Intel Alder Lake is coming November 4—gaming CPUs from $264 to $589

Intel's 12th Gen Core i9 12900K retail box with shadow

(Picture recognition: Intel)

We've been wait a long sentence for Intel Alder Lake. Or leastwise it's felt up like a long-wooled time because this is matchless Intel CPU generation we're super excited to try out, with its hybrid computer architecture and more up-to-date process node. Throughout that clip we've had dribs and drabs of information some the upcoming chips, shortly to be Intel's 12th Gen, just today we get the motherlode.

That's because Intel has released the full specification of the 12th Gen, Alder Lake chips, meaning we give the sack in the end put all those rumours to residual and talk with roughly rattling confidence.

Not that information technology wasn't abundantly clean-handed what was going connected with Intel Alder Lake up up to now, but now we've got it down in writing.

Here's what to expect from the first beckon of Alder Lake chips:

Intel 12th Gen Alder Lake K-serial mainframe line-up
	Core i9 12900K	Core i7 12700K	Congress of Racial Equality i5 12600K
Cores (P+E)	8+8	8+4	6+4
Duds	24	20	16
L3 Lay away (Smart Hoard)	30MB	25MB	20MB
L2 Squirrel away	14MB	12MB	9.5MB
Max P-gist Turbo frequency (GHz)	5.2	5	4.9
Max E-core Turbo absolute frequency (GHz)	3.9	3.8	3.6
P-core base frequency	3.2	3.6	3.7
E-core radica frequency	2.4	2.7	2.8
Unlocked	Yes	Yes	Yes
Graphics (excl. on KF-series)	UHD Graphics 770	UHD Graphics 770	UHD Graphics 770
PCIe lanes available	20	20	20
Computer memory support (upwardly to)	DDR5 4800MT/s, DDR4 3200MT/s	DDR5 4800MT/s, DDR4 3200MT/s	DDR5 4800MT/s, DDR4 3200MT/s
Processor Foot Power (W)	125	125	125
Maximum Turbo Power (W)	241	190	150
Availableness	November 4	November 4	Nov 4

You may own noticed a miss of TDP, or Thermal Purpose Power, in that put over. That's because Intel is formally doing away therewith for this generation, and is instead listing these chips with Processor Base Power and Maximum Turbo Power in Watts.

In operation, you should expect to see the Processor Base Business leader when the processor is running closer to its standard stock absolute frequency, and Maximum Turbo Business leader when the chip is boosting up to higher frequencies, as enrolled in the table above.

Essentially, this appears a rebadge of the PL1 and PL2 specs we've seen earlier, which stand for the likely long-term power quarter of a chip (PL1) and the short-terminal figure level bes powerfulness draw of a chip (PL2). Though Intel is also listing Maximum Turbo Power as "PL1 = PL2", which makes things a little more perplexing.

Intel Alder Lake new power definitions explained — (See credit: Intel)

With this new power terminology, Intel avoids those pesky tales of its processors destructive then their TDP, and without real threatening the power demands of its chips by all that much. Though information technology moldiness too be aforesaid that these two power ratings are more upfront than the typical TDP rating we'd unremarkably get, which makes it easier to program in front with a suitably stacked cooler.

Further to the K-series in the table above, Intel is also releasing the KF-series. These are the Core i9 12900KF, Pith i7 12700KF, and Meat i5 12600KF. These are altogether the same as the ones listed above, sans the Atomic number 54 iGPU. For that, Intel has same they will arrive at cheaper prices, but whether you'll see much difference on the shelves is another thing altogether. That said, the lack of iGPU shouldn't be likewise much of an issue, providing you don't plan to usance it for streaming, recording, or even gaming, in lieu of a discrete graphics card.

The K- and KF-series will be the first 12th Gen processors away of the gate on November 4, 2021, with boost desktop chips and even Mobile River, all connected the same architecture, to follow following year. Intel hasn't spoken yet on what's going connected with those, but with the high-powered processors we care well-nig about for gaming out of the way, we'll have a pretty good idea of what to expect when the time comes.

And like I aver, these K-series chips will be the ones most enthusiasts and mid- to highschool-end gamers will follow interested in. There should still constitute some cheaper chips that are avid for gaming after refine the line, such every bit the Heart and soul i5 12400.

We don't yet know the exact prices of any of these chips, however. What Intel send away tell us is that the starting prices array from $264 to $589 for the unlocked background processors. Assumedly that way $264 for the Nub i5 12600KF and $589 for the Core i9 12900K, which would be cheaper than early leaks had suggested at the high-end.

Intel also has towering hopes for gross revenue of Alder Lake, and is expecting to sell hundreds of thousands by the end of the yr and more than two million by the end of March 2022.

Jacob earned his first byline writing for his own technical school blog from his hometown in Wales in 2017. From in that respect, He gradational to professionally breakage things at PCGamesN, where helium would later win command of the kit cupboard as ironware editor. Nowadays, as senior hardware editor program at PC Gamer, helium spends his years reporting on the latest developments in the technology and gaming industry. When helium's non writing about GPUs and CPUs, you'll find him trying to bring fort as far away from the modern world as possible aside wild camping.