The six-core Core i5-12490F processor is a special member of the Alder Lake lineup, as it is sold exclusively in China. At the time of release, the price was around $260, but four months have passed and the price has dropped to $207. As a result, the CPU can now be called a more attractive purchase than the same six-core Core i5-12400 with a recommended retail price of $200 (in the US).
It’s all about the fact that the Core i5-12490F is based on a large Alder Lake chip with partially disabled cores, so it has more cache memory – 20 MB versus 18 MB, and frequencies of 3.0-4.6 GHz, which is higher than the Core i5-12400 and Core i5-12400F (2.5-4.4 GHz). Here, however, we should note the price factor of the Core i5-12400F: the recommended retail price of this model is $180 (in the US). So if you have a regular Core i5-12400 cheaper Core i5-12490F clearly wins in terms of price to performance ratio, then in comparison with Core i5-12400F all is not so unambiguous.