Alder Lake: All you need to know about Intel’s Core 12th Gen processors

Intel Alder Lake chips are here— here's everything we know so far.

By: Tech Desk
New Delhi | October 28, 2021 08:30 AM IST

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Intel Alder Lake will be using a hybrid architecture with a mix of both high-performance and high-efficiency cores.

Intel has officially announced its 12th-gen Alder Lake processors, as it aims to compete with AMD and Apple in the hyper-competitive chip segment. To begin with, the company will first bring the Alder Lake desktop processors to the market. The mobile variants of Alder Lake, which will be designed for laptops, aren’t expected to arrive until early 2022. The announcement of new processors was made during the Intel InnovatiON event.

The Alder Lake processors are very different from the last year’s 11th gen processors. They are built with the Intel 7 process and are the first processors to utilize Intel’s new hybrid architecture, meaning you will be required a new Z690 motherboard to upgrade. The Alder Lake lineup consists of six processors that utilises a combination of Golden Cove high-performance cores (P-cores) and Gracemont power-saving cores (E-cores), an approach Apple has also taken with the M1. The new processors are set to arrive on November 4.

Intel claims the Alder Lake processors are incredibly faster as they have the ability to run games 20 per cent faster than the Rocket Lake, and offer high performance compared to AMD’s 5950X processor. The most powerful chip in the lineup, the i9-12900K, is pitched as the “world’s best gaming processor.” The i9 variant comes with 16 cores and 24 threads, the i7 model comes with 12 cores and 20 threads. Intel Alder Lake will also support DDR5 memory for desktop PCs and LPDDR5 for laptops.

Intel’s new Alder Lake desktop processors

*Core i9-12900K: 16 cores/24 threads (8 performance cores at 3.2GHz (base)/5.2GHz (turbo), 8 efficiency cores at 2.4GHz (base)/3.9GHz (turbo))
*Core i7-12700K: 12 cores/20 threads (8 performance cores at 3.6GHz/5.0GHz, 4 efficiency cores at 2.7GHz/3.8GHz)
*Core i5-12600K: 10 cores/16 threads (6 performance cores at 3.7GHz/4.9GHz, 4 efficiency cores at 2.8GHz/3.6GHz)

The new processors are pricier than the previous generation. You can pre-order the new Alder Lake processors in choice of two Core i5, Core i7, or Core i9 CPUs, with prices ranging from $264 to $589.