Intel is Back With 12th Generation Processors!

Intel was one of the most active companies at CES 2021, announcing no fewer than four new

families of processors. Among them was 12th-gen desktop chips, codenamed "Alder Lake"

More than nine months later, the CPUs finally launched at Intel's Innovation event. They'll be

available to buy as soon as next week, although you'll be waiting a bit longer for a successor to

Tiger Lake in laptops. Here's everything you need to know about the next generation of Intel

silicon.

Intel began teasing details of its 12th-gen chips at CES in January 2021 and revealed lots more

at its Architecture Day in July. But it wasn't until the company's Innovation Event on 27 October

that any CPUs actually launched.

Intel has also changed the structure of its CPUs to be more in line with ARM-based chips

(including Apple's M1 range). There's now a mixture of performance and power efficiency cores,

rather than focusing purely on making the most powerful chip possible. This hybrid model

should allow devices to sustain performance over a longer period of time, as well as benefit

battery life.

Although the claims are huge these can only be verified once these chips are available in the

market from November 4th onwards.

In total, we're expecting 60 processors from Intel's 12th-gen range. Just six have launched so

far, all as standalone CPUs for desktops. Here's a summary of the key specs:

● Core i9-12900K - 16 cores (8 performance, 8 efficiencies), 24 threads, max clock speed

5.2GHz, up to 241W power

● Core i9-12900KF - 16 cores (8 performance, 8 efficiencies), 24 threads, max clock speed

5.2GHz, up to 241W power

● Core i7- 12700K - 12 cores (8 performance, 4 efficiencies), 20 threads, max clock speed

5GHz, up to 190W power

● Core i7-12700KF - 12 cores (8 performance, 4 efficiencies), 20 threads, max clock speed

5GHz, up to 190W power

● Core i5-12600K - 10 cores (6 performance, 4 efficiencies), 16 threads, max clock speed

4.9GHz, up to 150W power

● Core i5-12600KF - 10 cores (6 performance, 4 efficiencies), 16 threads, max clock speed

4.9GHz, up to 150W power

In my opinion, it is a huge change for Intel from their 14nm process to 10nm, also called ‘Intel

7’. Intel is trying to make a return after its last generation being dominated by AMD Ryzen 5000

series. The specification being offered here by Intel is going to be a huge change as it is going to have PCI-E Gen 5 support and DDR5 RAM support.