Intel Core i9 12900K
Intel was never going to be without its performance crown for long, so with appropriate pomp and ceremony Jacob Ridley introduces the new CPU king.
SPECS
Socket: Socket V LGA1700 Process: Intel 7 10nm Cores (P+E): 8+8 Threads: 24 P-cache: 640KB L1, 10MB L2, 24MB L3 E-cache: 768KB L1, 4MB L2, 6MB L3 P-core: 3.2GHz (5.2GHz boost) E-core: 2.4GHz (3.9GHz boost) Unlocked: Yes GPU: UHD Graphics 770, 32 EU, 300MHz, OpenGL 4.5, OpenCL 2.1 Memory max: 128GB, No ECC, two-channel Memory speed: DDR5 4,800MT/s, DDR4 3,200MT/s PCIe: v5 16-lanes, v4 4-lanes Processor Base Power: 125W Max. Turbo Power: 241W
M eet Alder Lake, Intel’s all-new 12th gen processor architecture. It’s a core part of what may well be the beginning of Intel’s push-back against a resurgent AMD, but more than that, it’s an extremely good chip. And that’s really what counts, right? This Core i9 12900K represents the very best in Intel’s desktop 12th Generation processors, and what that means is it houses the Alder Lake architecture in its most performant form.
Alder Lake is Intel’s first desktop processor to use the Intel 7 process node, which was previously referred to as Intel 10nm SuperFin. Smaller process means less power, less heat, more speed. The next notable change of the lot is the hybrid Core architecture. Intel is stuffing all of the K-series 12th Gen chips with two types of cores: Performance Cores (P-Cores) and Efficient Cores (E-Cores).
The P-Cores are based on the Golden Cove microarchitecture, which is one step beyond the Willow Lake microarchitecture that’s found in Intel’s 11th Gen mobile Tiger Lake processors. They offer the highest clock speeds of the two – on the Core i9 12900K these reach 5.2GHz at times – and nail down slick single-threaded speed for it. They’re also built to minimise latency, and they’re technically wider and smarter to catch up with the competition.