It runs most games even when I had a much inferior graphics card

For its price, and for its position among other processors in its class, it is quite good. However, for modern gaming it is not entirely ideal.

I've had it for a year and it hasn't created a CPU bottleneck yet. I had the case fan for a while but it makes a lot of noise.

Although I bought a 2-year-old processor, I have to say that with the rx6600 I have been doing very well.

I also run various heavy things like a VM or dockers and I have been satisfied.

The stock cooler is a bit mediocre, but I imagine if you put a good thermal paste on it, it performs better.

I come from an 8600k

I've had it for 1 year and it performs excellently. I have it with a 1660 super, 64gb Kingston RAM, and a Be Quiet pure rock 2 FX RGB cooler, and an Msi Pro B760M-P motherboard. I do streaming, open applications simultaneously, and video editing, and it handles everything without any issues. For the €114 I paid, I am very satisfied with such a creation. As for the temperature, with a room temperature of 29 degrees, the processor reached a MAX of 30 degrees, no problems with temperature or crashing. For a budget gaming PC, it's a no-brainer for this price!

Very good processor! Many people consider the i5 outdated, but the 12th Gen i5 has good cores and can handle pressure and multiple tasks! It was worth its money, I am satisfied!

The best budget processor at the moment. It runs everything (Gaming, Multi-Tasking) without any lag! I recommend buying this generation's i5, as the 13400f and 14400f are 70-100€ more expensive and the difference is minimal to zero. The CPU Cooler it comes with does its job but it sounds too loud, especially when temperatures rise. I would recommend buying a better cooler.

I use it for Lightroom with heavy Sony RAW 42 MP files and it doesn't struggle at all.
Very fast in developing with Adobe's AI modules and in exporting.
The cooler it comes with in the package is rubbish. I put in a CoolerMaster Hyper 212 Halo and I haven't seen more than 41 degrees after 3 hours of 4K gaming and photo editing.
Very good value for money!

I give it a 4/5 because I believed it would do a little more than what I want for emulating gaming, but on some platforms, I experience a slight drop in fps

I am very satisfied, but indeed the stock fan makes a lot of noise, I will replace it at the first opportunity.

for budget gaming it's worth the money and more, it does everything it promises. I've had it for about a month, coming from a Pentium, and as soon as I installed it, it flies. I recommend it to those of you who want a budget processor that can handle everything without any issues

VFM choice, runs office applications smoothly and capable for budget gaming systems. The cooler makes its presence felt when the temperature rises, without being insufficient. I believe that the best solution is an aftermarket cooler like the Freezer 34 or Pure Rock 2. Otherwise, the processor is FLAWLESS.

An excellent value-for-money choice for someone who wants to run audio, image, and video editing applications smoothly. If someone is interested in demanding games, they should look for a different kind of setup. The cooler that comes with the processor, if set to "Auto" in the BIOS, will make its presence felt when the CPU starts to get stressed, but it is not considered inadequate. For those bothered by the cooler's "revving," they can either set it to "Low" from the BIOS (with the corresponding impact on temperature) or replace it with an aftermarket one, ideally with liquid cooling. In any case, for office applications, as well as applications like Sketchup, Photoshop, CAD, etc., it will serve you for many years (of course, with the addition of a decent graphics card).

update I wanted a cooler... I didn't expect it to be as good as the pick, but it's 87, so for simple use and lite gaming, it holds up well with a good case. The CPU doesn't change what I said, it's like a boss.

Well, it's a really good CPU for its price, and when combined with a decent motherboard, it performs great.

I have it with the stock cooler and I don't think I'll change the cooler. It goes up to 4.4 and stays at around 70 degrees with this heat... oh yeah, it holds up well. Of course, I have a case that's almost the same as the dynamic mini, so I have 9 fans cooling it down, which helps a lot.

I'm very satisfied with its performance because I didn't change the RAM, I kept the DDR4 and the RX580, so the only change was the motherboard and CPU. Coming from Ryzen 3700x, it beats it for the 5000 series. I won't give an opinion on the new Ryzen as a comparison to the 12400f, but in my case, I see a difference and it's worth it

Excellent processor, very fast, everything works lightning fast and it plays heavy games without any problems. For an average user, nothing more is needed, they will never be able to challenge the processor with everyday applications.

An excellent processor and value for money with eyes closed. Very fast even in demanding tasks. With a Corsair iCUE H100i RGB Elite water cooling, it hasn't gone above 42 C. Anyone who wants to build a computer for work and gaming, then this one is definitely worth it. Given that the F doesn't have graphics, you'll need a graphics card. I'm running it with a 3060 ti and everything is perfect.

I ended up upgrading to this specific one months ago to have a fresh series and as the version with the best value for money was the cheapest and the 12600k as the best, which may be overkill.

Now the second one has also dropped to good levels, so it depends on everyone's budget, besides the 13th generation is out now.

With this one, however (with b660m MOBO), everything runs smoothly even with the beast 1060 3GB until the upgrade is completed on the card, I would say there is an overall improvement in gaming performance.

Temperatures are fine, it also has core boost for in-game, so overall it is excellent!

Update 31/12/23:

The upgrade was completed a few months ago with the Asus RTX 4060 8 GB, now with a full setup, everything I mentioned above is enhanced.

For example, Rocket League, Spiderman Remastered, Spiderman Miles Morales, Modern Warfare 2 all run smoothly and quickly at maximum graphics in 1440p in combination with the card!

Good, especially if you have a graphics card, I think combined with the Asus Prime H770-Plus D4, with Kingston KF432C16BB1/16 Fury Beast 16GB DDR4 3200MHz RAM and Samsung MZ-V7S500BW 970 EVO Plus SSD, it has relatively low power consumption and very low temperatures with its own cooler.

The best choice for budget gaming. Performance that other processors would require a lot to give.. Overall, the most value for money option from Intel at the moment.

COMBINATION:
asrock b660 rs pro
i5 12400F with nxzt kraken 120mm
trident z royal 16gb 3200 cl16
3060ti Asus rog strix v2 OC
xpg s11 pro 512gb m.2
The system is unbeatable, it ROCKS.

A very good processor value and of course the 12100 is the absolute vfm with the same single thread, but I chose the 2 extra cores. Fast single thread for gaming with an h670 and very good temperatures even with the stock cooler which I didn't expect, it's honest at 55-60c in pubg and max 30-40 watts for the processor, it hasn't gone above 70c.

Good processor but a bad purchase due to the lack of an integrated graphics card, it's not worth it at all since modern integrated graphics offer a lot in video processing and connecting multiple monitors. Additionally, a processor with integrated graphics has a higher resale value and long-term use. Choose the 12400 or even better the 12500 with their integrated graphics, it's a waste of money to buy the F series without a graphics card, only Intel benefits.

Coming from a Ryzen 5 5600x, I saw a significant difference in heavy games in terms of fps. Temperatures were about 20 C lower than the 5600x and there was a 30w lower power consumption. I think it's a good upgrade. We also have ddr5 which has tremendous differences from the previous generation.