“Alder Lake,” Intel’s 12th Generation family of CPUs, has three primary members at launch: the two go-go-performance parents (the Core i9-12900K and Core i7-12700K), alongside junior (the Core i5-12600K). Well, that kid is precocious: Intel’s new Core i5-12600K ($289) desktop CPU may bring up the rear of the company’s first set of 12th Gen chips, but it posts some impressive gains over its predecessors in Intel’s line.

The Core i5-12600K finds itself sandwiched within a series of near-impeccable midrange CPU launches from AMD over the past year, but there’s no denying the Core i5-12600K’s prowess on display here.
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