Intel has revived a familiar silicon design under a new badge, quietly turning the once-popular Core i5-12400 series into the freshly named Core 5 120 and Core 5 120F. Early retailer listings spotted by industry watcher momomo_us show provisional prices of $246.01 for the standard chip and $216.66 for the graphics-less F variant. Although these figures may merely be placeholders, they currently place the pair well above faster, newer processors in Intel’s own stack.

At heart, little has changed. Both newcomers still rely on six performance cores with Hyper-Threading—no efficiency cores are present—and share an 18 MB L3 cache. The Core 5 120 reportedly lifts its maximum turbo to 4.5 GHz (from 4.4 GHz on 2022’s i5-12400) and carries a trimmed turbo TDP of 110 W. The “F” model drops integrated graphics altogether, obliging system builders to add a discrete GPU.

The problem is price. At almost $250, the Core 5 120 costs roughly 40 percent more than Intel’s faster Core i5-14400 ($176) and even eclipses the unlocked Core i5-14600K ($199) on Amazon at the time of writing. The cut-down Core 5 120F fares no better: its preliminary tag is double that of the still-available i5-12400F, which can be found for just under $110.

Such mark-ups are not unprecedented—AMD’s Ryzen 3000XT and 5000XT refreshes followed a similar trajectory—but history suggests steeper launch prices on recycled silicon rarely last. If the Core 5 120 family settles closer to the sub-$100 mark hinted at by some commentators, it could find a niche in budget gaming towers where six Raptor-Lake-class cores at 4.5 GHz remain perfectly adequate for esports titles.

Until that correction occurs, however, Intel’s rebrand risks being overshadowed by its own newer—and cheaper—Core i5 alternatives as well as AMD’s value-oriented offerings. Builders eyeing a low-cost upgrade on the aging LGA 1700 platform may wish to watch retailer listings for more realistic street prices before committing to these chips.

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Nathan Ali – Tech Writer – 288 articles published on Notebookcheck since 2024

I’m a tech geek at heart, and it all started back in middle school. I’ve always loved messing around with gadgets—rooting Android phones and jailbreaking iPhones was my thing. I’ve definitely bricked a few phones along the way, but that never stopped me from trying. For over a decade, I’ve been glued to tech news, always trying to keep up with the latest and greatest. But I’m not just about tech; I’m also really into cars and love following what’s new in the automotive world. Oh, and I should mention that I also worked as a freelance writer. I can’t name-drop the companies I wrote for (you know how it is), but it was a pretty cool experience. I switch between reading, gaming, and keeping up with all the tech and car stuff in my downtime. It’s a mix that keeps things interesting and fun for me.