Unveiling the Mystery of 12th Generation Intel® Core™ Desktop Processors

Unveiling the 12th Gen Intel® Core™ Desktop Processor, Intel Launches the World’s Most Powerful Gaming Processor, the i9-12900K

The 12th Gen Intel Core family will include 60 processors and more than 500 designs, delivering exceptional processor performance for enthusiast-class desktops.

News Focus

•Intel introduced the first products in the 12th Generation Intel® Core™ product family, including the world’s best gaming processor, the Intel Core i9-12900K; the product is available for pre-order starting today and will begin shipping on November 4.

•The new high-performance hybrid architecture effectively improves multi-threaded performance, increasing content creation speed by up to 2 times compared to the previous generation1.

•The six desktop processors launched today will lead the industry in switching to DDR5 memory and PCIe 5.0 connectivity for enhanced gaming and creative experiences.

•The 12th generation Intel® Core™ processor family uses Intel 7 process technology for the first time, which will bring better performance to each computing market segment.

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Oct. 27, 2021 – Today, at Intel’s ON Technology Innovation Summit, Intel unveiled the 12th Gen Intel® Core™ processor family, launching six new unlocked desktop processors, including the world’s best gaming processor, the 12th Gen Intel® Core™ i9-12900K. With a maximum turbo frequency of 5.2 GHz and up to 16 cores and 24 threads, the new processors unleash higher multi-threaded performance for gaming enthusiasts and professional creators.

The 12th Gen Intel® Core™ product family will include 60 processors that will power more than 500 designs from partners. According to the 2021 Intel Architecture Day, the new high-performance hybrid architecture, which uses Intel 7 process technology for the first time, will bring scalable performance from 9 watts to 125 watts, providing excellent computing performance for every PC market segment from ultra-thin laptops to enthusiast desktops, as well as edge computing devices.  

12th Generation Intel® Core™ Processors

“Thanks to the tight design and collaboration between hardware and software, the high-performance hybrid architecture of the 12th Gen Intel® Core™ processors has brought a revolution in architectural history and pushed product performance to new heights,” said Gregory Bryant, Intel executive vice president and general manager of the Client Computing Group. “We will first launch the Core i9-12900K, the world’s best-performing flagship gaming processor, and will continue to launch other models and series of products in the 12th Gen product family to bring you an even more extraordinary experience.”

Unlocked 12th Gen desktop processors for gaming, creative and overclocking

The six unlocked desktop processors introduced today are the first to feature Intel’s high-performance hybrid architecture, which combines the highest-performance CPU cores Intel has ever built, the Performance Cores, with Efficient Cores designed specifically for the performance demands of scalable multi-threaded workloads. 

The world’s best gaming processor – 12th Gen Intel® Core™ i9-12900K

Intel® Hardware Thread Director guides the operating system to place the right thread on the right core at the right time, ensuring that the two new core microarchitectures work seamlessly together. Intel has conducted extensive testing with the ecosystem to optimize performance and compatibility. To help strengthen its investment in the Developer Zone, Intel has published white papers for developers, including guidance for independent software vendors to optimize applications for high-performance hybrid platforms.

“With Windows 11, we are entering a new era for PCs,” said Panos Panay, executive vice president and chief product officer at Microsoft. “With Windows 11 and Intel’s new thread scheduler technology, users will see new levels of PC performance with the 12th Gen Intel Core processor family.”

Intel's new high-performance hybrid architecture and Intel 7 process technology complement each other to improve single-threaded and multi-threaded performance, achieving multiple achievements together:

•The world’s best gaming processor: The new 12th Gen Intel® Core™ processor family features up to 16 cores and 24 threads, including the world’s best gaming processor, the Core i9-12900K, for a stunning gaming experience. The Core i9-12900K delivers amazing generational performance improvements: up to 25% FPS increase in Total War Saga: Troy, up to 28% FPS increase in Hitman 3, and up to 23% FPS increase in Far Cry 6. With Intel® Killer™ Wi-Fi 6E, high-frequency performance cores and energy-efficient cores work together to achieve parallel task offloading, which can reduce game latency by up to 75% when multitasking, and allow players to increase frames per second by up to 84% when gaming, streaming, and recording. 

•A big jump in content creation performance: Advances in multi-threaded performance, fast response times from performance cores, and support for ultra-fast data transfers with DDR5 give users exceptional performance in a variety of content creation experiences, including:

oPhoto editing performance improved by up to 36%5

oVideo editing performance improved by up to 32%6

o3D modeling performance improved by up to 37%7

oMulti-frame rendering speed increased by up to 100%8

•Excellent overclocking experience9: The new processors provide users with the industry's best overclocking tools for building excellent performance configurations, including overclocking on energy-efficient cores and DDR5 memory. Performance enthusiasts and gamers can experience these new platform overclocking features through the latest Intel® Extreme Tuning Utility (XTU) 7.5. Starting with the Core i9-12900K, XTU will also support one-click overclocking of unlocked 12th generation processors using Intel® Speed ​​Optimizer. In addition, Intel has launched the latest Intel® Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) 3.0 with support for DDR5 to provide additional profiles, including new rewritable custom profiles and flexible memory overclocking tuning profiles. 

Providing outstanding features for desktop platforms

The 12th Generation Intel® Core™ processors provide users with excellent performance and outstanding features to meet the needs of extraordinary gaming, content creation, and gaming entertainment experiences now and in the future. 

Major platform advancements include:

•The industry's first processor to support DDR5 memory and achieve speeds of up to 4800MT/s.

•Industry's first processor to support PCIe 5.0 (up to 16 lanes) and up to 4 additional lanes (support for PCIe 4.0), with PCIe 5.0 delivering up to 2x the I/O throughput over PCIe 4.0.

•Up to 30MB Intel® Smart Cache (L3) and 14MB L2 cache for increased memory capacity and reduced latency. 

•Integrated with Intel Killer Wi-Fi 6E high-speed wireless technology, it combines the industry’s best Wi-Fi 6E connectivity with powerful gaming network technology to minimize network lag, latency, and packet loss.

•Independent Thunderbolt 4 universal cable connection function supports external device expansion.

New Intel® 600 Series Chipset

Along with the launch of the 12th Gen Intel® Core™ desktop processors, Intel will also introduce the new Intel 600 Series chipset, equipped with advanced features to improve reliability and performance. The new PCIe Gen 4.0 lanes bring the total number of lanes in the chipset to 28, the integrated USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 can expand the bandwidth by up to twice, and DMI Gen 4.0 can increase the throughput from the chipset to the CPU, helping to quickly access peripherals and networks.

Intel® Volume Management Device (VMD) was first introduced in PC chipsets to directly control and manage NVMe-based SSDs over the PCIe bus, eliminating the need for additional RAID controllers or other hardware adapters, thus simplifying storage control.

Listing Information 

Unlocked 12th Gen Intel® Core™ desktop processors are now available for pre-order. Contact OEMs, channel partners, and retailers for details. From November 4, when they are generally available, 140 partners from more than 30 countries and regions are expected to adopt the new processors in their product lines by the end of the year. Unlocked desktop processors start at $264 to $589, and the specific price is subject to actual conditions.  

Intel expects to deliver hundreds of thousands of unlocked 12th Gen Intel® Core™ K-series desktop processors by the end of this year, and more than 2 million by the end of March 2022. Intel expects to deliver 28 SKUs of the 12th Gen Intel® Core™ processor family to OEM partners in early 2022, further expanding the desktop, mobile, and commercial market segments.

Unlocked 12th Generation Intel Core Desktop Processor SKU Model List

More background: 12th Generation Intel® Core™ Desktop Processors Datasheet | Intel Z690 Chipset Datasheet 

1.Testing conducted on 12th Gen Intel Core i9-12900K and 11th Gen Intel Core i9-11900K platforms using content creation multi-tasking workloads. See www.intel.com/PerformanceIndex for details. Results may vary. 

2.Test results using in-game benchmark mode performance (score or FPS) where benchmark mode is available. Test results using FPS where benchmark mode is not available, comparing 12th Gen Intel® Core™ processor i9-12900K vs. 11th Gen Intel® Core™ processor i9-11900K.

3.Actual performance will vary based on usage, configuration, and other factors. For more information, visit www.Intel.com/PerformanceIndex. Performance results are based on testing as of the date shown in configuration information and may not reflect all publicly available security updates.

4.The 12th Gen Intel® Core™ i9-12900K processor can increase FPS by up to 84% in Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord when gaming, streaming, and recording simultaneously using OBS.

5.Measured using PugetBench Lightroom classic benchmark – Overall score of 12th Gen Intel® Core™ i9-12900K vs. 11th Gen Intel® Core™ i9-11900K.

6.As measured by PugetBench Premier Pro benchmark - Total score comparison between 12th Gen Intel® Core™ i9-12900K and 11th Gen Intel® Core™ i9-11900K.