Intel is set to launch their 12th Generation Alder Lake desktop processors on November 4th alongside the new Z690 chipset supporting DDR5 and PCIe 5.0. We have recently seen the first of these new Z690 motherboards from ASUS being listed for sale by PC Canada. The listings include TUF, ROG Maximus, ROG Strix, and Prime motherboards but we don't see any mention of Apex or Extreme boards so they may not be available at launch. The models all appear to retail for less than their Z590 counterparts except for some of the Prime series models which will come as a pleasant surprise to many. We are also aware that the VRM design for these boards will receive various upgrades according to a recent report from @Komachi. The Z690 Hero is set to feature a 20+1 phase design with 90 A Power Stages while the lower-end boards will get a 14+1 design.

Intel is expected to announce their desktop Alder Lake processors later this month on October 28th and it would appear that laptop processors could enter production as early as November. These revelations come from a leaked roadmap published by Wccftech that lists the Alder Lake-P and Alder Lake-M processor families for launch in Q4 2021 and Q1 2022 respectively. The production window for Alder Lake-P opens November 8th and closes March 13th while for Alder Lake-M that period is from January 17th to April 17th.

The roadmap lists Alder Lake-P processors as featuring a TDP between 12 W to 45 W and Alder Lake-M covering 7 W to 15 W. The two platforms will both feature up to 96 Xe graphics Execution units along with Thunderbolt 4 and WiFi 6E connectivity. Alder Lake-P will include PCIe 5.0 and DDR5 support with no mention of DDR4 compatibility while Alder Lake-M will get PCIe 4.0 and LPDDR4X/LPDDR5. The mobile lineup is divided into 3 groups of which the flagship H55 was not mentioned in the roadmap indicating a post Q1 2022 release.

Ahead of its launch, Amazon in The Netherlands started listing some of the first 12th Gen Core "Alder Lake" desktop processors, with the top Core i9-12900K getting listed at an exorbitant 847€ (including 21% cumulative tax). The Core i7-12700K is listed at 642€, making it a nearly 200€ cheaper. The mid-tier Core i5-12600K is listed at 324€, a price-point commanded by top Core i7 parts of the old.

Intel is expected to debut the 12th Gen Core processor family these three, along with their "-KF" variants that lack integrated graphics, which are expected to be priced anywhere between 30€ to 15€ less than their "K" counterparts. For those with discrete graphics who don't intend to use any of the media-acceleration features of the iGPU, "KF" variants could be a nice way to save a little.

We have seen numerous leaks for the upcoming Intel 12th Generation Core series of processes which are expected to launch on November 4th. The packaging for the flagship Core i9-12900K along with the i9/i7/i5 skews have now been leaked revealing the designs. The i9-12900K will receive a unique packaging design featuring a small wafer as a promotional display item to help differentiate the product on store shelves. The rest of the lineup will feature a uniform design reminiscent of previous generations with the same standard size packaging. The design for any potential i3 processors has not been revealed but we would expect it to be in line with the others. Intel is expected to announce the processors at an Innovation event on October 28th with shipments beginning November 4th.

Videocardz today reported on one of the fundamental questions regarding Intel's upcoming Alder Lake: its release date. According to the publication, and citing industry sources, Intel is planning to launch Alder Lake-S come November 4th, 2021. The 12th Gen family of Intel core processors can not come soon enough for the blue giant, who sees itself embattled against the David-like rise of AMD via its Zen architecture. Especially if they do materialize with a 27% single-thread performance improvement over Zen 3.

The release date was first originally referenced by an MSI press release regarding the availability of an upgrade kit for its MAG Coreliquid K and MPG Coreliquid X - both AIO solutions will require new mounting mechanisms for Alder Lake's LGA 1700 socket, and their release is pegged to November 4th as well - this prompted the industry insider sources to confirm the release date. According to WCCFTech, the actual release timeline for the announcement and pre-orders is set for October 27th, whilst the actual product launch and review embargo lifts on November 4th, which is the market availability date.

The complete lineup of Intel's Alder Lake T-Series processors has recently been revealed by FanlessTech showing seven models ranging from the quad-core i3-12100T to the 16-core i9-12900T. These new processors are the low-power desktop variants of the upcoming 12th Generation Alder Lake hybrid family and are primarily designed for use in small form factor and fanless devices. Alder Lake introduces several advancements including PCIe 5.0, and DDR5 support in addition to a new hybrid design with a mix of high-performance and high-efficiency cores.

The 35 W TDP is a significant reduction from the 125 W and 65 W power budgets for the unlocked and normal variants of the processors and has resulted in a reduction in boost clocks. The flagship i9-12900T features eight high-performance and eight high-efficiency cores with a maximum boost-clock of 4.9 GHz paired with 20 MB of L3 cache. We also see that all the i3 and i5 models only feature high-performance cores with only the i7 and i9 getting additional high-efficiency cores. FanlessTech reports that these new processors should be available to purchase in early 2022, the complete lineup can be viewed below.

The market launch of the Intel Alder Lake series is expected soon. Along with the new CPUs, Intel is also introducing the new LGA1700- socket with changed hole spacing on the motherboard as well as changes in CPU cooler mounting height. Starting in mid-October, ARCTIC will provide mounting kits for all Freezer 34 models, the entire Liquid Freezer II series, the Freezer 50 as well as Freezer i13 X and Freezer i13 X CO. Replacing the mounting parts will enable our customers to use their ARCTIC coolers with the new Intel processors. In the future, most of the current CPU coolers will be delivered with the mounting set for the Intel 1700 socket.

The mounting sets will be available in the ARCTIC web shop for a service fee of 5,99€, and customers will receive the set completely free of charge upon presentation of a corresponding processor purchase receipt. ARCTIC will soon launch a new CPU air cooler with Alder Lake compatibility from the factory - the i35 A-RGB. The launch of the new Intel cooler with addressable RGB is expected at the end of October.

Here's the first picture of Intel's upcoming mainstream desktop processor socket, the LGA1700, which was until now only seen in renders or technical drawings. The socket is characterized by a more rectangular contact pad than previous Intel sockets. The Socket H family (LGA115x and LGA1200) that ruled Intel MSDT sockets for over a decade, has a largely square pad. Intel's HEDT sockets such as the LGA1366, LGA2011 and LGA2066, on the other hand, had a rectangular pad, though not as pronounced (slender) as the LGA1700.

From the looks of it, the retention mechanism of the LGA1700 appears similar to that of Socket H and most other Intel LGA sockets (though dissimilar from the LGA2011/LGA2066). In its client desktop avatar, the LGA1700 has 100 unused pins. This is because the socket is physically identical to the LGA1800, which is speculated to be left for future generations of Intel processors with additional power or I/O pins. The Z-height of LGA1700 is lower than that of Socket H, which entails a major change in the retention module design of most aftermarket CPU cooling solutions.

US electronics retailer Provantage allegedly leaked the retail pricing of the upcoming Intel 12th Gen Core "Alder Lake-S" desktop processors. The list confirms that the company will only be debuting the unlocked "K" and "KF" SKUs in 2021, with locked 65 W SKUs joining in only in 2022. Pricing was put out for both boxed, as well are tray (per-piece) prices. The lineup begins with the Core i5-12600KF boxed processor at $261.77, a 6+4 core (P+E), 16-thread processor with 20 MB of L3 cache, and 4.90 GHz maximum boost frequency for the P cores. As a "KF" SKU, it lacks an iGPU. The i5-12600K, which has the same specs and an iGPU on top, is priced at $295.49.

The Core i7-12700KF and i7-12700K are 8+4 core (P+E), 20-thread chips with 25 MB of cache, and 5.00 GHz boost frequency. The two are differentiated by iGPU. The i7-12700KF is priced at $395.61, and the i7-12700K at $422.17. Leading the pack, are the Core i9-12900K and i9-12900KF, which max out the silicon, with 8+8 (P+E) core, 24-thread, and 30 MB of cache. These boost up to 5.20 GHz, but we've heard rumors of the Thermal Velocity Boost feature driving frequencies beyond this. The i9-12900KF is priced at $578.13, while the i9-12900K goes for $604.99. Tray pricing of these chips is more or less similar, with price difference being under $5. The boxed SKUs don't include a cooler, so from a bill-of-materials standpoint, this price difference only accounts for the paperboard box. Intel is expected to formally launch these chips in late-October (which is probably when reviews go live), with retail availability in mid-November.

Today, we got ahold of the first picture showing Intel's upcoming Z690 chipset, the highest-end chipset offering for the Alder Lake lineup of processors. From previous leaks, we have concluded that Intel has enabled the Z690 chipset to be a very powerful offering. Featuring support for running either DDR4 or DDR5 memory, the Z690 chipset will allow motherboard AIBs to offer motherboards with both the new and current DDR standards, easing the transition to the new DDR5 memory. As far as PCIe connectivity, this high-end chipset produces 12 PCIe Gen5 lanes, along with 16 PCIe Gen3 lanes. This is, of course, just an addition to the 16 PCIe Gen5 lanes that the Alder Lake processor provides, enabling a wide portfolio of PCIe lanes for connecting SSDs and graphics cards.

Below, you can see the Z690 chipset image (热心市民描边怪 image), compared to the Z590 (AnandTech image) chipset, where there is a clear difference in size. The new Z690 chipset seems quite a lot bigger, and that is really not a surprise given the new technology stack that it brings.

With its new Socket LGA1700 heralding the first change in the physical dimensions of the processor's integrated heatspreader (IHS), Intel will introduce the first major redesign of its boxed retail stock cooling solution in over a decade. The Socket H-series (LGA115x/LGA1200) stock fan-heatsink has undergone several minor redesigns over the years, with regards to heatsink mass, the presence or absence of a copper core, the spiral or radial orientation of the aluminium heatsink forks (which affect surface-area and mass); although with what we're seeing in leaked Intel slides, the company's next stock coolers could look significantly different.

The Intel Laminar L-series fan-heatsinks come in three distinct variants based on the TDP of the processor they're bundled with. The Laminar RH1 (H equals "high") could be bundled exclusively with Core i9 SKUs that have 65 W TDP on the box, but have PL2 values well above 200 W. The Laminar RM1 (M equals "mainstream" or "medium"), will be bundled with Core i7, Core i5, and Core i3 SKUs that have the same 65 W TDP, but slightly lower PL2 (or at least a trade-off for higher noise). The Laminar RS1 (S equals "small"), targets entry-level Pentium and Celeron chips.

The top Intel 12th Gen Core "Alder Lake-S" 8+8 (P+E) cores processor will cost 741€ including taxes, according to a leaked document revealing retail channel prices of various upcoming 12th Gen Core desktop processors. It also speaks of the i9-12900KF, the "almost-flagship" part that comes with a disabled iGPU, going for up to 708€ (incl taxes).

The Core i7-12700K, the 8+4 (P+E) cores part that lacks Thermal Velocity Boost, will go for up to 524€ (incl taxes). Its "KF" twin will be about 20€ cheaper. The mid-tier Core i5-12600K processor (6 P-cores and 4 E-cores), is going for up to 365€. Not long ago, this was the roughly the price of Intel's top mainstream-desktop processors (such as the i7-7700K). The iGPU-devoid i5-12600KF will go for 333€. Intel is expected to debut its 12th Gen Core desktop processors and compatible Socket LGA1700 motherboards in Q4-2021, along the sidelines of the Windows 11 launch. The first wave of processors are expected to only be unlocked K or KF parts, with locked ones only arriving in early Q1-2022.

Intel's upcoming Alder Lake processor family is set to bring a mixture of big and little cores, combined into one package designed for the hybrid way of computing. Alongside the CPU cores, Intel is also etching integrated graphics into the Alder Lake silicon. However, according to Komachi (@KOMACHI_ENSAKA), there will be Alder Lake SKUs that don't feature a working integrated GPU. Just like we witnessed Intel produce "F" models for its past few generations of Core processors, we could see a re-appearance of the F SKUs with Alder Lake as well. In the leaked listing, Komachi notes the appearance of Intel Core i5-12600KF, Core i7-12700KF, and Core i9-12900KF.

All of the listed models are overclockable SKUs, just with their integrated graphics disabled. Just like the previous generation, Intel decided to introduce this SKU, giving customers a few benefits with the non-functional iGPU. As there is no GPU to produce heat, overclocking efforts could be much better on the "F" SKUs. In addition to that, these SKUs could be a bit cheaper compared to the regular models, saving the buyers some spare cash if they are going to purchase a 3rd party dedicated GPU anyway.

ENERMAX, a leading designer and manufacturer of high-performance PC hardware products, confirms compatibility with the upcoming Intel 12th Gen Alder Lake CPU and announces the availability of LGA 1700 mounting kits for its current and future multi-socket desktop CPU coolers.

ENERMAX's LGA 1700 mounting kits will offer full compatibility with the new LGA 1700 socket for its CPU cooler lineups. In addition to LGA 1700, the coolers will continue to include mounting hardware for the previous generation Intel platform (LGA 2066, LGA 2011, LGA 1156, LGA 1155, LGA 1151, LGA 1150, LGA 1200) as well as AMD (AM4/AM3+/AM3/AM2+/AM2/FM2+/FM2/FM).

CPU-Z, the software of choice for monitoring the CPU and its attributes, has yesterday been updated to version 1.97, which brings much-needed and interesting features. For starters, the new version adds support to detect Intel Core i9-12900K, Core i7-12700K, and Core i5-12600K "Alder Lake" CPUs and the Intel Z6xx chipset platform. Those specific SKUs are the top of the line in their respective categories, and it is only logical that support for the new generation starts there.

Next up, the software now supports detection of the latest DDR5 DRAM technology, which can now also be detected along with the new XMP 3.0 profile format. Last but not least, the software is adding detection for AMD's Radeon RX 6600 XT GPU as well.

To download the latest update, head over to our downloads section. If you wanna get pinged automagically when a new version is released, select the yellow "Get Notified" button on that same page.

The 8 "Golden Cove" performance cores (P-cores) present on 12th Gen "Alder Lake-S" desktop processors offer an IPC gain of 19% over the "Cypress Cove" cores powering current 11th Gen "Rocket Lake-S" processors, claims Intel. This would put them at roughly 35% higher IPC than the "Skylake" cores that powered Intel client desktop processors until as recently as 2020, with the 10th Gen "Comet Lake." This 19% number, however, is presented as a geomean of performance improvement at iso-frequency, across a wide selection of tests that include SPEC CPU 2017, SYSmark 25, Crossmark, PCMark 10, WebXPRT3, and Geekbench 5.4.1.

The high IPC of the P-cores, coupled with the high rumored frequencies for the enthusiast i9-12900K part running well into 5.30 GHz or beyond, begins to explain how 8 of these "Golden Cove" cores, coupled with 8 fairly fast "Gracemont" cores, closes in on the 16-core AMD Ryzen 9 5950X at Cinebench R20.

When early benchmarks of the Core i9-12900K "Alder Lake-S" processor showing performance comparable to AMD's top 16-core Ryzen 9 5950X surfaced, we knew something was up. 8 Intel P-cores and 8 E-cores, are able to match 16 "Zen 3" cores that are all performance cores. Apparently Intel is able to turn its P-core deficit around by taking a wacky approach. First, the 8 "Golden Cove" P-cores themselves offer significantly higher IPC than "Zen 3." Second, the 8 "Gracemont" E-cores aren't as "slow" as conventional wisdom would suggest.

Intel in its Architecture Day presentation put out some astounding numbers that help support how 8 big + 8 little cores are able to perform in the league of 16 AMD big cores. Apparently, on "Alder Lake-S," the 8 "Gracemont" E-cores enjoy a lavish power budget, and are able to strike an incredible performance/Watt sweet-spot. Intel claims that the "Gracemont" E-core offers 40% higher performance at ISO power than a "Skylake" core (Intel's workhorse P-core for desktops until as recently as 2020); which means it consumes 40% less power at comparable performance.

The 12th Gen Core "Alder Lake" microarchitecture will see Intel unify its desktop- and mobile processor IP, back to the way things were up to the 9th Gen. With its post-14 nm silicon fabrication nodes in their infancy, Intel had diverged the client processor IP across its 10th and 11th Gen Core. With 10th Gen, the company introduced "Ice Lake" for ultra-portable platforms (28 W and below), while retaining 14 nm "Comet Lake" for mainstream notebooks (28 W to 45 W); while keeping desktop exclusively with 14 nm "Comet Lake." For 11th Gen, the story is mostly similar. Cutting-edge 10 nm "Tiger Lake" now covers all mobile categories, while desktop receives an IPC upgrade, thanks to the 14 nm "Rocket Lake." The 12th Gen will see a common microarchitecture, "Alder Lake," span across all client segments, from 7 W ultra mobile, to 125 W enthusiast desktop.

This, however, doesn't mean that Intel has a one-size fits all silicon that it can carve SKUs out of. The company has developed as many as three physical dies based on "Alder Lake," which vary in CPU core counts, the size of the iGPU, and other on-die components. "Alder Lake" is a hybrid processor with a combination of larger "Golden Cove" P-cores, and smaller "Gracemont" E-cores. The P-cores are spatially large, and along with their L3 cache slices, take up a large share of the compute portion of the silicon. The E-cores come in clusters of 4 cores each.

Intel in its Architecture Day presentation Thread Director, a hardware component present on the "Alder Lake" silicon, which makes the Hybrid architecture of the processor work flawlessly. "Alder Lake-S" is the first desktop processor with two kinds of x86 CPU cores—the larger Performance P-cores, and the smaller Efficient E-cores, which work in a setup not unlike big.LITTLE by Arm.

The x86-based "Alder Lake" processor has a much more complex ISA, and the E-cores don't have all of the instruction sets or hardware capabilities that the P-cores do. The two cores operate at very different performance/Watt bands, and are optimized for vastly different workloads. At the same time, sending a workload to the wrong kind of core could not only impact performance, but also crash, due to an ISA mismatch. Intel realized that it will take a lot more than mere OS-level awareness to solve the problem, and so innovated the Thread Director.

Intel's upcoming Alder Lake family of processors, more specifically the desktop ALD-S SKUs, are supposedly going to require a higher peak current for the upcoming processors. In the table provided by the Chinese tech media outlet, FCPOWERUP, we are seeing that ALD-S processors have different power requirements for the ATX12V rails on their power supplies. The listed table shows the previous generation of Intel processors, the 10th and 11th generation, as available in 165 Watt variants. Even though there are no 165 Watt Comet Lake and Rocket Lake SKUs, this is only a placeholder for their PSU recommendations in case those SKUs were to be released.

According to the table, the peak current recommendation for the upcoming Alder Lake is higher at least 5 Amps across all SKUs. The 165 Watt SKUs have the requirement of 45 Amps (compared to the 40 A of Comet Lake and Rocket Lake), while the 125 Watt SKUs require 39 Amps, which is higher than the previous 34 Amp requirement. For 65 Watt models, the new peak recommendation is 38.5 Amps, a jump from the previous 30 Amp choice. The lowest rated 35 Watt SKUs are recommended to use 20.5 A, while the previous generations used 16.5 A current. It should be noted that the continuous rating has not been changed (new generation 35 Watt models actually use less current), which indicates that Alder Lake could have higher peak usages of power, meaning that PSU choice should be made with a 50-100 Watt higher rating.

Corsair DIY Marketing Director, George Makris recently confirmed in a recent video that DDR5 memory could "conceivably could run much hotter than DDR4" due to voltage regulation being moved to the memory modules from the motherboard. This was reiterated by Corsair Memory Product Manager, Matt Woithe, who notes that they are prepared to handle this increased heat in Corsair DDR5 modules using their Dual-path Heat Xchange (DHX) technology. The next generation of memory also mandates the inclusion of on-die EEC which while not confirmed by Corsair will also add to the power budget of the modules. Corsair is expecting to release their first DDR5 memory modules towards the end of this year which will coincide with the launch of Intel's 12th Generation Alder Lake processors. AMD fans will need to wait until 2022 with the launch of Zen 4 to take advantage of the new DDR5 memory modules.

Intel, in a move comparable to its competitors' Performance Rating system from the 1990s, has invented a new naming scheme for its in-house foundry nodes to claim technological parity with contemporaries such as TSMC and Samsung, that are well into the sub-10 nm class. Back in the i586 era, when Intel's competitors such as AMD and Cyrix, couldn't keep up with its clock-speeds yet found their chips to be somewhat competitive, they invented the PR (processor rating) system, with a logical number attempting to denote parity with an Intel processor's clock-speed. For example, a PR400 processor rating meant that the chip rivaled a Pentium II 400 MHz (which it mostly didn't). The last that the PR system made sense was with the final generation of single-core performance chips, Pentium 4 and Athlon XP, beyond which, the introduction of multi-core obfuscated the PR system. A Phenom X4 9600 processor didn't mean performance on par with a rival Intel chip running at an impossible 9.60 GHz.

Intel's new foundry naming system sees its 10 nm Enhanced SuperFin node re-badge as "Intel 7." The company currently builds 11th Gen Core "Tiger Lake" processors on the 10 nm SuperFin node, and is expected to build its upcoming 12th Gen Core "Alder Lake" chips on its refinement, the 10 nm Enhanced SuperFin, which will now be referred to as "Intel 7." The company is careful to avoid using the nanometer unit next to the number, instead signaling the consumer that the node somehow offers transistor density and power characteristics comparable to a 7 nm node. Intel 7 offers a 10-15 percent performance/Watt gain over 10 nm SuperFin, and is already in volume production, with a debut within 2021 with "Alder Lake."

Intel Corporation today revealed one of the most detailed process and packaging technology roadmaps the company has ever provided, showcasing a series of foundational innovations that will power products through 2025 and beyond. In addition to announcing RibbonFET, its first new transistor architecture in more than a decade, and PowerVia, an industry-first new backside power delivery method, the company highlighted its planned swift adoption of next-generation extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV), referred to as High Numerical Aperture (High NA) EUV. Intel is positioned to receive the first High NA EUV production tool in the industry.

"Building on Intel's unquestioned leadership in advanced packaging, we are accelerating our innovation roadmap to ensure we are on a clear path to process performance leadership by 2025," Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger said during the global "Intel Accelerated" webcast. "We are leveraging our unparalleled pipeline of innovation to deliver technology advances from the transistor up to the system level. Until the periodic table is exhausted, we will be relentless in our pursuit of Moore's Law and our path to innovate with the magic of silicon."

With qualification samples of the upcoming Intel Core i9-12900K "Alder Lake-S" processors and companion Socket LGA1700 motherboards hitting the black-market, expect a deluge of benchmarks on social media. One such that stands out makes a fascinating claim that the i9-12900K beats AMD's current flagship Ryzen 9 5950X processor at Cinebench R20, which has been AMD's favorite multi-threaded benchmark. At stock speeds, with liquid cooling, the i9-12900K allegedly scores 810 points in the single-threaded test, and 11600 points in multi-threaded.

To put these numbers into perspective, a retail Ryzen 9 5950X scores 641 points in the single-threaded test, and 10234 points in multi-threaded, in our own testing. The i9-12900K is technically a 16-core processor, just like the 5950X, but half its cores are low-power "Gracemont." The "Alder Lake-S" chip appears to be making up ground on the single-threaded performance of the "Golden Cove" P-core, that's a whopping 25% higher than the "Zen 3" core on the 5950X. This is aided not just by higher IPC, but also the max boost frequency of 5.30 GHz for 1~2 cores, and 5.00 GHz "all-core" boost (for the P-cores).

Microsoft DirectStorage API, a game-changing technology that seeks to lower game load times and improve performance, will not be a Windows 11 exclusive, but make it to Windows 10. Shortly following the Windows 11 announcement, it was learned that Microsoft might wall off DirectStorage to Windows 11, which no longer appears to be the case. The DirectStorage Developer Preview is now available, and it works on Windows 10 version 1909 (or later), letting game developers begin exploring the technology and consider integrating it with their current or ongoing game development.

DirectStorage lets a GPU directly stream compressed game assets from an NVMe SSD, where they are uncompressed using compute shaders; cutting out a significant amount of back-and-forth with the CPU, freeing up its hardware resources, resulting in a net gain from reduced game-loading times. This would give gamers on Windows 10 one more reason to remain on the OS until Windows 11 matures. The new OS, however, could have an advantage over Windows 10 on machines with hybrid CPU cores, such as the upcoming "Alder Lake" processors, as its scheduler purportedly has greater awareness of hybrid core topologies.