Intel announces the 10nm Alder Lake 12th Gen Core desktop processors

Intel just announced the launch of its Alder Lake 12th Gen Core desktop processors headed by the Core i9-12900K. It features a new 10nm architecture.

The 10nm Alder Lake 12th Gen Intel Core processors are now here

12th Gen Intel Core Alder Lake processors now official

It uses the new Z690 chipset and LGA1700 socket

These new desktop processors feature the new Alder Lake architecture using a 10nm fabrication process. There were six total models announced today that include the Intel Core i9-12900K, Core i7-12700K, and Core i5-12600K. The rest of the three are KF variants of the aforementioned three. KF variants do not have an integrated GPU.

These 12th Intel Core CPUs also feature a new hybrid core design that uses a combination of performance cores and efficient cores instead of multiple cores featuring identical performance. This has been implemented in devices such as smartphones, tablets, and Apple's M-series processors.

It uses a hybrid core design similar to modern smartphones

As the name implies, Performance cores will handle heavy workloads such as video editing software, games, streaming software while Efficient cores will handle less intensive tasks such as music players and notepads to name a few. In this hybrid setup, only the Performance cores can use multithreading.

Speaker of cores, the Core i9-12900K has 16 cores with 8 Performance cores and 8 Efficient cores with 24 threads. The Core i7-12700K has 12 total cores with 6 P-Cores and 6 E-Cores with 20 threads. It was also revealed that the Core 15-12500K has 10 cores with 6 P-Cores and 4 E-Cores with a total of 16 threads.

With the hybrid design, the Core i9-12900K has a 3.2GHz base clock, up to a 5.1GHz boost clock, and up to a 5.2GHz max clock for the P-cores. In terms of cache size, the i9 models have a 30MB L3 cache, i7 models have a 25MB, while i5 models have a 20MB L3 cache. All non-KF models will also have the Intel UHD Graphics 770.

These new processors are also using the Z690 chipset and the new LGA1700 socket. This means a new motherboard will be needed for the new CPUs. The 12th Gen CPUs will also support DDR5 memory modules as well. This means that a choice between DDR4 and DDR5 memory will need to be made before buying a motherboard. New motherboards will only support one or the other.

The Core i9 models have a TDP of 125W base and 241W at maximum clocks. Core i5 will have a base TDP of 125W as well and a 150W boosted clock TDP. The Core i7 models will have 125W and 190W TDPs respectively.

International price with direct to PHP conversion (no taxes and duties yet):

Intel Core i5-12600KF - USD 264

Intel Core i9-12900K - USD 589

The processors will go on pre-order now and will start shipping on November 4 along with the new Z960 motherboards. The rest of the prices are yet to be confirmed. Local pricing and availability are not yet available too but we will update you as soon as we can.

What do you guys think?

Source: Intel