Intel's Core i5-12600K has finally become Newegg's best-selling CPU on the site and sits at the top position on Newgg's leaderboard right now. In addition, the Core i5-12600K is one of the best CPUs for gaming at $277.99. The sub-$300 price, combined with Intel's new Alder Lake microarchitecture, gives the Core i5-12600K a distinct edge over AMD's higher-end Zen 3 counterparts, undercutting CPUs such as the Ryzen 7 5700X and Ryzen 7 5800X by as much as $20-$80 - as of the time of this writing.
In our review of the Core i5-12600K, the Alder Lake chip showed its gaming prowess to be quite good for its original MSRP of $289. Thanks to Intel's new Alder Lake hybrid microarchitecture, the Core i5-12600K's has a 19% IPC improvement over 11th Gen processors, more than enough raw compute power to outperform the latest Zen 3 chips from AMD in gaming applications -- except for the Ryzen 7 5800X3D.
With a price tag of just $278 on Newegg, Intel gives users quite a bargain for a highly capable mid-range CPU that features overclocking capabilities, and four additional efficiency cores, which isn't the case for Intel's lower-end Core i5 counterparts -- like the Core i5-12400. These other features can make the Core i5-12600K an even better proposition for its sub $300 price tag and allow the chip to outperform the Ryzen 7 5800X in heavily multi-threaded professional applications.
With all this in mind, it is no wonder the Core i5-12600K has finally reached the number one spot on Newegg's best sellers list. Currently, Newegg and Amazon have the Core i5-12600K at its lowest price online for $278. But alternatively, Newegg is also selling the Core i5-12600KF model for an even lower price of $260. The only sacrifice made to the KF variant is the disablement of integrated graphics.
