When Intel announced its new 12th Gen Core lineup at CES 2022, the company made no mention of the i5-12490F, but this processor has since been listed at multiple Chinese retailers. Moreover, the first Geekbench results for this CPU have come to light, showing a substantial performance uplift over the i5-12400/F.

As you can see from the Geekbench entry found by @Benchleaks, the i5-12490F is looking pretty similar to the Core i5-12500. It features the same 6C/12T core configuration and clock speeds, but it doesn't have an iGPU. That said, the i5-12490F does come with an extra 2MB of L3 cache, making us believe these CPUs might originate from badly-binned dies destined for i7 and i9 processors. For now, this chip looks like a China-exclusive chip, as it's only available at Chinese retailers like JD (via HXL).

[GB5 CPU] Unknown CPU
CPU: Intel Core i5-12490F (6C 12T)
Min/Max/Avg: 3958/4581/4272 MHz
Codename: Alder Lake
CPUID: 90672 (GenuineIntel)
Scores, vs AMD 5800X
Single: 1806, +4.5%
Multi: 8872, -17.4%https://t.co/8iN9dep2sr

— Benchleaks (@BenchLeaks) January 9, 2022

Comparing the i5-12490F results with those achieved by the i5-12400/F and registered on the Geekbench database, the average multi-core scores look overall similar. However, there are clear indicators that the i5-12490F outperforms the i5-12400F in the single-core benchmark. The same goes if we compare this new processor with the i5-12500, which is only reasonable considering their similarities.

The Intel Core i5-12490F is currently available at JD.com for the equivalent of £187, sitting between the i5-12400F and the i5-12400. For now, we have no information about a western release of this processor.

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KitGuru says: Would you consider the Core i5-12490F for a mid-range system if it was available for you to purchase?

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