Wednesday, October 27th 2021

Intel Announces 12th Gen Core "Alder Lake" Desktop Processors

Updated by
btarunr
 Discuss (29 Comments)
Intel today formally launched the 12th Gen Core "Alder Lake" desktop processors. With it, Intel claims to have developed not just the best processors for gaming, but also close the overall performance gap with AMD, even against its top 16-core chips. "Alder Lake" is Intel's first Hybrid core architecture for the desktop, with 8 "performance" cores sitting next to 8 "efficient" ones in a configuration not unlike Arm big.LITTLE. The Intel Thread Director middleware gives the operating system awareness of the Hybrid core topology. Intel is only debuting the unlocked "K" and "KF" models spanning the Core i9, Core i7, and Core i5 brand extensions today, along with the top Z690 chipset. The rest of the lineup will join the product stack in 2022. Intel claims that its performance cores with near-30% IPC gains, and efficiency cores capable of Skylake-like IPCs, it is able to close the performance gap against AMD. The processors also herald a new socket, the LGA1700, along with next-gen platform I/O that includes DDR5 and PCI-Express 5.0.

We prepared a preview article with the limited amount of information we're allowed to publish today. Read it here.

Update Nov 4th: The reviews embargo has finally expired, we have the following Alder Lake reviews for you today: Core i9-12900K, Core i7-12700K, Core i5-12600K, ASUS ROG Maximum Z690 Hero, Intel Z690 Motherboard Comparison

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29 Comments on Intel Announces 12th Gen Core "Alder Lake" Desktop Processors

#1
Arc1t3ct
12900K is faster than the 5950X! This is crazy!
Posted on Reply
#2
TheLostSwede
News Editor
Arc1t3ct12900K is faster than the 5950X! This is crazy!
How so? It's an improved architecture, it has higher clock speeds, but fewer threads, so it's not so strange that it's faster in some things.
Posted on Reply
#3
oxrufiioxo
This seems to have the makings of a night and day better launch vs what we got with Rocketlake.
Posted on Reply
#4
Arc1t3ct
oxrufiioxoThis seems to have the makings of a night and day better launch vs what we got with Rocketlake.
AL is like Conroe all over again!
Posted on Reply
#5
oxrufiioxo
Arc1t3ctAL is like Conroe all over again!
Not really, this looks like it's at best going to slightly edge out a cpu architecture from 2020 a year later.

Intel was still being intel and showing gaming results without the windows 11 patch for Ryzen L3 cache issue.

It's mostly just good to see intel back with an exciting architecture.
Posted on Reply
#6
jayjr1105
oxrufiioxoNot really, this looks like it's at best going to slightly edge out a cpu architecture from 2020 a year later.

Intel was still being intel and showing gaming results without the windows 11 patch for Ryzen L3 cache issue.

It's mostly just good to see intel back with an exciting architecture.
Was wondering if anyone else caught that. LTT video pointed it out too. Was wondering what slimy marketing stunt they were going to pull for this launch. Didn't have to wait long to find out. Next up... commissioned benchmarks.
Posted on Reply
#7
Darmok N Jalad
Does the pricing strike anyone else as odd? The 12900K is only $40 above the 5900X. If the 12900K was an absolute performance winner, wouldn’t it be priced near or above the 5950X? The 12700K is priced $40 under the 5800X and the 12600K is $10 under the 5600X. Somehow I don’t see Intel being this charitable if they are truly retaking the performance lead. It makes me think it will be like Rocket Lake, where the ”near-30%” IPC performance gains will not be realized across the board, trading blows with similar-priced AMD options. Just maybe this time it wins more than it loses. With the way things are priced, AMD may just cut prices by 10%, which they probably can afford to do with a year old product. Their prices have been creeping down recently anyway.

And yes, Intel used the pre-L3 cache W11 patch for their first party benchmarks. Didn’t some here suggest this might happen?
Posted on Reply
#8
oxrufiioxo
Darmok N JaladDoes the pricing strike anyone else as odd?
No, intel has way more control over pricing than AMD does and even though this node is new for Intel high performance desktop it's been out for years already.

Intel is not stupid either overall platform cost is likely to be decently higher assuming you want ddr5 and it would be sorta silly to buy a ddr4 board for alderlake because it locks you out of ddr5.
Posted on Reply
#9
Darmok N Jalad
oxrufiioxoNo, intel has way more control over pricing than AMD does and even though this node is new for Intel high performance desktop it's been out for years already.

Intel is not stupid either overall platform cost is likely to be decently higher assuming you want ddr5 and it would be sorta silly to buy a ddr4 board for alderlake because it locks you out of ddr5.
I suppose they could just be targeting tradition pricing tiers, but pricing some products under a comparable AMD SKU is a little surprising. I’d think if nothing else, they’d match AMD’s pricing, not undercut it. The pricing to me doesn’t put that much pressure on AMD, unless performance is just drastically different at each tier. I guess we’ll see if AMD cuts prices before launch day. It would be a chance for them to try to spoil the launch if the comparable AMD product is noticeably cheaper than what gets compared in reviews. For example, what if the 5600X drops to $250 the day before Adler Lake goes up for sale?
Posted on Reply
#10
oxrufiioxo
Darmok N Jaladwhat if the 5600X drops to $250 the day before Adler Lake goes up for sale?
I think regardless of what amd says pricing is or should be retailers are just going to price however they want. Look at Ryzen 3000 pricing it isn't very good at least here in the states.
Posted on Reply
#11
HisDivineOrder
I didn't know how in the world Microsoft could have let such a huge bug for AMD CPU's slip through. Now, though, it looks like a little back scratching for their longtime buddy, Intel.
Posted on Reply
#12
TheLostSwede
News Editor
Darmok N JaladDoes the pricing strike anyone else as odd? The 12900K is only $40 above the 5900X. If the 12900K was an absolute performance winner, wouldn’t it be priced near or above the 5950X? The 12700K is priced $40 under the 5800X and the 12600K is $10 under the 5600X. Somehow I don’t see Intel being this charitable if they are truly retaking the performance lead. It makes me think it will be like Rocket Lake, where the ”near-30%” IPC performance gains will not be realized across the board, trading blows with similar-priced AMD options. Just maybe this time it wins more than it loses. With the way things are priced, AMD may just cut prices by 10%, which they probably can afford to do with a year old product. Their prices have been creeping down recently anyway.

And yes, Intel used the pre-L3 cache W11 patch for their first party benchmarks. Didn’t some here suggest this might happen?
Newegg wants $649.99 for the Core i9-12900K.
www.newegg.com/intel-core-i9-12900k-core-i9-12th-gen/p/N82E16819118339
Posted on Reply
#14
TheLostSwede
News Editor
oxrufiioxoTrey pricing for 1000k units has alwsys been pretty optimistic near launch these prices are to cash in on the Intel fanboys.
I thought I saw someone in another thread calling BS on that... :rolleyes:
Posted on Reply
#15
oxrufiioxo
TheLostSwedeI thought I saw someone in another thread calling BS on that... :rolleyes:
The bigger question is are 4 E cores worth a 200 usd premium....
Posted on Reply
#16
TheLostSwede
News Editor
oxrufiioxoThe bigger question is are 4 E cores worth a 200 usd premium....
Well, some claim that the E cores perform similar to an original AMD Zen core.
Pure rumours/speculation though afaik, but I guess we'll find out soon enough.
Obviously Intel says more or less the same as a Comet Lake core.
So it might not be the same kind of Atom cores that we've come to know so far.
Posted on Reply
#17
oxrufiioxo
TheLostSwedeWell, some claim that the E cores perform similar to an original AMD Zen core.
Everything I've seen is they match skylake even at reduced clocks... Wasn't zen 1 similar to haswell ipc wise? Thankfully all the speculation ends next week with independent reviews.
Posted on Reply
#18
Bevier
@techpowerup Paul's Hardware got some of your packages. Make sure you guys get that straightened out XD
Posted on Reply
#19
Bubster
Thank you AMD for forcing Intel to become a (little) more competitive, 30 % IPC vs 11 gen...Still one should wait for the details about the thermals and that thread director thingy and what's going on with motherboards and difference between DDR4 and DDR5 in terms of overall performance.
Posted on Reply
#20
Darmok N Jalad
TheLostSwedeNewegg wants $649.99 for the Core i9-12900K.
www.newegg.com/intel-core-i9-12900k-core-i9-12th-gen/p/N82E16819118339
Well that isn’t too far off. 11900K’s launch MSRP was $700, but it pretty much sold for less on day 1. Newegg started selling it at $615, and now it’s down to $500. Curious how Intel is going to manage pricing on 3 generations of CPUs out there. Microcenter finally just sold off its last 9700Ks a few months ago (you could get one for $199 at the end there). 9900Ks are still out there, too.
Posted on Reply
#21
InVasMani
Arc1t3ctAL is like Conroe all over again!
That's a exaggeration AL is a good and a sizable improvement for Intel itself though that is a gross over exaggeration of the situation in relationship to Intel to AMD at the same time.
Darmok N JaladDoes the pricing strike anyone else as odd? The 12900K is only $40 above the 5900X. If the 12900K was an absolute performance winner, wouldn’t it be priced near or above the 5950X? The 12700K is priced $40 under the 5800X and the 12600K is $10 under the 5600X. Somehow I don’t see Intel being this charitable if they are truly retaking the performance lead. It makes me think it will be like Rocket Lake, where the ”near-30%” IPC performance gains will not be realized across the board, trading blows with similar-priced AMD options. Just maybe this time it wins more than it loses. With the way things are priced, AMD may just cut prices by 10%, which they probably can afford to do with a year old product. Their prices have been creeping down recently anyway.

And yes, Intel used the pre-L3 cache W11 patch for their first party benchmarks. Didn’t some here suggest this might happen?
They get paid either way you forget about the motherboard chipset premiums their raking in on MB sales.
oxrufiioxoNo, intel has way more control over pricing than AMD does and even though this node is new for Intel high performance desktop it's been out for years already.

Intel is not stupid either overall platform cost is likely to be decently higher assuming you want ddr5 and it would be sorta silly to buy a ddr4 board for alderlake because it locks you out of ddr5.
Agree to disagree on the DDR5 vs DDR4 board. Yeah it locks you out of DDR5, but DDR4 is way more mature right now than DDR5 and a significantly cheaper at the same time. A value for dollar assessment of DDR5 vs DDR4 Alder Lake would be good to see though using the best value for dollar kits for each at the same capacity.

I'm sort of curious if the IMC struggles to populate 4 DIMM slots less for DDR4 over DDR5 potentially. I think it would depend how the IMC as a whole works and handles the two slightly different memory standards. If some of the design of the DDR5 IMC support also can help reliably run 4 DIMM's of DDR4 at once that's a good perk.

I have no idea if it's possible in practice though or even was a consideration at all in the design of the IMC. All I know is the IMC can handle more bandwidth of DDR5, but if some of it can be routed towards better stability of 4 DIMM DDR4 support that's a good trade off perk.
Posted on Reply
#23
Chaitanya
How much money was shoved up the rear side of M$ for botched Win 11 release?
Posted on Reply
#24
Hyderz
cool! cant wait to see some benchmarks what these cpu can do :)
Posted on Reply
#25
oxrufiioxo
InVasManiAgree to disagree on the DDR5 vs DDR4 board. Yeah it locks you out of DDR5, but DDR4 is way more mature right now than DDR5 and a significantly cheaper at the same time. A value for dollar assessment of DDR5 vs DDR4 Alder Lake would be good to see though using the best value for dollar kits for each at the same capacity.
I mean if someone want's to buy a whole new platform and lock themselves out of ddr5 (a key difference vs last gen platforms) without a motherboard swap have at it... Not my money. I think it would be silly maybe not for the i5 crowd but definitely for the i7/i9. Again just my opinion if people want to buy a new plaform with a motherboard with last gen features good for them.
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