When is Intel 12th Gen coming out?

Intel was one of the most active companies at CES 2021, unveiling no fewer than four new processor families, including Intel 12th Gen desktop chips codenamed “Alder Lake”. The first six Alder Lake CPUs were finally launched at Intel’s Innovation Event more than nine months later. They’re now available to buy, although a successor to Tiger Lake will be necessary for laptops for a bit longer. Alder Lake has a lot to talk about, from how the chips are developed to how they perform in the real world.

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Specifications – Intel 12th Gen Processors

• Core i9-12900K – 16 cores (8 performance, 8 efficiency), 24 threads, max clock speed 5.2GHz, up to 241W power
• Core i9-12900KF – 16 cores (8 performance, 8 efficiency), 24 threads, max clock speed 5.2GHz, up to 241W power
• Core i7- 12700K – 12 cores (8 performance, 4 efficiency), 20 threads, max clock speed 5GHz, up to 190W power
• Core i7-12700KF – 12 cores (8 performance, 4 efficiency), 20 threads, max clock speed 5GHz, up to 190W power
• Core i5-12600K – 10 cores (6 performance, 4 efficiency), 16 threads, max clock speed 4.9GHz, up to 150W power
• Core i5-12600KF – 10 cores (6 performance, 4 efficiency), 16 threads, max clock speed 4.9GHz, up to 150W power

Alder Lake will be huge for Intel silicon – these are the first CPUs to go beyond the 14nm process that the company introduced in 2015. Intel 7 is the name given to the new 10nm process, part of a new architecture roadmap announced in July. Intel has also adjusted the architecture of its CPUs to conform with ARM-based chips (including Apple’s M1 range).

Instead of focusing on making the most powerful chip possible, there is now a mix of performance and power efficiency cores. This hybrid approach should allow devices to maintain the high performance for a longer period of time, as well as prolong battery life. This change is welcomed, after the rebuke of 11th-gen Rocket Lake chips.

Even though the CPU was paired with the latest Nvidia RTX GPUs and DDR5 memory to maximize performance, Alder Lake’s first true gaming test showed some positive signs. A CapFrameX analysis of the online strategy game Dota showed that the CPU could achieve a maximum FPS of over 549, averaging over 120 FPS. We do not know what resolution or settings were used to record these figures, but the latest Alder Lake benchmarks are comparable to the equivalent AMD chips for desktop PC users. Interestingly, according to Twitter leaker @OneRaichu, an early-release Core i9-12900K with the top-spec core performs well in Cinebench R20 tests:

CPU-Z has revealed Intel 12th Gen Processor I-Core i7-12700K’s performance for the latest benchmarks, in which it beat AMD’s Ryzen 7 5800X by a whopping 45%. This is the clearest demonstration of Alder Lake’s power yet, and it is in line with what Intel has promised for over a year. Another leaker also provided CPU-Z benchmarks for the Core i5-12400, which is rumored to only have Golden Cove P-cores, but nevertheless managed to edge out the Ryzen 7 2700X in the single-core test by a whopping 40%. The Core i5-12400 placed first in the single-core test in Cinebench R20, while the Ryzen 5 5600X held on for the second place.

Price and Availability

There are no definitive prices for Intel 12th Gen CPU, so you could pay more or less depending on which store you choose. This section will be updated if more desktop CPUs are announced, but the price of laptop chips is never relevant or publicly available. These are designed to be integrated into devices, so the price depends on the manufacturer. The first batch of Alder Lake chips was shipped on November 4, but we should see more in the future.

The company announced them on October 27, at the Intel Innovation event, revealing six new CPUs to launch the range. They’re divided into three groups of two, with a K-series and a KF-series model available for each SKU:

• Core i9-12900K – $589 (approx. £430)
• Core i9-12900KF – $564 (approx. £410)
• Core i7- 12700K – $409 (approx. £300)
• Core i7-12700KF – $384 (approx. £280)
• Core i5-12600K – $289 (approx. £210)
• Core i5-12600KF – $264 (approx. £190)

The prices are much lower than we anticipated, as earlier leaks had indicated that the flagship chip would cost around $1,000. Intel hasn’t raised prices much over 11th generation chips in the United States. The i9 and i5 models have seen a slight increase in pricing, while the i7’s price is the same as the previous generation.

Although there are six processors available, they are grouped together in groups of two. The K-series chips are more expensive because they have integrated graphics, which are not available with the KF series chips. Because that’s the only difference between the chips, the Core i9-12900K and Core i9-12900KF should be identical in terms of CPU performance. The leaked box was also real. The boxes are mostly unchanged from the previous generation, but the flagship Core i9-12900K is seated inside a golden wafer replica in the box, which confirms an earlier leak.

Performance

Intel announced the mobile chips would be available in two flavors, a high-performance processor with up to 14 cores (six performance and eight efficiency cores) and a lower-end chip with up to 10 cores (two performance and eight efficiency cores). The 12700H’s single score combines with the previous generation’s Intel Core i7-11700 to get a score of between 1,100 and 1,600, but its multi-core score easily outperforms it by about 2,000 to 6,000 points.

The Intel i7-12700H does, however, slightly outperform the 10-core Apple M1 Pro in single-core and multi-core performance. However, you should note that the i7-12700H’s numbers are from a prototype unit. Gaming is Alder Lake’s major focus. Intel says the new generation delivers a 28% performance increase over the previous generation in games like Hitman 3. Some of this improvement is due to Windows 11, which is optimized for Alder Lake’s Thread Director feature, and DDR5 memory, which is said to boost performance in games.

Design of Intel 12th Gen CPU

Alder Lake uses a hybrid architecture that includes two kinds of processing cores: the first is a performant core that looks like what you would expect from a new processor generation, and the second is an efficient core that is used to handle background tasks and power applications that need a lot of cores. Intel is creating both cores on Intel 7, the new name for the Enhanced 10nm SuperFin process node. Golden Cove cores are the big ones, and they handle the bulk of computer work. Gracemont cores are the smallest, and they’re useful for handling background tasks or preserving battery life when a more powerful core isn’t needed.

Golden Cove cores are geared towards high-frequency, single-threaded performance. The Matrix Engine is a coprocessor that handles matrix multiplication, which could accelerate A.I. by using Intel’s new Matrix Engine. Especially for heavy workloads, a series of high-bandwidth interconnects to connect the two cores.

The Compute Fabric ties the two cores together with up to 1,000GBps of bandwidth, the I/O Fabric provides up to 64GBps of bandwidth between inputs and the memory subsystem, and the Memory Fabric provides up to 204GBps of bandwidth between the memory and the rest of the processor. While Alder Lake supports both generations of DDR system memory, it is up to the board manufacturer to decide which one it supports. Users cannot mix DDR4 and DDR5 modules on the same board.

Alder Lake-P Mobile Processors

BenchLeaks, a bot that searches the Geekbench database for new benchmark results for unknown CPUs, discovered the information on these new CPUs. That account has also discovered and posted some benchmarks for new Alder Lake mobile CPUs. The new CPUs will adopt the same big.LITTLE design philosophy as Intel’s 12th generation desktop CPUs, as revealed in the CES data. This means combining performance cores and efficiency cores for maximum performance and efficiency, and on paper, we’re now getting more insight into what this means. Although the benchmarks from Geekbench 5 are rated high, there are some significant discrepancies in their scores.

Both stem from a rumored change to the Samsung Galaxy Book, which will reportedly be equipped with a 12-core or 14-core Alder Lake-P chip. In keeping with the theme of simplifying naming schemes, Intel has chosen Alder Lake-P as the name for all of its mobile processors. Previous generations featured revisions with higher power capacities, but Alder Lake-P chips reportedly run anywhere from 12W to 45W, so you’ll likely find them everywhere, from budget notebooks to high-end gaming machines. Mobile Alder Lake chips are still years away, but there are already leaked benchmarks.

In the test, the flagship Core i9-12900HK saw a 44.8% increase in multi-core performance over the previous generation, and it was only able to edge out Apple’s M1 Max by a small 3%. It appears that the unreleased HP Omen 17 laptop has an Intel Core i7-12700H processor, but the Geekbench test doesn’t reveal much about the processor, instead of focusing on the RTX 3080 Ti inside the device. It confirms, however, that the Core i7-12700H will come with 14 cores and 20 threads. Another Geekbench benchmark result, which tested the Core i7-12700H inside the Gigabyte Aero 5 XE, revealed more of the processor.

Based on this figure, the Core i7-12700H could offer multi-core performance improvements of up to 45% over the previous generation, as well as a strong advantage over AMD’s Ryzen 9 5900HX, and these chips could also outperform Apple. A leaked Cinebench result showed the Core i7-12700H topping Apple’s latest M1 Max chip by a whopping 49%. That’s a huge difference, but as with all pre-release benchmarks, you should be cautious with this result.

For more information please visit our Intel Processors or Intel Official Page.