Alder Lake‘s arrival heralded the opening salvo of Intel’s brutal value warfare on AMD’s Ryzen 5000 chips, and the Core i7-12700K is the excellent instance of Intel’s new bare-knuckle method to pricing. At $409, the 12700K totally beats the $390 Ryzen 7 5800X and even unseats the dear $550 Ryzen 9 5900X, all whereas delivering primarily the identical gaming efficiency as the quickest gaming chip on the planet, Intel’s personal $589 flagship Core i9-12900K — however for $180 much less. Alder Lake additionally gives the greatest positive aspects in overclocking efficiency that we have seen in the final a number of chip generations. As a end result, the Core i7-12700K joins our record of the best CPUs for gaming. It’s additionally exceedingly aggressive in purposes, assuring a prime rating in our CPU Benchmark hierarchy.
The 12700K comes on the heels of Intel’s different shocking victories towards a lot pricier chips, like the $589 Core i9-12900K vs $799 Ryzen 9 5950X and the $289 Core i5-12600K vs $390 Ryzen 7 5800X (click on the hyperlinks for the full rundown), proving that Alder Lake actually punches above its pricing weight class.
Surprisingly, the majority of those positive aspects come even with out the benefits of Alder Lake’s new next-gen connectivity applied sciences that deliver huge will increase in throughput through DDR5 reminiscence and PCIe 5.0 interfaces. You can use customary DDR4 reminiscence and PCIe units to unlock superior efficiency over AMD’s growing older AM4 platform, however DDR5 offers you an additional efficiency kicker in some purposes. Intel’s platform can also be ready for the inevitable transition to PCIe 5.0, however that brings greater motherboard pricing. That reduces (however would not get rid of) Intel’s chip pricing benefit, at the very least till B- and H-series boards arrive in the coming months.
Intel is the first to help DDR5 and PCIe 5.0 on the desktop, and the firm combines that tech with one other first for desktop PCs — Alder’s new hybrid x86 design represents the firm’s most disruptive architectural shift in a decade. Alder Lake combines huge and quick Performance cores (P-cores) with clusters of small and highly effective Efficiency cores (E-cores) that chew via background processes. The Golden Cove architecture powers the ‘huge’ P-cores whereas the ‘little’ E-cores include the Gracemont architecture, with each offering much-needed IPC enhancements to Intel’s core designs.
The ‘Intel 7’ course of debuts with Alder Lake, lastly ending Intel’s distress on the 14nm node after six lengthy years that finally price the firm its efficiency crown to AMD. We beforehand knew this ‘Intel 7’ manufacturing tech as 10nm Enhanced SuperFin, however Intel recently renamed its process nodes to match trade nomenclature. Technically, that is the second technology of Intel’s 10nm course of, nevertheless it’s a primary for desktop PCs.
| U.S. Price | Cores | Threads | P-Core Base/Boost | E-Core Base/Boost | TDP / PBP / MTP | DDR4-3200 | L3 Cache | |
| Core i9-12900K / KF | $589 (Ok) – $564 (KF) | 8P + 8E | 16 Cores / 24 threads | 3.2 / 5.2 GHz | 2.4 / 3.9 GHz | 125W / 241W | DDR4-3200 / DDR5-4800 | 30MB |
| Core i7-12700K / KF | $409 (Ok) – $384 (KF) | 8P + 4E | 12 Cores / 20 threads | 3.6 / 5.0 GHz | 2.7 / 3.8 GHz | 125W / 190W | DDR4-3200 / DDR5-4800 | 25MB |
| Core i5-12600K / KF | $289 (Ok) – $264 (KF) | 6P + 4E | 10 Cores / 16 threads | 3.7 / 4.9 GHz | 2.8 / 3.6 GHz | 125W / 150W | DDR4-3200 / DDR5-4800 | 16MB |
For now, Alder Lake consists of three high-end overclockable Ok-series fashions, together with their graphics-less KF counterparts which can be barely cheaper, with extra fashions to return in the future. The P-cores are hyper-threaded, whereas the E-cores solely have a single thread, resulting in what we’d usually think about as non-standard thread counts. The Core i7-12700K comes with eight P-cores and 4 E-cores, for a complete of 20 threads, slotting in between the 16-core 24-thread Core i9-12900K and the 10-core 16-thread Core i5-12600K.
There is a catch, although. Alder Lake’s new heterogeneous design requires particular lodging to unlock the finest efficiency: Performance-sensitive work executes finest on the P-cores, whereas the E-cores are finest for background and threaded workloads, however making certain that the proper workloads land on the right cores requires working system intervention.
The Alder Lake chips work with each newer and older variations of Windows, however Windows 11 unlocks the finest efficiency as a result of it helps Intel’s new Thread Director. The tech gives the working system with data that assists in assigning work to the right cores. Alder Lake’s efficiency continues to be aggressive in Windows 10, however you may encounter wayward efficiency and/or variability, that means some workloads will probably be slower at instances on account of unoptimized thread scheduling. However, you possibly can rectify these points in Windows 10 with numerous utilities, like the always-popular Process Lasso.
Conversely, Alder Lake is extremely spectacular in Windows 11 and takes the lead over AMD in gaming and most workloads, and by giant margins. In different phrases, for worry-free class-leading efficiency, go along with Windows 11 and Alder Lake. You’ll get equally spectacular efficiency with Windows 10, however it should require a bit extra handbook intervention in a number of purposes.
Intel’s previous-gen Rocket Lake chips got here with the identical variety of cores for each the Core i7 and i9 fashions, leaving little distinction between the two fashions. However, the Core i7 12700K has 4 fewer E-cores than the Core i9-12900K and a 200 MHz decrease enhance clock, marking the return of significant segmentation between the Core i7 and i9 lineups.
That segmentation is clear in lightly- and heavily-threaded productiveness purposes, with the 12900K incomes its greater price ticket in these areas. But as you may see in our benchmarks under, the 12700K provides primarily the identical efficiency in gaming, making it the new high-end champion for efficiency addicts, whereas the Core i5-12600K stays the finest mid-range CPU for gaming. Speaking of the performance-obsessed, we have additionally included in-depth overclocking testing, which unearthed the greatest positive aspects we have seen from latest Intel chips — we definitely have not seen double-digit share will increase in gaming efficiency from overclocking in a number of chip generations.
Intel Alder Lake-S Core i7-12700K Specifications and Pricing
Intel is just bringing its costliest chips from the Core i9, i7, and i5 households to the retail marketplace for now, however it is usually transport 28 extra fashions to OEMs for prebuilt programs that arrive early subsequent 12 months. Intel is not sharing particulars but, however these fashions will ultimately come to retail at an unspecified time.
We have deep-dive protection of the Alder Lake SoC design and core microarchitectures here, together with a broader overview in our Alder Lake all we know article. Additionally, Intel has eliminated its ‘TDP’ (Thermal Design Point) nomenclature from the spec sheets, and now assigns a Processor Base Power (PBP) worth as a substitute. The firm additionally added a secondary Maximum Turbo Power (MTP) worth to the spec sheets to characterize the highest energy stage throughout enhance exercise. You can read more about that change here.
| U.S. Price | Cores | Threads | P-Core Base/Boost | E-Core Base/Boost | TDP / PBP / MTP | DDR4-3200 | L3 Cache | |
| Ryzen 9 5950X | $799 | 16P | 32 threads | 3.4 / 4.9 GHz | – | 105W | DDR4-3200 | 64MB (2×32) |
| Core i9-12900K / KF | $589 (Ok) – $564 (KF) | 8P + 8E | 16 Cores / 24 threads | 3.2 / 5.2 GHz | 2.4 / 3.9 GHz | 125W / 241W | DDR4-3200 / DDR5-4800 | 30MB |
| Ryzen 9 5900X | $549 | 12P | 24 threads | 3.7 / 4.8 GHz | – | 105W | DDR4-3200 | 32MB (1×32) |
| Core i9-11900K | $549 | 8P | 16 threads | 3.5 / 5.3 GHz | – | 125W | DDR4-3200 | 16MB |
| Core i7-12700K / KF | $409 (Ok) – $384 (KF) | 8P + 4E | 12 Cores / 20 threads | 3.6 / 5.0 GHz | 2.7 / 3.8 GHz | 125W / 190W | DDR4-3200 / DDR5-4800 | 25MB |
| Core i7-11700K | $409 | 8P | 16 threads | 3.6 / 5.0 GHz | – | 125W | DDR4-3200 | 16MB |
| Ryzen 7 5800X | $449 | 8P | 16 threads | 3.8 / 4.7 GHz | – | 105W | DDR4-3200 | 32MB |
| Core i5-12600K / KF | $289 (Ok) – $264 (KF) | 6P + 4E | 10 Cores / 16 threads | 3.7 / 4.9 GHz | 2.8 / 3.6 GHz | 125W / 150W | DDR4-3200 / DDR5-4800 | 16MB |
| Core i5-11600K | $272 | 6P | 12 threads | 3.9 / 4.9 GHz | – | 95W | DDR4-3200 | 12MB |
| Ryzen 5 5600X | $299 | 6P | 12 threads | 3.7 / 4.6 GHz | – | 65W | DDR4-3200 | 32MB |
All Alder Lake chips help DDR4-3200 or as much as DDR5-4800 reminiscence, however caveats apply. Alder Lake chips expose as much as 16 lanes of PCIe 5.0 (technically for storage and graphics solely, no networking units) and an extra 4 lanes of PCIe 4.0 from the chip for M.2 storage.
The Core i7-12700K lands with the identical $409 pricing as the previous-gen Core i7-11700K, nevertheless it comes with 33% extra threads. The Core i7-12700K has eight P-cores and 4 E-cores, for a complete of 20 threads. The P-cores run at a 3.6 / 5.0 GHz base/enhance, however that is not too vital given the solely new hybrid structure — the P-cores course of roughly 19% extra directions per cycle and the SoC realizes efficiency positive aspects from utilizing totally different core varieties for various duties. Meanwhile, the E-cores weigh in at 2.7 / 3.8 GHz. The chip is fed by 25MB of L3 cache and 12MB of L2.
Based on value alone, the 12700K competes with the Ryzen 7 5800X. The 5800X carries a $449 steered price ticket however is usually discovered for about $390 at retail. The Ryzen 7 5800X comes with eight cores and 16 threads which can be simply outweighed by the 12700K’s hybrid structure with 20 threads. This chip has a 3.8 / 4.7 GHz base/enhance clock, however that is not instantly akin to the 12700K given the totally different architectures in play.
Based on efficiency, the Ryzen 9 5900X is extra of a pure competitor for the 12700K. The $549 Ryzen 9 5900X comes with 12 cores and 24 threads that run at a 3.7 / 4.8 GHz base/enhance clock. Both competing Ryzen chips have a 105W TDP.
In distinction, the 12700K comes with a 125W PBP (base) and 190W MTP (peak) energy ranking, however bear in mind that Intel has additionally modified its default enhance period for all Ok-series chips from the 56-second period with Rocket Lake to a vast worth. This means the chip will successfully at all times function at the 190W MTP when it’s beneath load. However, most fanatic motherboards will successfully elevate all of the energy limits.
If you are trying to avoid wasting coin, the graphics-less $384 Core i7-12700KF comes with a $25 value discount and has the very same specs as the 12700K, which is extremely enticing if you happen to plan on utilizing a discrete graphics card. Notably, you’ll lose Quick Sync capabilities and the iGPU fallback that you should use for troubleshooting in the occasion of a problem with a discrete GPU. However, those self same circumstances exist with all of AMD’s competing chips (there isn’t a possibility for graphics on the 5800X and 5900X), so it is a comparable possibility. Speaking of which, the customary Core i7-12700K comes with the UHD Graphics 770 with 32 EUs that run at a 300 / 1500 MHz base/enhance.
The 12700K is bookended by the Core i9-12900K and the Core i5-12600K. The $589 16-core Core i9-12900K comes with eight P-cores that help hyper-threading, and eight single-threaded E-cores for a complete of 24 threads. The P-cores have a 3.2 GHz base, and peak frequencies attain 5.2 GHz. The E-cores have a 2.4 GHz base and stretch as much as 3.9 GHz. The chip is provided with 30MB of L3 cache and 14MB of L2.
The $289 Core i5-12600K comes with six threaded P-cores that function at 3.7 / 4.9 GHz and 4 E-cores that run at 2.8 / 3.6 GHz, for a complete of 16 threads. That’s paired with 20MB of L3 and 9.5MB of L2 cache.
- The Alder Lake SoC will span from desktop PCs to ultramobile units with TDP scores from 9W to 125W, all constructed on the Intel 7 course of. The desktop PC comes with as much as eight Performance (P) cores and eight Efficient (E) cores for a complete of 16 cores and 24 threads and as much as 30 MB of L3 cache for a single chip.
- Alder Lake helps both DDR4 or DDR5 (LP4x/LP5, too). Desktop PC helps x16 PCIe Gen 5 and x4 PCIe Gen 4.
- Intel’s new hyper-threaded Performance (P) core, which comes with the Golden Cove microarchitecture designed for low-latency single-threaded efficiency, comes with a mean of 19% extra IPC than the Cypress Cove structure in Rocket Lake.
- Intel’s new single-threaded Efficiency (E) core comes with the Gracemont microarchitecture to enhance multi-threaded efficiency and supply distinctive space effectivity (small footprint) and performance-per-watt. Four small cores slot in roughly the identical space as a Skylake core and ship 80% extra efficiency in threaded work (at the identical energy). A single E core additionally delivers 40% extra efficiency than a single-threaded Skylake core (at the identical energy) in single-threaded work (caveats apply to each).
- Intel’s Thread Director is a hardware-based expertise that assures threads are assigned to both the P or E cores in an optimized method. This is the sleeper tech that allows the hybrid structure.
Intel Z690 Motherboards for Intel Core i7-12700K
Intel’s Alder Lake drops into Socket 1700 motherboards with the Z690 chipset. You can examine the chipset and a few of the first 60+ motherboards in our Z690 motherboard roundup here.
The new LGA1700 socket is bodily bigger and has a decrease Z-height than present sockets, so most present air and water coolers for LGA1200 and LGA115x motherboards will not work with 600-series motherboards. As a end result, upgraders might want to purchase a conversion package or purchase a brand new cooler.
Just like Z590, the Z690 chipset sports activities 16 lanes of PCIe 3.0, however Intel additionally added 12 lanes of PCIe 4.0. Intel additionally doubled the throughput of the DMI connection between the chip and chipset from an x8 DMI 3.0 pipe, which clocks in at 7.88 GBps, to an x8 DMI 4.0 connection that delivers 15.66 GBps. This much-needed bandwidth enchancment permits for extra throughput from connected RAID arrays. The elevated DMI throughput can also be helpful for Z690’s bolstered connectivity choices, like the new second USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 20 Gbps connection. You can learn extra about the Z690 chipset here.
DDR4 and DDR5 Support with Intel Core i7-12700K
Alder Lake chips help each DDR4 and DDR5 reminiscence, however there are a number of caveats tied to DDR5. As a default, DDR5 runs in Gear 2 mode, leading to greater latency. Additionally, customary motherboards solely help DDR5-4800 if the motherboard has solely two bodily slots. Therefore, at inventory settings, Alder Lake solely helps DDR5-4400 on any motherboard with 4 slots — even when solely two slots are populated. Support drops as little as DDR5-3600 if 4 slots are stuffed with dual-rank reminiscence DIMMs. Here are the inhabitants guidelines for DDR5:
In distinction, Alder Lake helps DDR4-3200 in Gear 1 mode for all processors. That can yield latency and efficiency benefits for the tried-and-true reminiscence.
A big selection of DDR5 motherboards can be found in all value bands, however it seems that you may solely discover DDR4 help on lower-end Z690 boards. Also, not like earlier generations, no motherboard helps each DDR4 and DDR5, which might be on account of DDR5’s a lot tighter sign integrity necessities and onboard energy management circuitry. Additionally, not like DDR4, DDR5 DIMMs include PMIC (Power Management ICs) chips that management three on-DIMM voltage rails – VDD, VDDQ, and VPP.
DDR5 helps the new XMP 3.0 customary that helps as much as 5 reminiscence profiles (SPDs) to outline distinctive frequency, voltage, and latency parameters, and XMP 3.0 additionally helps you to write and title two of the profiles.The new XMP profiles also can management the PMICs now current on DDR5 DIMMs. Naturally, there are variances in PMIC designs and high quality, including yet one more variable to be careful for when deciding on the Best RAM for overclocking.
Intel has additionally posted a new certification page on its website to assist guarantee that every package is suitable with sure motherboards and firmware revisions. You can learn extra about DDR5’s new features here. We anticipate pricing for DDR5 to be considerably greater than DDR4, presently projected to be a 50 to 60% markup, for a while.
https://www.tomshardware.com/evaluations/intel-core-i7-12700k-review
