Best GPU for the Core i5-12600K
The Intel Core i5-12600K has a gaming index of 72/100. At 1440p it can fully drive graphics cards up to a performance index of about 53; faster cards still work, but part of what you pay for sits idle in CPU-heavy games. At 4K the ceiling rises to about 84, at 1080p it falls to about 44.
Best-matched cards (1440p)
| # | GPU | VRAM | 1080p | 1440p | 4K | PSU |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | RX 9070 | 16 GB | CPU 8% | GPU 0% | GPU 22% | 650 W |
| 2 | RTX 4070 Ti | 12 GB | CPU 7% | GPU 1% | GPU 22% | 750 W |
| 3 | RTX 4070 Ti Super | 16 GB | CPU 10% | CPU 2% | GPU 19% | 750 W |
| 4 | RX 7900 XT | 20 GB | CPU 10% | CPU 3% | GPU 19% | 750 W |
| 5 | RTX 5070 | 12 GB | CPU 5% | GPU 3% | GPU 24% | 650 W |
| 6 | RTX 4070 Super | 12 GB | CPU 4% | GPU 4% | GPU 24% | 650 W |
| 7 | RX 7900 GRE | 16 GB | CPU 4% | GPU 4% | GPU 24% | 750 W |
| 8 | RX 9070 XT | 16 GB | CPU 12% | CPU 5% | GPU 17% | 750 W |
| 9 | RX 6950 XT | 16 GB | CPU 3% | GPU 5% | GPU 26% | 850 W |
| 10 | RTX 3090 | 24 GB | CPU 2% | GPU 6% | GPU 26% | 850 W |
Cards this CPU would hold back
RTX 5080 (13% CPU bottleneck at 1440p), RTX 4090 (19% CPU bottleneck at 1440p), RTX 5090 (28% CPU bottleneck at 1440p). Buy one of these only if you game at 4K or plan a CPU upgrade soon.
Cards that would waste this CPU
Every card in our database keeps this processor reasonably busy.