit - a PC building kit that makes the experience of building a high-performance PC fun and achievable. Each BLD Kit box comes with everything needed to guide users through a PC building adventure— creating an experience perfect for families, first-timers, or for those who want an everything-in-one-place solution to building their own system.

The BLD Kit concept comes from years of user feedback, focus group builds, and a dedication to serving and growing the PC gaming community. Building a computer is a process that may seem daunting at first, but anyone can fall in love with it, with a little help and support. NZXT is also excited to announce that the limited-time NZXT GG sale for NZXT BLD is kicking off now. This 48-hour-only sale will have 10% off all custom PCs, pre-built PCs, and BLD Kits (US only) going from now until October 20th at 11:59pm.

Intel's upcoming Core i5-12400 "Alder Lake-S" processor could be an interesting piece of silicon. Apparently, not all 12th Gen Core i5 desktop chips have the same core-configuration. While the top Core i5-12600K is expected to have six "Golden Cove" P cores and four "Gracemont" E-cores, some of the lower variants, such as the i5-12400, will lack E cores, and be pure P core chips. In this case, the chip is 6-core/12-thread with just P cores; 1.25 MB of dedicated L2 cache per core, and 18 MB of shared L3 cache. You'll probably get all the next-gen I/O, including PCI-Express Gen 5 (PEG slot), a PCI-Express Gen 4 CPU-attached NVMe slot, and DDR5+DDR4 memory.

Given that the Core i5-11400 is a $190 part, even with a 10-15% price hike, the i5-12400 is expected to be under $220. The only drawbacks here are expected to be locked BClk multiplier, and rather low clock speeds of 4.00 GHz. A user on Chinese social media posted alleged Cinebench R20 results of the i5-12400. It scores 659 points in the single-threaded test, and 4784 points in the multi-threaded test. Wccftech tabulated this against known performance numbers of popular chips, and found that the i5-12400 might end up slightly ahead of the Ryzen 5 5600X, a currently-$300 part. The table also puts out leaked i9-12900K numbers, which indicate why AMD is rushing with "Zen 3+" with 3D Vertical Cache, instead of next-gen "Zen 4."

AMD is reportedly preparing to launch a B2 stepping of their Ryzen 5000 series of processors, codenamed Vermeer. Thanks to the findings of Patrick Schur, who was lucky to get ahold of AMD's processor codes, we have information that AMD is slowly preparing a B2 stepping of Vermeer processors, to come as a refresh. First off is the alleged Ryzen 9 5950XT 16 core, 32 threaded models which are supposed to feature a base speed of 3.4 GHz, and a boost frequency of 5.0 GHz, entering the 5 GHz world. Another B2 stepping that we know about is an alleged Ryzen 5 5600XT 6 core, 12 threaded design. This one features the same frequencies as its Ryzen 5 5600X variant, meaning 3.7 GHz base, and 4.6 GHz boost frequencies.

Of course, all this information should be taken with a big grain of salt, as we don't know what AMD is planning to do, or how the company plans to manifest any new product launch.

The NVIDIA RTX 3080 is a 320 W TDP card making it impractical for conventional contained passive cooling solutions. Commercial passively cooled cards such as the GTX 1050 Ti, and GTX 1650 Ti all come in with a TDP of less than 100 W and even then require large heatsinks. Mical Wong, the founder of Turemetal a company specializing in passively cooled computers has managed to create a passively cooled PC with an RTX 3080 and Ryzen 5 5600X. The PC features the companies flagship Turemetal UP10 case.

The system booted but was unusable at stock settings with the RTX 3080 quickly overwhelming the cooling system when running at 100%. The GPU reached 87 degrees Celsius within minutes when running Furmark with a total system power draw of 410 W. The Turemetal UP10 is only officially rated for 300 W system cooling so the fact that this worked at all is quite impressive. With some CPU, and GPU configuration and power limiting, it would appear feasible to create such a system assuming you could afford it.

Certain AMD Ryzen 5 5600X and Ryzen 7 5800X processors are physically based on a dual-CCD design, according to an investigative report by Igor's Lab and Yuri "1usmus" Bubliy. The 5600X and 5800X are normally meant to be single-CCD processors owing to their core-counts. Based on the "Vermeer" multi-chip module design, the Ryzen 5000 series desktop processors use up to two 8-core CCDs to achieve their core-counts of up to 16 cores, with the 6-core 5600X and 8-core 5800X normally having just one CCD; while the 12-core 5900X and 16-core 5950X use two.

There are, apparently, some 5600X and 5800X built from dual-CCD MCMs, in which an entire CCD, although physically present on the package, is disabled. A 5600X based on a dual-CCD design is essentially a 5900X from which one of the CCDs didn't fully qualify; while the 5800X dual-CCD is a 5950X in which one such die didn't quite make the cut. There's no telling which CCD is disabled, it could be CCD 0 or CCD 1, those with CCD 0 disabled could trigger minor (benign) UI bugs with certain tuning utilities, which is how Wallossek and Bubliy discovered these chips. In any case, you're getting a 5600X or 5800X that works as advertised, and is fully covered by AMD's product warranties. Igor's Lab is investigating further into these dual-CCD 5600X and 5800X chips, and is probing the possibility of unlocking them to Ryzen 9.

Cyberpunk 2077 does not leverage simultaneous multi-threading (SMT) on AMD Ryzen processors, according to multiple technical reviews of the game that tested it with various processors. The game does leverage the analogous HyperThreading feature on rival Intel Core processors. While this doesn't adversely affect performance of higher core-count Ryzen chips, such as the 16-core Ryzen 9 5950X or to a lesser extent the 12-core 5900X, lower core-count variants such as the 6-core 5600X take a definite performance hit, with PCGH reporting that a Ryzen 5 5600X is now matched by a Core i5-10400F, as the game is able to take advantage of HyperThreading and deal with 12 logical processors on the Intel chip, while ignoring SMT on the AMD one.

CD Projekt RED may have bigger problems on its hands than performance optimization for a PC processor, such as the game being riddled with glaring performance issues on consoles; but in the meantime, the PC enthusiast community swung to action with a fix. Authored by chaosxk on Reddit, it involves manually editing the executable binaries of the game using a Hex Editor, which tricks the game into using logical processors as cores. This fix has been found to improve frame-rates on AMD Ryzen machines. Before attempting the hex edit, make sure you back up your original executables. The screenshot below provides a before & after-patch view of Cyberpunk 2077 loading a Ryzen 9 5950X. You can learn more about this fix, and a step-by-step guide here.Update 08:28 UTC: We have some technical details on what's happening.

Following the launch of its 5000 series AMD Ryzen processors based on the new Zen 3 core, AMD is preparing for market availability of these processors on November 5th. The reviews are going to arrive on that day as well, meaning that the consumers will know what to look for in the new CPU lineup. Thanks to a LinusTechTips forum member, Jumper118, we have some of the first benchmarks arriving just ahead of the official launch. The user has posted Cinebench R20, R15, and R11.5 scores of the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X 6C/12T CPU. All of the benchmarks were recorded for the single-core values, revealing what we can expect from the new Zen 3 core.

Scoring 609 points in Cinebench R20, 272 and 258 points in R15, and 3.0 points in R11.5, the new Ryzen 5 5600X CPU shows that there is a good performance improvement to be gained from upgrading to the latest generation. Below, you can see the newly released Zen 3 core detailed by AMD, and the benchmark results of the new leak.

AMD has been improving its Zen core design, and with the latest Zen 3 IP found in Ryzen 5000 series CPUs, it seems like the company struck gold. Thanks to the reporting of VideoCardz, we come to know that AMD's upcoming Ryzen 5 5600X CPU has been benchmarked and compared to other competing offerings. In the CPU benchmark called PassMark, which rates all of the CPUs by multi-threaded and single-threaded performance, AMD's Ryzen 5 5600X CPU has taken the crown of the fastest CPU in the single-threaded results chart. Scoring an amazing 3495 points, it is now the fastest CPU for 1T workloads. That puts the CPU above Intel's current best—Core i9-10900K—which scores 3177 points. This puts the Zen 3 core about 10% ahead of the competition.

As a reminder, the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X CPU is a six-core, twelve threaded design that has a base clock of 3.7 GHz and boosts the frequency of the cores to 4.6 GHz, all within the TDP of 65 Watts. The CPU has 32 MB of level-3 (L3) cache and 3 MB of L2 cache.