Intel is readying to launch its 12th generation processor family known as Alder Lake, promising a noticeable performance gain for upcoming Windows 11 PCs. One of the big questions around any new Intel generation is how much will the new CPUs cost? Well, a leak from a retailer has shown the price of Intel Alder Lake processors.
It seems Intel will be charging more for the 12th generation than last year’s 11th generation Rocket Lake CPUs. However, the new Alder Lake family will undercut the price of AMD’s flagship, the Ryzen 9 5950X.
However, there is an important consideration to make when looking at the price of Alder Lake CPUs. Specifically, these processors only work on new motherboards with an LGA 1700 socket. In other words, manufacturers will need to also purchase the new motherboards, which go on sale on November 19.
Below you can see the cost of the Alder Lake series across the range of processors:
| Model | US Price (w/o VAT) | Cores/Threads | L3 Cache Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Core i9-12900K | $705 | 16/24 | 30MB | |
| Core i7-12900KF | $674 | 16/24 | 30MB | |
| Core i7-12700K | $495 | 12/20 | 25MB | |
| Core i7-12700KF | $464 | 12/20 | 25MB | |
| Core i5-12600K | $343 | 10/16 | 16MB | |
| Core i5-12600KF | $312 | 10/16 | 16MB |
Performance and Efficient Cores
Alder Lake is a much-anticipated processor family because it is Intel’s first ever performance hybrid architecture. Intel says this is the biggest change it has made to x86 CPUs for years, describing the Performance-core and Efficient Core:
- “The Efficient-core microarchitecture is designed for throughput efficiency and efficient offloading of background tasks for multitasking. It runs at low voltage and creates headroom to increase frequency and ramp up performance for more demanding workloads.
- The Performance-core microarchitecture is designed for speed, the highest performing CPU core Intel has built. It pushes the limits of low latency and single-threaded application performance and provides a significant boost at high-power efficiency that can better support large applications.”
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Last Updated on February 14, 2022 8:21 pm CET by Luke Jones
