Monday, 15 November 2021

Intel 12th Gen Alder Lake Non-K CPU Specs Leaked

So far Intel has only officially released the “K” versions of its 12th Gen Alder Lake CPUs (review incoming, btw), which are 125w high-end “unlocked” models designed for overclocking. For those who are more interested in the 65w lower-end parts, it’s been a waiting game so far, with no word from Intel on when it would spill the beans on its “regular” CPUs designed for the masses. Luckily for us, those beans have now spilled into the light of day thanks to Dell and other system integrators, which have posted the very likely embargoed information seemingly by accident. What’s really interesting this time around is it appears Intel will be selling lower-end CPUs without its integrated graphics, which is a bold-yet-questionable move from the tech giant. However, as Tom’s Hardware notes, these specs should be taken with a huge grain of salt as the launch is still months away and it’s likely the specs aren’t finalized.

On a manual page for Dell/Alienware’s Aurora 13 desktop, there’s a chart showing all the Intel CPUs that are compatible, and it lists quite a few Intel non-K CPUs that we’ve been curious about. For starters, there’s two versions of the Core i9-12900, which has the same 8P+8E core count as the K version, but with slightly lower clock speeds, allowing it to become a 65w CPU. There’s a standard version, and an “F” version, both with a total of 24 threads including both Performance and Efficiency cores. But whereas the K version has a boost clock of 5.2GHz, the non-K only goes to 5.1GHz, and the F version stops at 5GHz, possibly.

Another eyebrow-raiser is the non-K Core i5-12600, as this range of CPUs have been a staple on the “performance for the price” podium for many years. In the Dell chart it is listed as having just six Performance cores with Hyperthreading, with no E cores for efficiency whatsoever. This is a big departure from the higher-end K chips, which feature a hybrid design of Performance (P) and Efficiency (E) cores, and it’s also Alder Lake’s “game changing” feature. This tracks with Tom’s Hardware’s reporting that the lower-end chips will all feature Alder Lake-6P dies, which is physically smaller than its big brothers, and also lacks the Gracemont efficiency cores.

Down at the bottom of the range we have the the Core i5-12400F, which is also a 12 core, 65w CPU, but with a very conservative 2.5GHz base clock, and an unknown boost clock.

As far as when these CPUs will officially be announced or become available to purchase, it’s all speculation at this point, but rumors point to CES 2022 as an appropriate time to launch since it will have given its high-end chips time to shine all by themselves in the market place. Also, if you’re into the whole brevity thing, Videocardz has put all the known leaks into handy charts you can examine right here.

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