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Intel is back with another desktop processor launch and this time, it’s the 12th Gen Intel Core “Alder Lake” family of desktop processors. These are based on their new hybrid microarchitecture which clubs traditional cores which are now called P-Cores (Performance Cores) with E-Cores (Efficiency Cores). This approach, which has been seen in Qualcomm SoC designs for ages, is now making its way onto the desktop. 12th Gen Intel Core Alder Lake CPUs are based on the Intel 7 process node (previously known as Intel 10nm Enhanced Super Fin process) and are touted to be more power efficient. We’ll see how that works out in the review but the SKU table which was revealed a couple of days ago during the Intel InnovatiON event shows the max Turbo Power to be around 241 watts with the base power being about 125 watts for the top-of-the-line Intel Core i9-12900K processor. It would seem that we’re in for an era where high wattage power supplies are soon going to be the norm.
The new Intel 12th Gen Alder Lake processors will see the latest DDR5 memory standard making its way into the mainstream PC space. Without any overclocking, Z690 motherboards will support DRAM modules rated up to 4800 MT/s which is quite the step up from DDR4 modules. Although, affordability considered, DDR5 would be anything but mainstream for the next year or more. Intel knows this for a fact, which is why you will find Intel Z690 chipset based motherboard variants that support either DDR4 or DDR5. When used with DDR4, the 12th Gen processors will go up to 3200 MT/s. In the past, when memory standards were introduced, we could often see “combo” motherboards which would have a pair of slots supporting the latest DDR standard and a pair of slots for the older memory standard. Unfortunately, for this transition from DDR4 to DDR5, we have not come across any such “combo” boards, yet. There are some crazy motherboard designs out there and we just might get what we’re looking for in the next couple of months.
The Z690 isn’t the end of the road. After the initial launch period, expect to see more affordable motherboard designs based on the Q670, H670, B660, H610, W680 and W685 chipsets. These were leaked a while ago with the release of an Intel Chipset driver version "10.1.18836.8283". Also included in the leak was a mention of the X699 chipset. ‘X’ is usually used to denote the platform that’s used for Intel’s HEDT processors which haven’t seen the light of day for quite some time now. So we might just see powerful workstation processors from Intel in the coming months.
The new Intel 12th Gen Alder Lake processors will see the latest DDR5 memory standard making its way into the mainstream PC space. Without any overclocking, Z690 motherboards will support DRAM modules rated up to 4800 MT/s which is quite the step up from DDR4 modules. Although, affordability considered, DDR5 would be anything but mainstream for the next year or more. Intel knows this for a fact, which is why you will find Intel Z690 chipset based motherboard variants that support either DDR4 or DDR5. When used with DDR4, the 12th Gen processors will go up to 3200 MT/s. In the past, when memory standards were introduced, we could often see “combo” motherboards which would have a pair of slots supporting the latest DDR standard and a pair of slots for the older memory standard. Unfortunately, for this transition from DDR4 to DDR5, we have not come across any such “combo” boards, yet. There are some crazy motherboard designs out there and we just might get what we’re looking for in the next couple of months.
The Z690 isn’t the end of the road. After the initial launch period, expect to see more affordable motherboard designs based on the Q670, H670, B660, H610, W680 and W685 chipsets. These were leaked a while ago with the release of an Intel Chipset driver version "10.1.18836.8283". Also included in the leak was a mention of the X699 chipset. ‘X’ is usually used to denote the platform that’s used for Intel’s HEDT processors which haven’t seen the light of day for quite some time now. So we might just see powerful workstation processors from Intel in the coming months.
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