Question Did I Blow It??? Bought a 12600K instead of 13600K...

My PC Hates Me

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Wondering if I should have just spent the extra $$$ to get a 15-13600K instead of the i5-12600K I ordered for my son's "budget" gaming and video / photo editing PC.

He mostly uses it 90% for gaming, 10% for photo and video editing (but I am trying to get him to do a ot more photo and video editing). Mostly uses DaVinci Resolve for video editing, photoshop and lightroom for photos.

He usually plays LOL, Rainbow Six siege, Apex Legends, Valorant, Overwatch (mostly esports titles as far as I can tell).

I know that the 13600K offers about 20% better performance than the 12600K "across the board" (yeah, I know that is a generalization), but I went with the 12600K because:

1) Possible Graphic card bottleneck with 13600K ? (he is either going to be using my RTX 2060 Super or at the most, a 3060 TI). Not going to be investing in an RTX 40X0 card any time soon, and I don't think prices on new RTX 30X0 cards are coming down soon.

2) Motherboard incompatibility??? I heard that the MSI PRO B660M-A DDR4 Motherboard isn't compatible without a bios update, and that you need to have a 12th-genCPU to update the bios so it would be compatible with 13th gen (meaning, I heard there is no Bios Flashback on the board itself). Is that right? Once can't update the bios from a USB stick?

3) Cheaper cooling options for 12600K than 13600K? Heard that I would need an AIO for 13600K but I went with the $35 Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE CPU Air Cooler, Dual Tower 6 Heat Pipe.

4) Less expensive case requirements? I went with the $74 ASUS TUF Gaming GT301 Mid-Tower Compact Case for ATX Motherboards with honeycomb Front Panel

5) Cheaper PSU: I went with the $59 Thermaltake Smart 700W 80+ White Certified PSU

6) Cheaper memory? I tried to save a few $$$'s on memory by going with DDR4 3200 CL 16 instead of DDR4 3600 CL16 and got the Silicon Power Value Gaming DDR4 RAM 32GB (16GBx2) 3200MHz (PC4 25600)

Am I going to regret this budget build?

Realistically, if I had gone with a 13600K instead of a 12600K, how much more would I have needed to spend in terms of cooling, PSU, case (don't think the Asus GT301 has room for a large AIO and the airflow isn't spectacular), and motherboard (heard that the VRM's on the MSI PRO B660M-A DDR4 Motherboard might not be good enough to handle 13600K)

Thanks in advance. I'm thinking the biggest bottleneck would probably be the GPU...
 
Hey there,

You are worrying over nothing. The 12600k is a stellar gaming CPU. Good enough to drive any high end GPU at 1080p or any other res for that matter.

Sure, there is an uplift between the 12600k and 13600k, but at the resolution and FPS we are talking about the differences are barely noticeable. For those games you are talking in the 100's of FPS. An extra 10 FPS for the upgrade CPU means nothing in real terms. If on the other hand you want to chase synthetic benchmark scores, then by all means spend the money (I'm joking, don't do that!!).

Apart from that, the build is pretty decent. In terms of ram, again, yes, you can gain another 2-5% (task dependant) uplift in some apps, but 3200mhz ram is perfectly fine. But the difference in performance is mostly negligible.
 
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My PC Hates Me

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Hey there,

You are worrying over nothing. The 12600k is a stellar gaming CPU. Good enough to drive any high end GPU at 1080p or any other res for that matter.

Sure, there is an uplift between the 12600k and 13600k, but at the resolution and FPS we are talking about the differences are barely noticeable. For those games you are talking in the 100's of FPS. An extra 10 FPS for the upgrade CPU means nothing in real terms. If on the other hand you want to chase synthetic benchmark scores, then by all means spend the money (I'm joking, don't do that!!).

Apart from that, the build is pretty decent. In terms of ram, again, yes, you can gain another 2-5% (task dependant) uplift in some apps, but 3200mhz ram is perfectly fine. But the difference in performance is mostly negligible.

Thanks so much, Roland, I appreciate it.

I figure it should last a couple of good years (at 1080p gaming). It's a (late) Christmas present, so maybe down the road upgrade to a 13600K.

Thanks again.
 
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Karadjgne

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1. Doesn't exist. There's always an imbalance, sometimes the cpu puts out more fps than the gpu can handle, sometimes the gpu is capable of more fps than the cpu can put out. There's no perfect balance across the board.

2. Any motherboard manufactured after the release of the 13th gen cpus will be equipped with a bios that's updated to be compatible with 13th gen. The only motherboards that are not compatible and require a bios update will be those really old boards manufactured prior to the release. MSI wants to sell you a B660. They won't make a B660 that's not compatible with 13thGen, as it'll make you chose Gigabyte or Asus, who are compatible, instead.

3. Doesn't exist. The cooling solutions for 12thGen are identical to 13thGen, the type of cooler determined by your personal choice of air or liquid and the heat output of the cpu. A 12900k is going to use a Far more capable cooler than a 13600k for instance.

4. Case is a case, your choice. Cooling requirements can change your choices, a 160mm $40 air tower is just as restricted as a $150 360mm aio in many cases.

5. TT Smart is designed more for office use, not gaming. 80+ White is essentially 80% efficient, meaning it pulls 20% more power from the wall than the pc actually uses and that's lost as heat. Whether you'll now run into stability, longetivity or other power issues is indeterminate, but far more likely with a TT Smart than most 80+ Gold rated quality units that cost $10-$20 more.

6. Memory is fine, 3200MHz and 3600MHz are not that much different for Intels and a budget pc isn't exactly a high performance engine that requires super unleaded. Regular unleaded works just fine.

Overall there's nothing intrinsically wrong with the pc as is, it'll work just fine for what it is, but in layman's terms you got a 4cyl Camero. It's new, snazzy and better than what you had prior, has a couple of bells and whistles and conveniences, but it's functional not a high performance model, so don't expect miracles or a level playing field vs slightly more expensive Camero's running 8cyl.
 
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Did you blow it??
Yes, in part because you now will be second guessing for a long time.

1. A faster processor will always get more, or at least equal fps with any graphics card. The question is how much better and is it worth it.
Think not a "bottleneck", but a limiting factor.
2. True since the motherboard does not have a bios flash button.
But, if it was made after July it will have the requisite bios.
Possibly, you can get old stock, but after 6 months is is unlikely.
In that event, have a store do the flash for you.
3. A great cooler, to do better, you would use a 360 size aio.
Since the 13 th gen has about a 15% better IPC, it would not have to run as hard to do x amount of work and would not generate any more heat for that workload.
  1. A good case for air cooling. Just populate the front intakes and use a small 120mm rear exhaust. Its job is to direct intake airflow over the cpu/mobo and graphics cards.
  2. A cheap psu is never a good buy,
The unit you picked has only a 5 year warranty. A quality unit will have at least 7 years and perhaps 10 or more.
700w is ok for a 3060 card.
But your processor can handle a much stronger graphics card as a future upgrade. I think 850w might have been better.
A psu will only use the power demanded of it, regardless of the max capability. Corsair rm and Seasonic Focus are good places to look.
6. Ram is fine. It is ryzen, not intel that needs fast ram for performance.

All in all, a good job.
 
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My PC Hates Me

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Thanks to everyone who replied so far.

Just wondering out lout that now that the 13600 Non-K version is out, whether that might be a better investment than the 12600K (better performance than 12600K???) or the 13600K (Lower power draw, cooler temps?)

Or is the 13600K still the best "midrange" chip even on a b660 motherboard?