Which Alder Lake for primarily gaming?

Nirad9er

2[H]4U
Joined
Feb 18, 2004
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Which Alder lake CPU should I go for if I'm primarily gaming.

I have a 4k 120hz monitor and I'd be coming from the 7820x @ 4.7ghz in my signature.

It's been 4 years since I upgraded my CPU so I'm finally ready for something that has a good IPC increase.

I can afford the 12900k with no issues but wondering if 16 cores is needed or settle for a 12700k.

Thanks
 
Yep, 12700K for me. Appears to be the sweet spot. Also going with DDR4 at the beginning.
 
12600k and 12700k most likely.
Yep. I'm thinking the i5 may be more attractive vs. the i7 compared to the last couple generations. There are a few games that benefit from a couple more cores than you get with a 10th or 11th gen i5 or Ryzen 5. The catch is games aren't all "hot" threads, and if the scheduler does what it's supposed to the efficiency cores will get put to use.
 
Yep. I'm thinking the i5 may be more attractive vs. the i7 compared to the last couple generations. There are a few games that benefit from a couple more cores than you get with a 10th or 11th gen i5 or Ryzen 5. The catch is games aren't all "hot" threads, and if the scheduler does what it's supposed to the efficiency cores will get put to use.
I am really interested in how they tackled that, because it's actually a fantastically complicated problem.
 
That's the big "if". It's an academic question for me though. I just built a new machine last year and have no performance complaints, so I'm not likely to spend money on a CPU upgrade. I'm in my 40s and don't really get "the itch" anymore. Or maybe I'd just rather spend $ upgrading my house or going on vacation or whatever. My geriatric work issued laptop is another story. I'm due for an upgrade, and I'll be keeping an eye on Alder lake stuff because of that. For work it would be really sweet if I could pin threads or processes to a particular type of core. I have one app I'd like to run in the background at full speed (force onto a P core) and another I'd like to force onto an efficiency core.
 
12600KF seems to me one mighty CPU. It leaves 5600X into dust while costing less (at the moment), trades blows with 5800X while not really drawing that much more power than it. Only thing that is holding it back is the current price of motherboards, even the DDR4 models. They are just a bit too spicy for my tastes currently.

12700K and 12900K are better but that power draw on full load is just nasty. But if you do not care and you have the money then why not. Personally even if I had the money I would still separate the "need" from "want", be smart with my money and aim for the best value. 12600KF is currently it, at least until AMD adjusts their pricing.
 
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